Green Turtle

Here's the 5th & final canvas of Prayer for the Gulf. This green turtle felt like the key to the healing of the Gulf waters, so I painted her in the center, on a canvas that's deeper than the others. She's painted over an excerpt from the Prajna Paramita Heart Sutra, beloved of all the different schools of Buddhism:

Without loss without gain. Therefore in emptiness there is no form, no sensation, perception, mental reaction, consciousness, no eye ear nose tongue body mind, no color sound, smell taste touch object of thought, no seeing & so on to no thinking, no ignorance & also no ending of ignorance & so on to no old age & death & also no ending of old age & death, no suffering, cause of suffering, cessation, path, no wisdom & no attainment.

As I said, I felt the turtle was the key. The afternoon I finished painting her was July 15. As I stepped back to view her newly hung in the center of the others, I received this text message: "Yahoo is reporting the gulf leak has been tapped."

O, Great Turtle, so much healing awaits....

Pelican - Gulf Prayer part 4

This Pelican is the 4th of the 12 x 12" canvases making up my Prayer for the Gulf. When I asked Armando Williams, our spiritual advisor for the Pomo Project, to write a prayer for the Gulf, he didn't know I was going to write it under a pelican. I didn't know that his nickname as a kid was "Pelican." We laughed with wonder when we learned.

Ya-wee Ya-capaty. I ask in a humble manner to open the hear of human beings to help the healing of the Earth & Water in the Gulf Coast. We are sorry, Ya-capaty, & pray you hear our cries. I pray as many do for the healing process to be quick with energy & vibration of love. Ya-capaty, bring the White Light to all nations - winged, finned, the two-legged, four-legged, cloud people, Mother Earth, Father Sky. I ask humbly & with unwavering faith. Ya-wee.

Here's the third of the five canvases of my Prayer for the Gulf, each 12 x 12"

Blue Crab is painted over a prayer by a Pastor of a Christian Church in the Niger Delta of Nigeria:

We pray to God on this holy morn that no petroleum oil will be discovered in our communities. Indeed, Lord, let the oil underneath our houses & farms drift away from us. Lord, spare us the pain & the misfortunes & diseases that petroleum oil brings to our people & to our farms & rivers. Lord, protect us from further harm in the hands of those who want our properties.