Ascent

31 x 44 cm ✦ Gouache on cotton paper

Skulls on branches forgotten to time
bound to decay into land once worshipped.

Cries of woodpeckers echoing high
with sounds of boundless loss and hardship.

It was custom long ago to hang the skull of a slain animal, particularly the bear, onto a pine tree branch after it had been brought down. This was done along with numerous apologies for having taken the creature's life, to make sure the spirit was appeased and held no grudges. From the branches the bear’s soul could then ascend back to the stars, where it was believed to have come from, to once again return in it's earthly form.

This custom has pretty much died out in the last century and now mostly lives in memory, but you might still run into a bear skull hanging on a branch in a forest somewhere, if you're lucky. Or unlucky, however you see it.

Black woodpeckers are mystical birds which have been seen as bearers of ill news and even death. If you hear it's cries in the forest, bad luck might be headed your way, I'm afraid.