MUSK OX
The Musk Ox commands space with wisdom and presence and I am humbled to be with him. When a painting is finished I release it completely as its own independent spirit, and it is a blessing for me to spend time with this animal and learn from him. He brings me into ancient time- a time when humans lived differently with Earth, and he calls for this time again. The Musk Ox live in the Arctic Circle, surviving on lichens which they scrape with furred hooves to find beneath the snow. There is poetic balance in this: the ancient feeding the ancient. And as I spend time with him, I can see the lichen within him, patterning up from snow to body.