Many cultures believe that souls migrate from one human form to another, and some that we also experience life as different species (as symbolized by the deer and the antlers on the figure). I happen to believe this isn’t the only human lifetime I’ve incarnated. But for the most part it’s irrelevant to how I live my daily life. Yet I do find it fascinating how many of us have sometimes unexplainable attachments to historical people and places. In a Native American Studies college course, I recall weeping openly in class when learning of genocides that happened to particular tribes. It was as if I was reading of my own family’s death and I longed to be with them. Also, I become emotional when I hear Gaelic or Hawaiian languages spoken or sung. This painting is an homage to the mysteries these experiences conjure within me.

Painted with permission and inspired by an image by photographer Cheryl Walsh