Blue Tree

Betwixt and Between

"Betwixt and Between" is 12"x12" with collaged elements and acrylic paint on cradled clayboard. I had a funny bit of synchronicity with this piece. I was sketching this image that kept popping into my head and then I opened up Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. And there I read about the word she had chosen for herself, "antevasin," a sanskrit word meaning "one who lives at the border." Apparently, in ancient times this was a person who left the bustling city life to live at the edge of the forest where the spiritual masters dwelled. Gilbert relates to this word as one who is between worlds. And I laughed thinking of how the woman in my sketch was there at the edge of the forest, in between worlds. I also relate this figure to the Demeter and Persephone myth and so she acts as guide for those coming through or coming from a dark place. Crows appear in a lot of my art and they are an in-between kind of creature to me.