Dream Weaver

(Common Raven)

Look where the Raven has taken me now. Friend Nancy, who lives in Sekiu, WA, really liked the earlier version, Really Has a Hold on Me, and wrote that she saw Crows or Ravens every day. Her home sits right on the ocean on a peninsula that juts far out into the Pacific. I remembered that her community is rich with Native American craft and lore due to the indigenous peoples who live there. From that conversation, photos of Native carvings that Becky took during our too-brief trip to Alaska, and subsequent hours of research, I began to imagine a completely different setting for my Raven.

In the Native American traditions of the Pacific Northwest, Ravens are believed to see not only the present, but the past and future too. The Raven is frequently depicted as a trickster and shape shifter, but never lightly. “Raven” plays prominent roles in origin stories about how land rose from the oceans, how people first took form, and even how men and women first encountered fire.

Through the magic of the digital images I create, I was able to lift my bird from the original painting and begin again. I hope this rendition conveys something of the power I found in the Native American stories. Raven is a powerful deity, connecting the spirit world, nature, and human kind. I hope this image stirs some of those thoughts in you.