• I have this mythical story in my inner reality about a young boy who discovers he is a harbinger of Fate. How would it feel to realize that the life you lead is designed to connect others to their path and purpose? Does that diminish your own purpose

    Meeting Fate on The Path

  • Alchemical Astronaut

  • Beyond The Labyrinth

  • Unmasked

  • Fate's Ferryman

  • Tending The Orphic Egg

Sgrafitto Series: From Within

Get to know the stories and inspiration behind recent images.

Meeting Fate On The Path

I have this mythical story in my inner reality about a young boy who discovers he is a harbinger of Fate. How would it feel to realize that the life you lead is designed to connect others to their path and purpose? Does that diminish your own purpose or make it more alive? The story is his developmental process through the rejection of this purpose to the awareness that he has actually created his own path, to the illuminating moment of realization that he is Fate incarnated. He never worked for that energy; he is Fate in human form. This image containing the interaction between these figures came through originally as a channeled painting (Fate’s Path). I knew them instantly as the characters in this story I have been imagining for years. 

Crossing the stream to connect with the higher self, the young boy becomes aware of his own highest form. This moment is witnessed by the rooted form, also an aspect of himself, on the other side. A moment of alignment through mind, body, and spirit. An illustration of accepting the purpose and the life we designed for ourselves. A remembering. This piece is a call to embody the highest self energy and accept the path we are meant to walk.

24x19, Sgraffito on Bristol Board (Prints and original available)

Alchemical Astronaut

What does it mean to exist in duality and be the balance point for opposing energies? This Alchemical Astronaut came through as a meditation on the archetypal energy of Temperance. In tarot, Temperance is a call to fully embody all that flows through us as a union of opposites that takes place within. This energy calls us to higher understandings and acceptance, which can take on the alchemical combination of fire and water. Once we move into understanding with Temperance, we can easily release anxiety, overcome stress, and remain calm no matter what we encounter. 

I was teaching an online class on Temperance and spent a month in contemplation of this energy. This figure of the Alchemical Astronaut kept arising in my mind’s eye. Once I captured the initial image I understood more of my own relationship with this force. The skeletal figure represents the underlying structure we all have within us. While the serpent images are symbols of the opposing forces and energies that compete for dominance in our life expression. In an active engagement we become capable of holding both in true awareness. While at first this may appear a simple balance, it takes focus, strength, and surrender to be be a vessel of Temperance. There is beauty in this life-giving tension.


11x14, Sgraffito on Bristol Board (Prints and original available)

Beyond The Labyrinth

The labyrinth is a symbol I have been working with throughout this life. While my family and I lived in Pennsylvania, there was a park just out my front door that had a labyrinth in it. In 2011, my father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and then 2 months later I was diagnosed with appendix cancer. I recited meditations while walking that labyrinth that centered me and helped me understand that I was getting to my own center through this process. It was a representation of that inward spiral, all the while I was unsure if I would get to come back out.

It was a long, hard process to navigate the labyrinth’s spiral, more cancers, death, grief, recovery and finally, rebirth. In 2014, I had a vision of the labyrinth with an ouroboros around it. But the snake was not actually eating its tail; it had released it and there was an opening… a way out of the spiraling. This piece is a meditation on that energy. The idea that, once we have found the center and worked our way back into the light, there is an opening to so much more. Beyond the labyrinth, there is a life we cannot access until we have been initiated through its spiral dance and confronted with the Minotaur at the center. If we can re-emerge and release all that took us into the labyrinth to begin with, life opens in ways we could not even imagine before.


17x14, Sgraffito on Bristol Board (Prints and original available)

Fate’s Ferryman

Moths have always been a harbinger of Fate for me. They have appeared in my life and interacted with me at moments before great transformation. I’ve had one fly out of my pillowcase, land on my knee, and batter against my window with powerful energy that could not be ignored. These interactions have always been followed with intense shifts.  How symbolic that these night butterflies move towards the light surrounded by the mystery of the dark. 

This image came from a meditation on that harbinger energy. This moth-like figure arrives in a boat, navigating the energetic waves. He invites us to hop in and align with the energy destined for us. We must accept the ride without knowing where we may be going, how long it will take to get there or what we may encounter on the trip.


14x11, Sgraffito on Bristol Board (Prints and original available)

Tending The Orphic Egg

In many esoteric traditions, the symbol of the Orphic Egg represents the seed from which all things will manifest: all potential, bound and unbound. The serpent surrounding the egg symbolizes the great mysteries of how manifestations happen. Many see this symbol as the Cosmos encircled by the Creative Spirit. The name, Orphic Egg, comes from Greek Mythology.  The Greeks named their mystery school after Oprheus, the son of a muse who descended into the underworld to retrieve his wife, Eurydice, after she was bitten by a viper. He used his musical gifts to charm Cerberus and convince Pluto to allow her to return to the land of the living. 

This image came through a dream of an orange female spirit cloaked in the blue of the ocean tending the egg. I felt the need to tend the balance of fire and water to welcome new potential. I felt the energy of an hourglass, and how we must accept dueling energies to create new potentials. Within the egg is the potential for all things. Can you hold that power, and tend it with perfect love and trust, as you manifest your own potential?


17x14, Sgraffito on Bristol Board (Prints and original available)

Unmasked

Becoming aware of how we have crafted masks and personas to navigate our lives is an important part of our development. Often, we first notice other’s masks, and then others help us see ours. I’ve been so lucky to have these back-and-forth moments of connection with other individuals in my life. These moments are expansive and welcome us to new levels of awareness. I have felt in awe as I helped others see themselves unmasked, and am thankful for moments where others have helped me remove my own mask. It is in those interactions that we sense true connection with our own spirit and the spirit of those on this journey with us. This piece was created with that feeling in my heart.


14x11, Sgraffito on Bristol Board (Prints and original available)

All My Heart

The heart is home to the love, emotion, connection and soul we have in this life. It is a symbolic call to live a heart-led life, aware of our human fragility. I made this piece alongside “Memento Mori” while recovering from Covid in February of 2023. What does it mean to be alive and human? How does our fragile physical existence transcend Death? Through love and the emotional connection we share with others, we live on. The memories of those we love live on in our heart. 

With an electromagnetic field that radiates beyond our body, our heart’s power is greatly underestimated. In “Memento Mori” I used the skull to call us to remember Death. In “All My Heart” I use the heart to call us to remember Life, remember Love, and remember our emotional humanity. When hanging these as a pair, I hang one over the other. Sometimes the heart is over the head, sometimes the head is over the heart.



7x5, Sgraffito on Bristol Board (Prints and original available)

Memento Mori

Remember death. Not as a threat, not as a horror, but as a call to actually live. I made this and the “All My Heart” piece while I had Covid in Feburary 2023. I’ve had multiple calls to come to understand death as part of life. Whether through my own multiple cancer diagnoses, or in grief and loss. Death has shown me that her power is not to be feared. That energy asks us to remember, accept and live in accordance to that knowing. 

I chose the skull as the image of that call to remembrance. The skull houses the brain, our organ of memory in life. It gives structure and form to the face we wear in our lifetime. Yet, we also imagine it as the face of the Grim Reaper. I envisioned this with the “All My Heart” piece as a call to Life in the shadow of Death. Hanging them one above the other, sometimes I have my heart over my head, and sometimes I have the head over the heart.


7x5, Sgraffito on Bristol Board (Prints and original available)

Visitation

In 2011, a few weeks before my major surgery and chemo treatment for appendix cancer, I had something that I can only describe as a visitation. It was dreamlike, and happened as I laid in bed awake. A blue light orb came into the room and I felt a state of paralysis. It did not alarm me that I could not move. I could see the orb transform into three figures at the foot of the bed, and  I saw a holographic circuit board appear above me. The figures moved things around on the board and I had a sense of energy shifting within me. There was a light that filled the space and a knowing sense of love, acceptance, and surrender. 

When the surgery finally happened, the cancer was smaller than expected and the treatment was completely successful. It felt as if the visitation offered a healing hand in my process. This image was meant to capture that feeling and moment of transformation. It marks a turn in a process of discovery we all go through, a redirection of the energies in the circuit that moves us inward.

7x5, Sgraffito on Bristol Board (Prints and original available)

This little pairing was created in isolation and were just a fun little creative act during Covid. Prints and the originals are available.

Man In The Moon

Sometimes we can feel all alone in the Universe, lost in our own orbit, not realizing the light we reflect to others. I made this lonely little Man In The Moon while in isolation, recovering from Covid. He is also inspired by my Alchemical Astronaut piece. There is a call to know ourselves through periods of internal work. Personally, I need a little hermiting time to stay balanced. But it is easy to fall too far into some “alone-time” inertia. This is when we need others to call us back to purpose.

He pairs with “Bright Star.” Her bright light is a reminder of connection. Together they are representations of inner and outer energy. They can be hung together to look towards one another in a cosmic interplay.


Bright Star

It is important to shine so that others may see. Often it feels like we should dim our light because others may think we are too bright. But our light is meant as a powerful beacon for those in the dark. Stars don’t need permission to shine, they just do. And with a chart of stars to guide us, we will all find our way. 

This piece pairs with “Man In The Moon.” I made this set while in isolation with Covid. This was a reminder that sometimes, we feel like the moon reflecting the light and at other times, we are the star that shines. They can be hung together to look towards one another in a cosmic interplay. I also like the idea of sharing these between friends and family who are at a distance from one another, so that when we see them we are called to remember each other.