PRINTS - THE NORTHERN SISTERHOOD OF DRUMS

Enlarge version of prints available soon.

Wolfsmilk	Wise Ashes	Red Ochre
Twisted Braid	River Nomad	Raven Scar
Shadows	Moon in Water	Edge of Ice

NORTHERN SISTERHOOD OF DRUMS

This cycle of paintings describes nine primordial women called udegan, a name that has its roots in an ancient far-northern word meaning grandmother, elder, shaman, healer, wise woman and witch. These udegan represent a women’s mystery tradition that reaches back over 25,000 years into the heart of the last great ice age, a living mythology that holds and protects the most ancient forms of spirit and magic that our foremothers called out from the deep belly of the frozen northern landscape. The udegan have always sat in council, a sisterhood that serves to remind us of our foremothers and the landscapes through which they moved. In remembering the ancient women who walked this land before us we are reminded to tread our own paths with strength, integrity and courage. By feeling how closely our foremothers are standing to our lives, and by touching the place where they dwell inside of us, we are given new eyes through which to see. In honouring our foremothers we grow to understand fully our own responsibilities as women of spirit on this earth. Through one thousand generations of women, this council of ice mothers has kept the embers glowing of a spiritual culture that is buried far inside the old bones of the land. They speak to women of a raw untouched mythology that is our own.

Each udegan has her own drum (created from red deer, reindeer, horse, elk and salmon skin) all of which were made, together with all the totems that appear in the paintings and an Arctic chum (sacred drum tent), to accompany the installation Northern Sisterhood of Drums 2005-2007.The album ICE:COLD SONGS contains the songs that accompany this series of paintings. The original paintings were painted 2004-2006 and are 4 ft/120 cms square, acryllic on board. The prints are on A4 (31x21 cms) heavy art card.

WOLFSMILK udegan I walk back to my cooling hearth where the smoke from scented boughs darkens the hides, and there you wait beside the stones; did I forget to look for you so close to home? Your lap is the blanket of the past and your brown earth hands caress the future as it sleeps, you shake sweet berries from your pouch and now you reach to play the mending drum...	Delivery Options UK £5.00 Europe £6.50 Rest of the World £7.00
WISE ASHES udegan A shadow of smoke in the pulsing darkness, a drifting memory of heat in snow, a dream of fire in the northern lands, the flames burn hard and then grow cold, too much ash for us to hold, too much ash for us to hold. She sits with the ashes of the wise old degna, how she will read then we can’t tell, the tent is a circle, the moon is an arc, the centre of the drum is quiet and still, the dream of fire is burning well, the dream of fire is burning well...	Delivery Options UK £5.00 Europe £6.50 Rest of the World £7.00
RED OCHRE udegan Proud woman born from earth and mother’s blood, we paint this red and sacred paste onto your pale skin, to remind you that your people will not forget you. Beloved woman we will take you to a tall tree, where you’ll cradle in the arms of your dead mothers, who are coming even now to welcome you home...	Delivery Options UK £5.00 Europe £6.50 Rest of the World £7.00
TWISTED BRAID udegan Women are calling upon the forest bear to protect them, they whisper to their drums, they sing the cold words given by mothers of their mothers and they reshape the world with their music. They twist their damp hair into a tight braid, in which they wear white stone hair bones and blue stone hair bones, given by sisters of their sisters and they create a dance of perfect balance...	Delivery Options UK £5.00 Europe £6.50 Rest of the World £7.00
RIVER NOMAD udegan Through the white, through the dark, as we fly. There’s no ice, there’s no land, there’s no sky. All these things, bound in one, this white earth. Boundaries blur, edges hides, this white earth. Freedom long, freedom deep, freedom wide. Sun has gone, when sun comes, we’ll return...	Delivery Options UK £5.00 Europe £6.50 Rest of the World £7.00
RAVEN SCAR udegan Here is raven scar, my stories woven into blood, stories carved on living skin, threading new worlds into flesh, threading old words into new, old words into new, I mark the words so they will live, I do not let a story die, these things are scraped into me, I’ll carry them forever, forever in my scars...	Delivery Options UK £5.00 Europe £6.50 Rest of the World £7.00
SHADOWS udegan Across the forest floor there is a silent veil, it drifts like misted snow where quiet moss, pale lichen and dark mushrooms grow, protecting earth with a caress, old hands that touch the winter lands. Listen woman, stand close to the shadows of the land, stand close to the land...	Delivery Options UK £5.00 Europe £6.50 Rest of the World £7.00
MOON IN WATER udegan White hare of the dark tides, cold moon of the dews, poetry of longing, soft voice of truth. Human emotion, drawn by the tides, so brilliant and tender, so potent and wild. Fire is the dancer, ice is the prayer, moon is the mirror of water and flame...	Delivery Options UK £5.00 Europe £6.50 Rest of the World £7.00
EDGE OF ICE udegan Old Ren she came down to the lake, her eyes they shone so wild and cold, she lifted her antlers to the stars and across the frozen years she called, she said your roots are in the glacial blue, though lands may change and times may roll, with a thousand mothers underneath your skin, you’ll keep your reindeer soul...	Delivery Options UK £5.00 Europe £6.50 Rest of the World £7.00
Complete set of nine Northern Sisterhood of Drums prints	Delivery Options UK £35.00 Europe £36.50 Rest of the World £37.00

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