The Supernatural Hare

A linocut I carved and printed this spring, as we are starting to come out of our long pandemic slumber.

When I was in my twenties, my good friend Ardis Macaulay did a kind of oracular reading for me of her David Carson Medicine Cards, and from that, I was left to understand that my innermost essential animal spirit was a hare. A hare! It didn’t seem to be a very sturdy, fierce creature to have as a spirit animal, especially as I was getting ready to begin my life as an artist in New York. I would have rather the card have represented a wolf or a bobcat: a creature that could stand up for itself in a conflict.

But then I remembered the Life Nature Library book The Mammals that I pored over as a kid. There was a fierce rabbit or hare in there, I recalled:

Here this rabbit is driving a raccoon away with a few sharp, decisive kicks. No messing around.

Its a rabbit, actually: Kicking butt! That was a kind of animal spirit I could take with me to NYC happily. Over the years I have grown to love and appreciate the energy of this creature: its beauty, dignity and ability to thrive in adverse circumstance.

Today I happened across the most excellent @scientificamerican Scientific American article The Legacy of the Trickster Hare by Krystal D’Costa. Ms D’Costa takes apart the idea of the fluffy Easter Bunny and introduces a darker, more powerful creature. To begin with, here’s the difference between a rabbit and a hare, from that article:

“The difference between a hare and a rabbit makes a world of difference when you start to ascribe meaning and intent to the animal. Hares are larger and live above ground; their fur may change in accordance with the seasons (perhaps for camouflage—more on this later); and they’re fast, powered by large hind legs. They’re also largely independent and tend to be solitary. This is in contrast to rabbits who are smaller, gregarious, and spend the majority of their time in burrows (with the exception of the American cottontail).”

Ms. D’Costa takes us through the world to tell us myths of the hare. Hare was the messenger of Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. Hare could travel all across the world from the realm of humans to the realm of gods, fluidly, and in the moonlight. The hare and the rabbit are associated with the moon in many cultures, from Japanese, Chinese and Korean lore to that of aboriginal Americans. In the Japanese artist Yoshitoshi’s One Hundred Aspects of the Moon, the warrior Sun Wukong fights the Moon Rabbit (it doesn’t look like a fair fight):

In Mayan culture, the rabbit is seen as being associated with their Moon Goddess. In North America, in Cree culture, there is a myth of a rabbit wanting to be carried to the moon. A crane was the only bird who would carry him there. As they flew, the heavy rabbit stretched the crane’s legs, which is why the crane’s legs are as long as they are. And the rabbit (once it got up there) can still be seen riding the moon when it is full on a clear night.

We had the Uncle Wiggily board game when I was very small, which I remember as being not all that interesting, except I loved the plastic figures of Uncle Wiggily. I think it was because I loved his style and maybe, looking at it now, the way his face was drawn on the box 🙂Plus, somewhere along the line, we had a well worn copy of the stories of Br’er Rabbit. Ms D’Costa refers to him as the “ultimate trickster figure,” the trickster being powerful and also somehow amoral who occasionally uses his powers to help others.  “He is constantly using his wits to escape tricky situations, but also rarely neglects those smaller than him.”

Brother Rabbit

And as I am making my way down this rabbit hole (if you’ll forgive me) of hare and rabbit reading and research, I am looking here at Br’er Rabbit and then back at my linocut rabbit, above, and seeing some distinct similarities. I hope I can be like him–using my wits to escape tricky situations and also rarely neglecting those smaller than me.

Not the original Hare Medicine Card, but I made an homage to it by designing a stencil of it for StencilGirl…

 

Chimera House Artist Retreat

I spent last week at Chimera House as the first guest at this new artist retreat. Chimera House is a huge, multi-roomed and extravagantly porched circa 1890’s house in Jeffersonville, NY, in the Catskills. Before it became a retreat, the house  belonged to Lee Nagrin, a noted Off Broadway performance artist, playwright, painter and director, who died in 2007. For more about her life and work, visit her website, here, and the NY Times obituary here. Composer Daniel Levy and I shared the house for this retreat. It stands to reason that we would have had a productive time working in her space, as Ms. Nagrin was a fantastically productive creator.

I set up on the immense back porch to work in the cool spring sunshine, to make some ink and watercolor planets. It was luxurious to have the space to stretch out, to lay things out to look at, to splatter and splash, to work large::

I could work quickly, wet-on-wet, and let the planets dry in the sun.

A mini rainstorm brought me and the planets indoors, here under the watchful eyes of two of Ms Nagrin’s paintings.

Composer Daniel Levy worked in the gracious front parlor at the grand piano:

Not all artists are starving, though! Daniel made a fantastic lunch one day in the large kitchen, with chicken and potatoes from the grocery store that is in walking distance from Chimera House. I used the kitchen table on a cooler day to work on woodcut carving:

It was a very mentally refreshing work time. There were vultures and crows in abundance, a pregnant deer with her young one from last season, bright stars in the night sky and a sliver of a new moon. Thanks very much to Sally Ann Parsons, the director of Chimera House for allowing me to have this space and time to do my work.

 

 

 

 

Spirit Animals, Birds and Fantastical Beetles from Margaret Peot and StencilGirl

I am completely psyched to introduce these new ATC Mixup Stencils from @StencilGirl Products! To order a set for yourself, and see what other stencils are available, visit StencilGirl.

Spirit Animals ATC Mixup L855
This is a time to meditate and reflect: I am sure you have animals in your world that you look for and connect to. Here are some of mine: Bear, Otter, Rabbit, Wolf and more. What are some of yours? Use these images to create ATCs to share with friends, add to journal pages, or make your own Spirit Animal tarot cards.

Spirit Birds ATC Mixup L854
Birds live in that liminal zone, between the earth and the sky. Whether we live in the city or the country, the feathered friends we see lift our hearts. Here are some of my important birds—the Crow, Barn Owl, The fierce Swan and the mighty Hawk and more. What are some of yours? Use these images to create ATCs to share with friends, add to journal pages, or make your own Spirit Bird tarot cards.

Scarab Beetles ATC Mixup L853
Beetles are the tiniest creatures, but somehow some of the loveliest. I was sitting on a hill in Montauk, watching the day go by, and a brilliant red beetle with black spots walked out of the grasses next to me and strode on past. That gave me the inspiration for this set of fantasy beetles. Use these images to create ATCs to share with friends, add to journal pages, or make your own Scarab Beetle tarot cards.

New Stencils from @StencilGirl Products!

New Stencils! I am so excited about these four new stencils from @StencilGirl Products. Floral frames, a nesting duck hiding in reeds and flowers, a large floral heart, and a row of tall flowers. Sunny and perfect for spring painting projects! Check out the StencilGirl Products site for ideas of how to use them and details on how to order them for your own art projects.

Floral Stencils Set GIVEAWAY!

I am so thrilled with how these four new stencils from StencilGirl Products turned out, and because of that, I am offering a GIVEAWAY! Just leave a comment below or on the Facebook or Instagram posts about the giveaway by Thursday, April 22, 2021, and be entered in a drawing to win! Only one winner, and US entries only, please (and sorry about that to my friends in other countries!).

The winner will receive ALL FOUR of my new 9 x 12 stencils! For more details about the stencils themselves, and to see all the wonderful stencils there (not only mine!), go to StencilGirl Products.

So many fun things to make and do with these four new stencils from @StencilGirl Products! Check out their blog to get some ideas.

Floral Frames (L845): I printed this twice, and on the top layer, cut out the central pictures and used foil to enhance the cutouts.

Again, I printed two of the Floral Heart (L846) stencil and then cut out and foiled the top layer.

Tall Flowers! (L847)

Nesting Duck (L844)

AT NIGHT, new from Muddy Boots, available for pre-order!

I am so proud to announce that my new book, AT NIGHT (@MuddyBoots), publishes on October 1, 2021, and is now available to pre-order from Indiebound, Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

What animals forage by night and sleep by day? This children’s picture book describes the nocturnal lives of nine common animals: foxes, porcupines, raccoons, skunks, opossums, bobcats, owls, mice, and rabbits. Join the adult animals guiding their children through the forest during the dark of night. The book includes information on the common names of the animal’s offspring (i.e. fox: kit). Ages 0-9 years.

UNC Costume Painting Class

Today was my first Zoom costume painting workshop, hosted by University of North Carolina and the inimitable Rachel Pollock (of https://la-bricoleuse.blogspot.com/ fame). I think we would have had a lot more fun had we been in person together making stuff and touching all the paint samples I have, but it was still nice. Rachel was a wonderful host, and her students were great and asked good questions.

I showed a powerpoint with lots of process shots of different shows and costumes, from Aladdin to Moulin Rouge. In past slide shows, I just showed beautiful finished garments, but in this one I tried to show how we get from some Sharpie-scrawled unitard to a finished beautiful super hero unitard. One example was how Groot from Marvel Universe Live was made from the beginning to-scale drawing to the finished garment. I can’t include all the images here, but I think it would be neat to make a little movie about it. It was such a labor of love and involved a lot of collaboration:

Marvel superhero Groot of “Guardians of the Galaxy” performs in “Marvel Universe Live: Age of Heroes.”

And how to paint scales, feathers, fur, various textures. I did a demo with my little document camera. My colors that I had at home were somewhat limited–black, brown, red and a weird, watery green. So I showed some scales I painted on a real costume, like this Bette Midler mermaid detail:

And then how to paint them with my limited palette on scrap milliskin:

Painting off scale stencils onto milliskin

Showing how to make a flat fabric look rough and textural–again, with a limited palette, but a really good stencil!