Big Fiy is tap tap tapping.....

Remember dear reader from past posting that Big Fly whispers rights and wrongs to us if we listen. Big Fly is tap tap tapping .

I wrote these words on 4 May, 2008. Today seems an appropriate day to share them with you. Big Brown runs later today.

A Memorial for Eight Belles:

Eight Belles,
a filly,
died for our sins
3 May 2008
euthanized
( politically correct term)
makes it all nice.

Steroids,
a worshipped drug,
also silently causing
fragility of bones
in human population.

"There are no side effects."
Doctor blatantly lied to me
whilst looking me full in the face.
I knew differently
tore up the prescription.

Eight Belles, a filly,
did not have this choice,
she ran her heart out
and died
whilst humans drank mint juleps
and cared not.

Eight Belles,
a filly,
died for our sins.

Archangel Raphael

Archangel Raphael, mixed media, 57 cm x 36 cm x 30 cm

Another figure in my Munecos Santos , (holy dolls), body of work. I have already created Michael and Gabriel, ( see the gallery section of my website for images, www.diddy-wa-diddy.com). Last fall I began research and creation of Raphael. A local photo journalist asked if he could document this process from start to finish and then publish the article in the Landmark newspaper ( from Platte County, Missouri). We worked on this project through the fall and winter. You can read Bill Hankin's article on my website. You can read the nitty gritty background part of the materials I use within this article. What is not in this article is the "words " that I write to accompany the figure. Part of these words are hand embroidered on the nuclear waste symbol shaped doily that drapes over the nuclear waste canister ( not a real one....) that Raphael stands upon. My intention is to create a handmade book this summer that contains all of my "words". I was inspired by passages in the Bible, the Koran , the Book of Tobit, and the Book of Enoch in researching historic information about Raphael and his "job" here on earth.

Archangel Raphael. Feast day 24 October. Intercessor of healing. traditional attributes- pilgrim's staff, fish, gourd, young man ( Tobit), dog, jar. typically depicted as beardless youth clothed in pilgrim's garb. updated attributes- red cross pilgrim's badge, staff transformed into brush to remind us to walk gently on Mother Earth sweeping away our traces and footprints, nuclear waste canister, symbol, right hand raised in oration, silence, pay attention, become aware, one of the Watchers bringing succour to Mother Earth, coral ( from a dying sea) dangles from loros, one of Raphael's Byzantine imperial garments. In the book of Tobit, Raphael arrives as a disguised traveller called forth to aid Tobit's family. Tobit has lost his sight. Son Tobias peregrinates in the company of Azarius ( Raphael) to a faraway town where his father's confidant, Raguel resides. Along the path Raphael instructs Tobias to catch a fish which has curative powers both for Sarah and Tobit. Tobias meets, falls in love, and marries ( whom he has not met yet) Sarah, daughter of Raguel. Within the chapters of Noah and of the earthquake in the Koran, we reflect on what happens when a lack of awareness or disregard brings forth retribution. Book of Enoch, hidden for a thousand years safe in Ethiopia, resurfaced, freshly translated. A message within tells of the Watchers, of whom Raphael is one, observe carnage to Mother Earth and amongst the two-legged inhabitants. Raphael, bade forth to heal. In the Book of John, an angel ( Raphael) troubles the waters of Bethesda, a sheep pool. Enlightened beings cured of ailments suffered.
On each of the lobes of the doily are hand embroidered passages from the Bible, Koran, the Book of Enoch and the Book of Tobit.

"I did not know that there were sparrows in the wall above my head, their hot droppings fell into my eyes. This caused white spots to form, which I went to have treated by the doctors. But the more ointments they tried me with, the more spots blinded me, and in the end, I became completely blind." Book of Tobit

When the earth shall be shaken and the earth shall cast forth her burdens; and a man shall say, "What aileth her ?" And Raphael was sent to bring remedy. Chapter of the Earthquake

Raphael, one of the Watchers, " I have come to these parts to look for work." come to restore Earth? Stir the waters? Pull fingers from our ears? Or blow into our eyes, apply whale gall to remove film of ignorance. Or guard repositories of life and/or death.

Purify the earth from all oppression, from all injustice, from all crime, from all impiety, and from all pollution which is committed upon it. Exterminate them from the earth. Book of Enoch, chapter 10.

And a being stirred the waters but our fingers were in our ears, lack of awareness, and sonar testing muddled migration and plots of Arctic Sea were auctioned and trawling nets shattered thousands of years of growth and more beings became endangered and drilling into Mother Earth continued to extract , to conceal, to guard. And our fingers probed deeper in our ears and the film over our eyes grew thicker.

Big Fly, Navajo mentor

Big Fly, mixed media sculpture
34cm x 32cm x 30cm
wooden base with wire armature

Big Fly
a mentor,
takes earthly being form
of horse bot fly.

He too is blood red.
Danger.

Perched
on an ear
to whisper
instructions,
answers,
forecasts of the future.

Deafness
necessitates
entering
host's mouth,
to bellow.

Dance
Big Fly
dance,
break free
of
mounted specimen pins.


Okay, I can sense that quizzical look on your face. "What is Kelly drinking on this fine Earth Day?" The answer is dandelion tea, to be truthful. Big Fly is one of the Intercessors that I created two years ago. From Navajo readings I meditated and then fabricated Grandmother Spider, Yellow Rat, and Big Fly. With each , I write "words". I hesitate to call it poetry because I do not care for labels and I do not want to be encumbered by the rules of the game.

" So, explain the words ! "

Thankfully in the book about Navajo religion there were no images of Big Fly. I could imagine anything that I wanted. I thought about Big Fly's "job" here on Earth. A big job, getting humans to listen. I imagined that no one was listening to Big Fly and that in desperation he had taken the form of an earthly species . A fly that gets attention in a big way. The horse bot fly.

The last "paragraph" refers to the cigar box science lesson that teaches kids to kill insects and pin them in a cigar box for a good grade. Big Fly has broken free of these pins.

The red cross (which you will come to see appears on all my Intercessors) lets us know that the Intercessor has come down to Earth to help misguided human species.

Big Fly is created out of leather which is painted , sewn by hand, and then stuffed with a wire armature and cotton batting. The wings are of old copper wire window screen . Many of the seed beads used were recycled from a bedraggled Victorian era dress. The base is another recycled piece, a wooden form. Big Fly holds an old hat pin which represents the specimen pin.

I have decided that Big Fly will appear within this blog when I feel the need to post "the emperor hasn't any clothes on once again" soap box "sermons". Big Fly will tap tap tap us with the specimen pin to remind us to listen to his gentle whispers. If we don't listen , he will have to take on the form of the horse bot fly.

back to my dandelion tea and sewing tiny beads to leather......