Life!

For the Maya, the Tree of Life, called Yaxche, is traditionally a Ceiba tree. It is is a tall tree with large buttressed roots, a remarkably straight trunk, and a high horizontal crown. The roots are said to shelter bats, symbolic of the underworld. The trunk teems with insect life, and attracts the animals and birds that feed on them. The crown spreads wide over the jungle canopy, often with four branches that would suggest the four cardinal directions that are so significant to the Maya. The eagles that roost there represent the celestial realm.

In my paintings, the Tree of Life is universal. You never see the crown or the roots because they meet behind the canvas, they are circular endless paintings, representative of the spirit-world and of our own imagination. We are dreaming creatures. The boy appeared during the pandemic. It is a boy who wants to be a bird. He sometimes wears a bird mask because he wants to blend, he wants do be accepted, he wants to fly. Other times he wears a jaguar mask, like his spirit and sometimes companion.