Description: “Turtle Veve” beckons us to remember the importance of all life forms on earth and is a visual narrative symbolizing the price being paid for the destructive choices humankind makes that disregard the future well being of living things (ourselves included) on this planet. This piece is a warning. The sea turtle represents our connection to the earth, and, as an amphibian, it also represents the bridge from water to land. In Iroquois creation stories, sky woman fell through a hole in the atmosphere and landed on turtle’s back, which, through human and animal cooperation, became the earthly land that supports (nurtures) all life. Nothing escapes the turtle’s vision, and while it is familiar with the face of destruction wrought from fear and lies, it dons protective eye wear to diffuse the damaging glare. It seeks to keep its mind pure. With the turtle (the symbolic foundation) being one of the oldest creatures from the earth’s remote past, the precariousness of it’s very survival (integral to our own) could summon the end of our own denial, and the beginning of our awakening from slumber.
Medium: mixed media composite using photos, original pen drawing,
crayon, marker, pencil & digital editing
Print Format: variable media
Print Dimensions: multiple sizes