Inspiration for Zabel

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Wisteria
Zabel finds the Great Mother in the details in Nature.  It is that which she honors.  My joy was in writing the details.
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CAMELS
When Zabel learns she must travel to Konya without Bishop Scarfos knowing, she joins a caravan as a camp follower.  In order to avoid unwanted attention she steals away to sleep with the camels.  I met this one in Morocco when Rick and I rode out into the desert and stayed overnight in a Beduin tent.  Contrary to popular opinion which says camels are nasty, I found them to be very nice natured.  They like to be rubbed behind the ears like a cat.  I’ve always thought of traveling the Spice Route on a camel to a exotic, romantic idea.  So I much enjoyed writing of Zabel’s journey with the caravan and staying in caravansaries.
 
Ancient Goddess Oil on Canvas 16"x 20" $1300
ANCIENT GODDESS FIGURE
I did this painting of an ancient goddess sculpture in order to take her essence into my being.  It gave me a sense of the way Zabel would have experienced the Great Mother.  

 

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When I was in Morocco I had tea at this woman's house. In "Zabel" the characters drink lots of mint tea. The memory of the woman sorting leaves and adding boiling water with the subsequent mint aroma filling the room helped me to add that detail to the novel.
When I was in Morocco I had tea at this woman’s house. In “Zabel” the characters drink lots of mint tea. The memory of the woman sorting leaves and adding boiling water with the subsequent mint aroma filling the room helped me to add that detail to the novel.

 

Spirits and Forces in Nature

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Spirits and Forces in Nature Oil on Board 42"x 15" $1450

Spirits and Forces in Nature
Oil on Board 42″x 15″
$1450

In my novel, Zabel is a follower of the Ancient Ways of the Earth Mother.  She didn’t see Nature as a totality as we do, but saw each element in Nature, for example, an oak tree, the moon, thunder, hawks, stars, as possessing a force that contained its own spirit.  I did the painting as a way to imagine what the seemingly empty space in my yard contains, as the deer  and a rabbit forage.