Portraits
The wolf spirit has been calling me on a deep level during covid. Reflecting on these wild animals has helped me really find myself in my truest form. In "Women Who Run With the Wolves" Clarissa Pinkola Esteres explains, "Healthy woman and healthy wolves share certain psychic characteristics: keen sensing, playful spirit, and a heightened capacity for devotion. Wolves and women are relational by nature, inquiring, possessed of great endurance and strength. They are deeply intuitive, intensely concerned with their young, their mates and their pack. They are experienced in adapting to constantly changing circumstances, they are fiercely stalwart and very brave. Yet both have been hounded, harassed, and falsely imputed to be devouring and devious, overly aggressive, of less value... The predation of wolves and women by those who misunderstand them is strikingly similar". As a woman, I continuously work hard to stay connected to my wild, wolf like nature.
Another reason I was inspired to paint "Wild Wolf Woman" was because on Vancouver Island, there are only about 350 wolves. 70 percent live on the northern tip of the island. They are legally hunted seasonally and there have been wolf culls to increased caribou populations, without much success. The wild wolves need to be protected, as do the women's wolf spirits.