Siberian Tiger Creature
51.5" x 33.25" Watercolor, Ink, Gouache, Acrylic and Graphite - May 21, 2020 to July 7, 2020
- I was thinking about a “tulpa” for the first time when I started this piece. A tulpa is a supernatural creature you would manifest by concentrating your energy or mental powers. I think I might have even painted the symbol (sigil) for this into the tiger's body. With the amount of time, energy and concentration I put into these pieces, I could manifest actual creatures, as replacements for the ones we are losing on the planet.
- I went to the San Diego Botanical Garden and also asked a specialist in endangered native botanicals about endangered plants in California - Cobra Lily, Golden Barrel cactus and the Brugmansia. We have several Brugmansia trees in our yard, but they are extinct in their original habitat. The trees have been naturalized to other areas over time and are grown all over.
- The Spanish moon moth, Graellsia isabellae, is a primitive "relict species". It looks like stained glass, is endemic to France and Spain and has a protected status. Now found high in the Alps and Pyrenees, it originated in the ice age and took refuge in shrinking cold parts of the world. The climate in the Alps and Pyrenees has been stable so these populations have survived there for thousands of years.
- I made a little window into the cosmos in the back of the tiger's neck, which I have done many times since, but I came up with the black and saturated blue/red watercolor section with crows drawn over it for this piece and loved it so much. That gave me other ideas which led to the large melanistic leopard called “Cosmos” in 2021-2022.