This is Deerheart. She came about due to my interest in shape shifting characters and the Celtic mythologies about the Bean Si aka the Banshee. The Banshee has been typically portrayed as a screaming, wailing hag but further reading of lore proved to be quite enlightening. So the result was the shape shifting Deerheart and her accompanying poem.
Once the painting and poem were done, I tasked my good and talented friend Shari MacLeod to create a frame that would serve my bean si well. The results, as you can see, were fabulous! Hand woven with dyed rattan, some cane and embellishments of driftwood and feathers, Shari managed to build a housing that is a true extension of the painting.
I present the finished Deerheart (completed poem to follow below). Deerheart is part of my exhibit Altered Egos.
Dear Hearts
By Teena Marie Fancey
Gather you gentle ones,
where the boney birches stand
Where moss and lichen soften steps you take across
this land
Gather you gentle ones,
you creatures of the wood
Stay shy outside the fairy ring as you have learned
you should
The keening sounds to summon us, and echoes through
the trees
And shakes them with its sadness and moves them like a
breeze
Inside the ring she changes skins and shows to us her
youth
While sobbing with the knowledge that she sees the
bitter truth
A fellow soul will fall this night,
a dear heart in our midst
By means of claw or teeth or jaws, or arrow in their
breast
Blood will stain the forest floor and mingle with the
dirt
Their bones will end up underfoot, their soul will
wait rebirth
Once death has taken what it claims, she’ll wipe away
her tears
She’ll step outside the fairy ring and show to us her
years
Off you go, you timid ones,
and take your leave at morning
She’ll come again with a breaking heart
and cry to us her warning
