Soul Bird

It began without a planper usual. Clearing my mind of expectations, I started with a broad-edged pen, then added watercolor accents and a few strokes from a red brush marker.

Moving quickly without thinking lets logical mind steps aside, allowing the soul to guide the spontaneous marks. I've always believed that true creative divinity happens in this quiet space, where art flows before thought can restrict it.

When the painting felt done and I stopped, I realized that this fanciful, exotic bird had emerged with integrated marks that looked like mystical language.

I looked up mythologies that mirrored what I saw and felt from it, and the pieces clicked together when I found the meaning of soul bird. Even though it isnt an actual bird species you can find in any earthly field guide, the connection to its mythical meanings was perfect.

In the ancient Finnish myth of the sielulintuthe soul bird, it is a protective guardian of the human spirit, a faithful companion that watches over our essence during deep transitions and dreams.

As the surrealist Leonora Carrington once noted, these abstract forms represent parts of the psyche that words simply cannot reach. The soul bird is a divine messenger and a spirit guide, bridging our concrete, physical reality with higher spiritual dimensions. 

It is a snapshot of the subconscious made visible, and a reminder that when we stop planning, we finally give the soul room to fly.

Original:

7” x 9”

Pen and Ink, Watercolor, on Watercolor Paper