Traveler Series

This post is dedicated to my inspiration behind the traveler series installed at Caffe Ibis during December 2023-January 2024. It offers further background for each painting, although I fully encourage your own interpretation of each piece.

“This series focuses on a traveler in search of a home. Sometimes the thoughtful fox, the ambitious squirrel, or a small person, they head out into the world looking for a place to belong. Our traveler is influenced by its friends and mentors, symbolized by the everpresent sparrow or busy woodpecker. The quatrefoil is repeated in some way through each piece, indicating a spiritual journey as well as a physical one.”

Let’s get into it.

Rest

“Rest” is many things. Our traveler spends ages looking for a place to curl up and call home. He dreams of a quiet den to lay his head, to be watched over, to disappear into fantasies of greener pastures where everything is peaceful. Maybe he makes it, maybe he doesn’t. He is a wandering spirit and it is a fine, almost impossible, balance to be someone content and someone reaching.

A Moment

You can see a long way out at the top of the hill, just before the clouds settle their bellies low. Our traveler takes it all in, feeling the weight of everything. The moss between his toes creeps into his heart, on his back the hearth fires blaze and he sees the smoke trail outlining where he has been. He will ignore it for now in his warm, self-made winter coat. The fog is coming.

Totem

Woodpeckers were the soundtrack to my childhood. Afternoons and early mornings spent in the woods around my house, the constant tapping echoing through stands of towers, creaking Norway pine. This bird symbolizes perseverance, knocking against a hard place to find something good. In this series, our traveler is met by this friend, who gives him hard-won advice and encouragement for the next leg of his journey. That advice will tap around in our traveler’s mind long after they part.

Hero’s Journey

Our traveler takes on new heights, undeterred by the challenge. He is watched over by three witnesses, his oracles.

Prodigal

Our traveler begins his journey by leaving everything behind. Eyes forward, he doesn’t see the home he carries on his back, the one he built himself. He wants something new, a fresh start, he wants to leave behind memories, hurt, pain. No one understood him. He will find another community, they will see the kind of home he builds on his back, he will move on again. He tells himself a lie so he can sleep at night.

Interference

It’s a flurry of conversation and perspective brought by good friends. Sometimes conflicting, often well-meaning, often passionate. The quatrefoil lattice sits on top of the chaos, fencing it in, containing it, holding it back. Just a little.

Balance

Our traveler eagerly passes through a community placed precariously in the branches of a tree. Close-knit, inviting, a good view. Maybe the traveler stays awhile, maybe they move on quickly, we aren’t sure. This won’t be a final destination but it will be a fond memory.

Shelter

I grew up canoeing in the boundary waters, living a stone’s throw from Voyageur’s National Park. Sometimes we would half paddle, half pole through shallow connecting ponds filled with lily pads and fenced in by beaver dams. This strange plant cast shadows through murky brown waters, connected by an umbilical cord to the bottomless sludge. Beneath, an entire communty was thriving. We were the travelers moving through, moving beyond.

Identity

Our traveler finds himself rooted, unable to take a step forward on hus journey. He is reflecting on who he has become on his travels and wonders if he has truly changed at all. Eyes looking inward, outward. He sees the home he carries on his back and witnesses the hard truth of his own reality. We don’t know who or what he will deem worthy of going back for, who he will help heal, or if he will continue on this path headed toward his own reckoning.

Destiny

Perpetually alone, our traveler quietly moves along, observing others from afar. We see him peer into a community from above, wondering at the mystery they quietly live beside, too hesitant to pull closer. We don’t know if he stays or goes. The pomegranates around him are a temptation, a choice between life and death, symbols of wealth, important choices to be made, knowledge stolen.

The Oracles

These three birds symbolize our traveler’s sage friends. These are the ones our traveler goes to for advice, real friends with their claws in the dirt and a vantage point from the clouds. Each sees a different angle, each draws from different experiences.

Thanks for reading. I hope you find the rest and shelter you need on your journey.