It’s February in Michigan and we’re all sick of it. The snow and ice are endless. Weeks go by without a glimpse of the sun. Oh, for a sunny, 60 degree day! Bright green grass! Frogs croaking! The shameless display of crocuses with insatiable hordes of buzzing bees! Sigh.… I had to do a symbolic Spring painting.
Of course that would have to include conch shells. They always remind me of Springtime because of my trips to Peru. One of my conch shells has a hole cut in the end, turning it into a kind of blast-horn. I carried it on the Inca Trail all the way to Machu Picchu. At the shaman’s urging, I’d spit out my “cud” of coca leaves, rare back and give it a loud blast now and then. That “animal thing” –it’s a reproduction of an ancient water bottle in the shape of a jaguar. The three favorite “gods” of the Incas were the condor, the anaconda and the jaguar. Peru trips always happened during our springtime, the month of May.
Margie Guyot Art 