Moon Flight

Materials used:

painted plaster cast of my face
grouse and pheasant feathers, Montana
gray tree fungus, Vermont
a large ring of silver
pieces of rusted sheet metal, found on the Yellowstone River

(wall mount 22”x27”x4”)

As a child, many of my dreams included various forms of me in levitation or flight. I could simply float above the ground, effortless and free – will begin to run and take off into the sky, above tree tops and the London buildings of my childhood. Upon waking in the mornings, after these special dreams, I remember feeling an absolute joy in my being. As an adult, these dreams only occasionally visit me now, but when they do, I still awake and with the complete sense of joy. In one particular recent dream, I saw the moon, shining silver above me, brilliant against a black sky – and I rose from the earth, as if with wings rather than arms. And I flew towards the moon.

This mask, with the abundance of feathers and wings, and a single large circle of silver, reminds me of the absolute joy of my imagined flight to the moon. I honor that joy, that releasing, exuberant feeling of joy, and the freedom of flight which surpasses restrictions that bind us, whether in dream states or in our waking reality. It is my hope that you, as well, share that honoring.