Sheltering Ursula focuses directly on community and forest revival.
This Cortes Woodpath Revival project is in its later stages of design and carving.
The spirit of creation continues to inspire its changing form.
Like the others it is a large, outdoor wooden sculpture
dedicated to the spirits of
nature, return, community, healing and celebration.
Sheltering Ursula is in the process of being purchased by the Cortes community. If you would like to learn more, help with funding or be involved, please read the Ursula Community Fundraising Poster or contact me.
To some a hollow tree trunks has little value. When my handwork and vision connect, the hollow tree transforms into a totem and shares the lives of the spirits of our forests.
When Sheltering Totem Ursula is in its proper place it will shelter new life, we will plant a red cedar sapling in her hollow. But before the new tree gets planted I will prepare a salmon in it to share. The inside of the hollow will then be blackened with the smoke and smudge of our salmon feast. This will highlight the hues of fresh green and red of the bark of the young tree, which being protected from weather or sunlight by the embrace of Ursula, will remain bright for some time. The new tree: totem within a totem.
The carved totem carving itself as the new tree grows and transforms its shelter. My hands found Bear in this hollow tree trunk. Bear, who by eating Salmon, his primary food source, shares this bounty with bigger and smaller birds, animals and insects as well as with the trees- the giant red cedars. It is the magical circle of fertilization happening.
The Bear is read like a mountain, her head is the summit. Along the spine , water runs down and forms a river with the shoulder blades. They are rounded, like the first little lakes which rivers make, high in the mountains with frogs in them. The river glides down the upper body, past fertile land into the hip area. This land of bigger lakes is, inhabited by beavers. From there it flows to the tail where the river fans out into a delta. As the river nears the sea, Salmon rushes towards the oceans of the earth.
The elongated poses of the totems; Bear, Woman and Salmon, as well as the hollowed-out tree, mirror the similar stretched thin condition of our survival now.
The left open hand of Ursula will face the east where it catches the first sun, the hand by her vagina stimulates her fertility. Her hair runs back into the body of the bear.
The Sheltering Totem Ursula's more exposed side will be north, towards the polar star. They share name and light together. Therefore the young cedar we plant will start its life in ideal conditions, with a northern light exposure. This is a light artists know how to appreciate, a light that holds a balanced brightness with little shadow.
This sculpture is about transformation and revival. It is about the return to our living earth, about the return to our power that has been taken away by our civilization. With this sculpture I invite the high culture of carving and its power into our lives and the earth of Cortes Island in particular .
Many cultures have a tree that is central to their lives, a special tree, a giving tree. These trees provide clothing, food, shelter, art, spirit, and medicine to the humans they live with. Here, the red cedar is that tree.
So far I worked with a number of friends on this sculpture. Now it will be seen by a much broader part of the community. Now all can share, digest and be part of this inspiration. Together we create our future on this earth, with Bear, Salmon, Tree and all of creation.
Volker Steigemann
