This is a painting that came from my interest in mythology, and in particular with native american mythology. For some time now I have found the notions of mythology and religion to be very interesting. Myths and religions are stories or narratives that people embrace in common about the way the world works, how things happen, etc. The title for this work is Psychopomp Manabohzo. Psychopomp is a word that Carl Jung had used to describe a spirit guide, a being that guides the souls of the living from life to death. Every belief system has some kind of symbolic figure. In this instance I was reading about certain native american ideas of the rabbit, the Manabohzo. This rabbit figure is a creator god, creating life, creating the deer, master of knowledge and a guide to the souls of the living. Its not a literal translation. I was not illustrating anything. It seemed to perk something in my mind, an image like this came to me. How I got from reading a book on the subject to the final image is one that I cannot explain. The idea of death, life, how all this came to be I find striking. In this supposed age of rational thought, where superstitious ideas are thought to be in the past. I feel that we treat death as something to be avoided, not dealt with, not to be mentioned. But for all our supposed wisdom there is something cold about the way we live and the way we die. The blanket assumption of those inclined to the dualism of everything, that we die and poof! in the afterlife of either heaven or hell. It is perhaps why i find the accent mythologies, belief systems so interesting, There was such a complex idea of what happens, how things happen. Granted, of course there was a great deal that we would find very unappealing about the past. That being said, I find that we live by narratives, not by facts, we live by values with an underlying mythos at the base of those values.