Ravens I hold an enormous amount of respect for ravens. However, my admiration does not make me an expert. Those who do study them have expounded on their sophisticated vocabulary and communication skills. Ravens have a social system where they share not just food but knowledge along with developing long term plans. As birds go, they possess a higher functioning brain that allows for complex learning and problem-solving, long term memory, and the ability to develop their own individuality and a moral capacity. In fact, it is believed that they rival great apes in their cognitive capacity. They mate for life, live in groups, and are known to engage in playing games with other animals (including wolves) and inventing toys. Ravens Acrylic on Wood Panel Size  10" x 10"

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Notable writers have woven the mysterious and remarkable raven into their stories including William Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, Charles Dickens, J. R.R. Tolkein, and Stephen King. The Bible notes that the raven was the first animal out of Noah’s Arc. In mythology and folklore, regardless of the nationality of the myth, the raven plays a pivotal role from the contrary, negative trickster and thief who represents death and evil to the giver of light, creation, wisdom, and healing. Native spirituality, depending on the nation, often includes the raven as the creator who discovered the first people, the one who brought fire to the people, the trickster who brings the sun back to the sky, a messenger who forewarns of new learning or conscious awareness, the guardian of ceremonial magic, and the healer. The raven also symbolizes what is both good and bad within the notion of magic: when misused it can be bad and when used appropriately it is abundantly good.

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When I was fifteen I left my childhood home and ended up living on the Tsuu T'ina Reserve outside Calgary, Alberta. I became the young wife to a Crowchild. I have been told that way back when, the white settlers did not understand the difference between crows and ravens. When native people’s surnames were being translated from their native tongue, this family’s was improperly changed from Children of the Raven to Children of the Crow (a.k.a. Crowchild). My brother-in-law, Bradley Crowchild, was a native healer-in-training when he passed away several years ago. His wake was several days long and held several miles away from the cemetery where he was laid to rest. His body was transported on the back of a half-ton truck. The ballbearers sat on either side of him singing and drumming native songs the entire way. Five ravens followed this progression from beginning to end. The ravens remembered their own.

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Ravens have remained one of my most favourite animals. Not just because their brilliance leaves me in awe but because they symbolize a characteristic associated with humanity: all of life comes in equal doses of good and bad and discerning which is which cannot be found relying on social norms but by embracing one's individual critical facilities and moral compass. It is for this reason, I give homage to ravens in my most recent series of drawings.

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