Tag Archives: Catie Faryl

Balance Art Card Deck

72-card Balance Deck

Balance Art Card Deck

The Balance Deck is 72 cards of artwork and writing that can be used for fun, sharing, or introspection. Each card has an image on one side and the corresponding description on the other side. Simply fan the deck, pick a card that interests you, and read about the deeper meanings of that image. All artwork is subject to interpretation by the viewer, and will be a source of amusement, insight, and inspiration for you and your friends.

The cards have been popular with women’s groups, therapists, and as conversation starters. While not designed as a divination deck, random card choices can be surprisingly synchronistic with the situation of the person selecting the card.

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Greeting Cards and Color Prints are available of every image in the Balance Art Card Deck:

4 1/2 ” x 5 1/2 ” greeting cards in cellophane sleeves
$3 per card plus $1.00 shipping and handling for up to 10 cards, with $1 extra for
every additional 10 cards

8 ” x 10 ” color reproductions, unmatted
$10 and $1.00 shipping and handling, add .50 cents for every additional print

8 ” x 10 ” color reproductions, matted
$15 and 1.25 shipping and handling, add .65 cents for every additional matted print

Some original artwork is also available, please inquire about prices.

Purchase your own Balance Art Card Deck at my Etsy shop!

 

Through a Glass, Greenly

Polaris, watercolor by Catie Faryl, 2009

Polaris, watercolor by Catie Faryl, 2009

Art Statement

“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.  And now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known . . . . . . . .”
“And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”
1 Corinthians 13, verse 11 and 13

This quotation returned to my attention in July 2009 while pondering my years of work with environmental, social and political issues.  I was questioning the human ability to see what is actually real and how often we think we know the right paths to take, but are often disoriented and become lost or disillusioned.  It seemed to me, that summer of 2009, we were at a crossroad or in a precarious balance – at the tipping point of seeing what could be done to stave off and heal the consequences of human-caused damage to the planet.

Creating art is a shamanistic duty and tradition that our culture must reclaim.  An artist guide’s role is to visit the spirit world and the future to bring back positive messages, symbols, dreams and goals, remedies and “cures” for the tribe.  In the summer of 2009, I observed the apathy, cynicism and inaction reflected in some people’s cavalier statements that “huge population die-offs were meant to be” or that “our human civilization either can’t pass or is undeserving of passing this evolutionary hurdle” and I could not let those beliefs go unchallenged.

Human beings, in my view, are noble creatures.  We can embrace our role as Stewards of the Planet and look deep into our collective conscious to find answers to uphold the best future for all sentient beings and Mother Earth.  We can think and act locally and sow seeds not of our differences but cultivate gardens where all can grow in peace and prosperity.  Like nature’s bounty, love needs little tending in hearts that are willing and in minds that dare to imagine, not despair.  Our energy can be gathered to see clearly and do the work that must be done.

“So let abide these three: faith, hope and charity.”  We have seen things through a green but cloudy glass – confusing, disturbing, inconclusive – and now we are ready to move forward with courage in illuminated passages through these interesting times.

Catie Faryl
January 2012

Global Weirding, Global Warning

Art Statement

In 2006 I had this “epiphany”: People needed to stop arguing about whether Climate Change was real.

Instead of arguing about “Global Warming,” we could suspend our disbelief or zealous defense of the cause and simply call these weather and climate phenomena a more descriptive and encompassing name: GLOBAL WEIRDING!

GLOBAL WEIRDING cannot be refuted! You don’t need to believe anything, just observe what is right in front of your eyes. SEEING IS BELIEVING and the acceleration of disasters is the clearest message we have that Nature is not up for business as usual. The stakes have changed and reading our new situation is imperative.

The real challenge is to move in ways that are effective in restoring balance. Granted, it is difficult to convince people to change their habits or mitigate carbon releases into the atmosphere if they see no connection and, in effect, feel no personal power to impact or control their fate. Preaching to the choir, I showed this work to the Scientific Summit on Climate Change held at Southern Oregon University in 2007.

It was interesting to attend that conference and use the artwork for a colorful conversation starter during breaks and conversations with the scientific community. A key point of the conference was what could be done about the “gag order” that had been imposed by the Bush Administration, which had threatened to pull all grant funding from scientific studies who viewed climate change as real. Another was the problem of mainstream media, where the issue was rarely mentioned.

It’s interesting to write a current statement about my artwork. What I painted in 2006 was a forward look at what was about to happen. Truth makes a believer out of everyone, given enough time, and I feel proud to have done a small service in telescoping what I saw then in order to be just a tiny drop added to a raging torrent of publicity and activity directed at solving the problems of Global Weirding.

Catie Faryl
January 2012
Note: Beneath the image gallery is a reproduction of my original comments to this exhibition.

Hype, Holocaust, Hoax or Happening

Review: “Beasts of the Southern Wild”

If there’s one film to see this year, Beasts of the Southern Wild could be it. Playing at the Varsity Theatre in Ashland, it is a must see, particularly at this time while Hurricane/Tropical Storm Isaac, and the Republican National Convention pass over us like a harbinger of more destruction to come in the first case, and glossy delivery of deceit, stormy news coverage and question-raising extravagance in the second.
 

It is amazing to watch the child actor who stars in this film about life and death in a severely stressed outpost on the Louisiana delta. She holds our rapt attention and I marvel at her strength, resilience, fortitude and beauty, her inner spirit as well as her charming appearance. Narrated in her voice and words, a creative look at a disturbing world through the eyes of a six year old is both hopeful and heart-rendering. “Hushpuppy” has a father who is terminally ill and drinking to hide it. The neighbors on the bayou live a hard life of freedom at all costs. When an impending storm again threatens their existence, we witness an array of coping skills as Hushpuppy and other “Beasts of the Southern Wild” rise in bravery and pure survival instincts to outlive an ongoing catastrophe.
 

There is much to recommend this movie, beyond a wonderful story with intriguing characters. Hushpuppy’s teacher at the jerry-rigged floating school minces no words when educating her ragged pupils about the harsh realities of rising oceans and the impact on their way of life. How this rough information is taken to heart and used in the imagination of Hushpuppy and her friends is a cautionary tale for us all.
 

During the recent Republican Convention, not one of the well-groomed speakers mentioned climate change. The impotence of the political party in place and the disbelieve or callousness of the other is very disturbing in light of the reality that hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens in America and millions all over the world are barely coping with rising seas and unprecedented destructive weather events. Up on dry land aspiring politicians and those in power spew words like “believe, hope and jobs” but these ideals and conceptual jargon are not life rafts for the jobless, the homeless or displaced and they have floated the middle class into a puddle of confusion. Both parties, in my opinion, have failed and the spirit of people like Hushpuppy may be our best means to face the extremes barreling down on all of us in the form of flood, fully melted ice caps, drought and chemical poisoning of the air, food, land and water, sexism , prejudice and elitism.
 

The film is a riveting tribute to a terrible truth: we live in the time of the Sixth Extinction, which through profligate use of polluting resources, irresponsible actions and, the greed-motivated pushing of products, ideology, false promises and lies by corporations, the mainstream media and government, manmade environmental devastation in a short 200 years has accelerated the Sixth Extinction by millions of years. And let’s not let ourselves off the hook; we are daily consumers of the products, pacifications, entertainments, excuses, delusions and comforts we hold dear. We all are prisoners and contributors to what could be our own demise.
 

As messaged in the film, it is time to be brave, face our demons and survive. As humans we must stare down the “Aurochs” of our fate as symbolized by the four huge mutated ancient killer bovines that march across and terrorized Hushpuppy’s landscape. These, like the Four Horses of the Apocalypse in biblical times, give a face to many 21st century threats like abuse of power, rising oceans, genetic engineering, dependence on chemicals and pharmaceuticals and mixing our food sources with cross-species experiments. As politicians turn their backs in willful disregard for environmental tragedies man-made in this and the past century, and “save” us (as when rescue workers remove island disaster victims by force), I can only think in wonderment and resentment about how tax dollars are thrown away on us as an after- the-fact gesture – like an apology for not facing and addressing the real problems head on.
 

I’ve often expressed my belief that “every problem carries within itself its solutions.” If we want to address the problem of jobs then a full scale effort could be mobilized around reversing the environmental hazards we have been causing. Romney should be ashamed of his closing statement in his acceptance speech to the Republican Convention; to say Obama “promised to lower the rising oceans and heal the planet” (giving the mean-spirited implication that Obama saw himself as omnipotent or that real environmental problems don’t exist) and that he, Romney, only promises to help “you and your families”. Romney means exactly that: he will help HIS own, but you can bet the rest of us, living on or very close to a real, metaphorical or financial “bayou” about to be flooded by the actions or inactions of either major party make it way past time to get tough and get real and find our power and bravery, confront and change our monsters and champion the children and the planet.
Hushpuppy for President!