'Spirit of the Polar Bear' Spirit Catcher

The spirit of the Polar Bear would begin her spirit’s quest for change by my husband, Albano, whose handcrafted workmanship will create the mother polar bear's high-quality metal frame.

Mother Polar Bear had now come alive as her metal frame was now complete.  I preselected and cut beautiful strips of off-white suede that will adorn the spirit of her soul.

As I held her in my bands, her soul was beginning to come alive, as she wore her beautiful white coat I carefully wrapped around her body as I so vividly seen in my dreams.

I took a moment to close my eyes and began to imagine her soul swimming freely, landing on many ice caps all along her journey, as she admired the beauty of her home under the electrify northern lights that crackled above her, radiating a glow, of cascading array of colours only described as unimaginable.

Weaving her beautiful soul’s journey into existence was an honour, as I chose specific colours that would reflect her purpose as the Spirit of the Polar Bear. I knew that her home was unbalanced, which could only mean the need for a medicine wheel to be incorporated. I began to weave the medicine wheel colours into her feet, which were white, red, yellow, and black. The purpose of the medicine wheel is to bring balance into your life, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. These four aspects of your being must be well-balanced and healthy, or your wheel will go flat and not move forward in your life.

So, as in the polar bears’ case, her home, the environment, is so unbalanced that it's at a point of no return, leaving the polar bears, eventually, to become extinct. We must rebalance our needs and change our current practices so that we allow the environment to thrive as it rightfully has done for thousands upon thousands of years up to this point in time.

As I move up from her feet, I will add many little fish swimming through the beautiful blue/green glass beads that reflect the ocean waters in each of her legs.

Moving onto the upper portion of her body, I chose colours I had envisioned while holding her as I had imaged her soul’s journey. So, I began weaving vibrant, deep blue beads along the ridge of her upper back, with cascading shooting stars falling freely through the array of northern lights.

As I almost complete Mother Polar Bear’s wish, I would need to complete her head by continuing the same pattern of weaving, adding a vibrant abalone shell as the eye and a set of Northern lights dancing so brightly as they glowed with a blush of green hues from her ears.

• 22" x 14.5"