Acrylic painting on canvas titled Prayers for rain. The subject is a Saguaro cactus, Carnegiea Gigantea. 53×53 inches, 135×135 cm, unframed. Available for $5900.
Saguaro cactus are truly an iconic species in the Sonoran desert. They represent the resilience of all forms of life, and their strength to survive in what seems to us to be the harshest of environments is encouraging in our time when the entire biosphere is enduring rapid changes. All life on Earth is spectacular. These amazing beings remind us of that. There are some references within the painting that I would like to draw extra attention to:
Across the top of the painting is a quote from Black Elk Speaks, “A sacred voice is calling you, all over the sky a sacred voice is calling”. This announcement refers to a vision experienced in 1869 by Black Elk, a Lakota man(he was 9 at the time) that was a mystical experience about the interconnectedness of all living beings.
Anima mundi is a latin phrase that means, “the soul of the world”, another reference to the relationship of all living things on Earth.
“The rose’s rarest essence lives in the thorns” is a quotation from the 12th century Persian mystical poet Rumi.
“Tlatlaujtili para ma tlaahuetzi is a (probably clumsy) translation from Nahuatl of “prayers for rain”.
The Art of Darren Engleman 