Soil2
Shadows of the Earth – Oil on Canvas – Omay Lee 2020
Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away.
Change and decay in all around I see.
O Lord who changes not, abide with me.
~Henry Francis Lyte
Fertile Soil – Oil on Canvas – Omay Lee 2020
In sullen sky I hear my heart judder
In bleak grey fields I feel the ground shudder
Crows encircle and breath becomes nigh
Nigh not mine but mine earth’s sign
Sighs like parched birds of seeds unploughed
Where all gather beneath fertile clouds.
© Omay Lee 2019
Rituals in Soil – Oil on Canvas – Omay Lee 2019
It is thought that the ancient Callanish stones on the Isle of Lewis was once the place for collective ritual and ceremony under dark moonlight, of asking for solutions. Rituals and sacred ceremonies are places where cultural transformation might occur. In ancient practices, ritual was used to create and maintain religious, cultural and social structures. The idea of the liminal experience is central in the undertaking of ritual. This painting was inspired by the red-robed rebels of extinction rebellion.
Meditations in Soil and Rain – Oil on Canvas – Omay Lee 2020
A red langur in troubled times.
In times of disharmony, might that place of watchful awareness mediate a deeper climate action? Here is the red langur (presbyter rubicunda) rooted in the soil of his belonging in the Borneo rainforest, contemplating its future amid the chaos.
Soul Bird – Oil on Canvas – Omay Lee 2019
The soul lies between the spirit and the earthly essence of ourselves, a luminous fragile light within the darkness, a winged creature of the soil and the depths. Ancient Chinese philosophy believed that we possessed both the earthly essence and spirit essence – soul was the intermediary between the two. How to bring the depths of soul making into our everyday lives in order to live in better communion with the earth? Soul is made from soil.
Trusting the Ground – Oil on Canvas – Omay Lee 2020
As earthly beings we are born of the soil and return to the soil. It is only when one trusts the humility of the ground that new possibility will emerge.
