The Bear

I’ve been working on this piece for nearly a year. It is easily my biggest and most ambition drawing to date. Like all of my works, it’s deeply personal and has many hidden aspects that bubbled to the surface throughout the various months of its inception.

I started The Bear without knowing for months what the subject matter would be. Like many other pieces, it started with some abstract lines in an evening of pain… caused by a random yet now familiar emotional wave in the spring of 2021. I never intended for The Bear to end up having so many aquatic themes, from the animals in the entire bottom and right side the artwork, to the giant wave, to the fact that I’m playing water polo with The Bear.

The Bear himself came to me as an old friend in several dreams. What’s most striking however, is that he showed up as my spirit animal; I was exhibiting “bear like” behavior months before I came to realize his importance in my life. From my love of berries, to climbing the trees around my house, to naming various electric smart home devices after bears, I realized the bear was already expressing himself through me. I read the section of the bear in “Animal Speak” by Ted Andrews, it was here where it became obvious how many threads of my life were defined by bear-like tendencies. If you feel an animal has started appearing in your life, I highly recommend sections of that book to better understand what certain animals mean in our lives.

The energy and spirt of The Bear has helped to keep me safe on at least one spiritual journey within 2021. Since then, my wife Adela agreed it’s a good idea to give me little totems that allow me to honor the bear’s importance. He’s on my nightstand, as a ceramic on a wall in our house, and soon to be as my interpretation.

I’m extremely proud of Him. He’s me and I am him, yet we are very much separate beings. I honor his strength, playfulness, appetite and ability to climb trees, among other things.

Thanks buddy, I couldn’t have made it out of that cold forest without you.