After yesterday’s early snow, the world outside the window is crisscrossed with lines of brown and white. We got around three inches, all well before noon, and by mid-afternoon, the majority of it had already begun to melt.
Still, it’s the first real sign of winter, and the wild creatures have taken note. Whole clans of birds of various types have arrived, and with them, their predator class. Smaller mammals are venturing farther than is safe in search of a last little food before the deep cold comes, and the highway is capturing a few. We have seen no proof yet of bears, but have no doubt they have come passing through in the early hours; this is their season abroad, irrespective of human habitation, although they are still circumspect about contact. Most years, we don’t even see them, only the signs they leave behind. And while the dogs may be haunted by the bears’ arrival, they and the horses have always seemed to have a live-and-let-live sort of understanding.
The plants, too, are increasingly ready for winter. The green is now suddenly almost wholly gone;; the fields are a pale mix of gold and gray and brown. The trees are almost entirely gold and turning brown, shedding their leaves like broken beads.
Now, as we head toward All Souls and one of the most fragile points of the year, it’s a patchwork world in the cold, clear air, one of spirit bears and a spiderwebbed earth.
Today’s featured works embody both — they are, in point of fact, actual spirit bears, emergent from their own earth of spiderwebbed alabaster. This is an entirely family of them, albeit sold separately, all summoned from stone by the talented hands of the late Mike Schildt (Taos Pueblo). It’s a phenomenal set, the mother wrought from the most beautiful specimen of its kind I’ve ever seen, snow white marbled with browns in coffee and sepia tones, alight with rich bronze and shimmering gold shades. The cubs are spectacularly expressive, particularly the baby, whose features and stance are infused with wonder at the immensity of his wider world. All are found in the Other Artists: Sculpture gallery here on the site.
We begin, though, with the mother bear, solid and substantial and possessed of an extraordinary natural beauty. From her description:
Mike Schildt (Taos Pueblo) created this Bear Clan matriarch (and her three cubs) in 2013. Coaxed from one of the most spectacular examples of spiderweb alabaster we’ve ever seen, this Mother Ghost Bear is solid and substantial, and she stands on full alert. Snowy white with an incredibly rich brown spiderweb matrix, simultaneously delicate and bold, she has inlaid eyes of sky-blue Sleeping Beauty turquoise. Mother Bear stands 8″ long by 4-1/8″ high by 1-7/8″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate). Another angle shown at the link; top view shown in lower left of group photo at top.
Spiderweb alabaster; Sleeping beauty turquoise
$450 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply
Of all the specimens of spiderweb alabaster that have passed through our gallery over the years, indeed, of all the spirit bears that have found their way here too, she is the most remarkable. It’s the stone, the solidity, the silkiness of the surfaces, the sheer talent and beauty that inspirit her every line.
Her children, though, are extraordinary as well. The oldest of the cubs is marbled with a subtle, even mix of dark browns and glowing golds, perfect for his smooth places and curves. From his description:
This adolescent Ghost Bear Cub is the eldest offspring in a family that arrived here in 2013, given form and being by Mike Schildt (Taos Pueblo). Carved of hauntingly beautiful spiderweb alabaster, soft white with a stunning spiderweb chocolate matrix. This responsible little elder brother looks on closely and carefully with bright blue eyes of inlaid Sleeping Beauty turquoise. Cub stands 6-1/8″ long by 3.5″ high by 2″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate). Top view shown at lower right in group photo at top.
Spiderweb alabaster; Sleeping beauty turquoise
$300 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply
I have always thought of the largest of the cubs as the elder brother, watchful, protective, and a bit exasperated, too. The middle cub has always seemed to me to be female, the sister. From her description:
This Ghost Bear Cub is the middle child in a family of bears midwifed from spiderweb alabaster in 2013. Mike Schildt (Taos Pueblo) brought form to this little family from a truly fine example of the stone, nearly pure white, with incredible delicate matrix lines in gold, bronze, and a deep chocolate brown. She gazes solemnly through sky-blue inlaid eyes made of crushed Sleeping Beauty turquoise. Cub stands 5.25″ long by 2-7/8″ high by 1-5/8″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate). Top view shown at enter right in group photo at top.
Spiderweb alabaster; Sleeping beauty turquoise
$300 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply
This little girl is also infused with a sense of motion, head turned to her right, perhaps to heed her mother, or to listen for danger to the youngest. The webbing of the stone from which is wrought is unusually bifurcated: mostly rich dark browns marbling her body and a soft golden glow shimmering throughout her head and neck. Her size is almost the perfect stair-step between her older brother and her younger one, below.
And the baby is nothing short of adorable. He rises from the stone from which he has been carved, gazing upward in what can only be an unmistakable sense of wonder at the scope and scale of the world in which he finds himself. From his description:
This little ghost bear cub is the baby of the bunch in this family created together in 2013 by Mike Schildt (Taos Pueblo). The color of new snow, with a delicate spiderweb tracery in rich golds and browns, he stands gazing upward, happily, expectantly, through inlaid eyes of bright blue Sleeping Beauty turquoise. Cub stands 5-3/8″ long by 3.5″ high by 1-3/8″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate). Top angle shown at center left in group photo at top.
Spiderweb alabaster; Sleeping beauty turquoise
$225 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply
There’s an innocence to this little guy, a deceptively friendly aspect. But like the famed and rare Spirit Bear he embodies, he, too, is fierce and filled with power, ready to do what it takes to survive another winter.
We can learn a lot from these all of these beings, Spirit Bears and a spiderwebbed earth. We know the spirits walk now, which means that it is time to keep to our work even as we honor their memories. Winter is coming, and our own survival depends upon it.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2019; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
