"The Thorny Path: To Our Tender Hearts" by Em Atropa (sliding scale $50 - $100)
The Thorny Path is not an easy path. These are plants who pull and tug and grasp and cling. They stick to our fur, they prick our flesh. They may seek to draw blood, to test our hearts and spur our bodies into turning back toward the sunny meadows. And yet they offer strength. Resiliency. Pleasure. Protection.
We are/can be/have been the Moth’s wings fluttering without fear, navigating the dark hollows adorned with thorns and prickers and jaggers and burs. And when we have moved beyond the portal’s edge, into that darkness, memories are drawn up of the times we’ve traveled these paths before. In our other selves, other bodies, other times. It is now that we begin the journey into the Otherworld, knowing that what we might find may lead us to long-forgotten secrets, sadness, truths, and belonging for our tender hearts. *This* is the Thorny Path.
Original artwork by Emily Ann Ní Dhriscoll DeMarco.
Handprinted silk-screen print facilitated by Nathan Mould.
Black acrylic ink printed on 22” x 28” white Stonehenge archival paper.
Sliding scale: $50 - $100
Nineteen thorny plants with the Large Emerald Moth, originally drawn with nib and ink: Barberry, Blackberry, Blackthorn, Burdock, Cleavers, Firethorn, Gooseberry, Gorse, Hawthorn, Holly, Motherwort, Prickly Lettuce, Sea Buckthorn, Spear Thistle, Stinging Nettle, Teasel, Viper's-Bugloss, Wild Rose, Yew