Vultures have so much symbolic meaning throughout all cultures, when they visit it fills my head with stories and reminders of passages I have read over the years.
“Vultures are the most righteous of birds: they do not attack even the smallest living creature.”
- Plutarch
Signs & Passages
22" X 28" acrylic on canvas 2024
“If my decomposing carcass helps nourish the roots of a juniper tree or the wings of a vulture—that is immortality enough for me. And as much as anyone deserves.”
―Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire

“Whoever seeks to keep his life shall lose it, and whoever loses his life shall preserve it.
I tell you, on that night there will be two men in one bed;
one will be taken, and the other will be left.
There will be two women grinding at the same place;
one will be taken, and the other will be left.
Two men will be in the field;
one will be taken and the other will be left.”
And answering they said to Him,
‘Where, Lord?’ And He said to them,
‘Where the body is, there also will the vultures be gathered.”
Vultures pick away at rot and death, and how can we not see that as a valuable service?
To me, they represent a fresh start, rebirth...out with the old, in with the new. When I painted "Signs & Passages" I'm certain there is a part of me that wants some of my own oldness picked off so new growth can flourish.
Below is the approximate 3 weeks of working on Signs & Passages condensed into 40 seconds
I used Liquetex basics acrylic paint on a Fredrix canvas
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