The Crow Girls

The group with whom I sometimes do collage swaps is currently doing a Halloween deck called "Mythical Metamorphosis". I wasn't going to do this one at first because a) I really didn't have any ideas for it and b) I (more importantly) had several quilt deadlines looming. Then a few days ago, Red put out a call for subs to fill in for a couple of people who had dropped out of the swap at the last minute. And since I'm at a creative standstill at the moment when it comes to quilts, I thought what the heck. Surely I can think of something to do that fits the theme. So after many long and sometimes frustrating hours playing with Photoshop, including one time when I was half done and managed to accidentally delete the whole project (***sigh***), here is what I finally came up with: "Crow Girls" 3" x 5" The Crow Girls are Corbae - Manitou (spirit beings) who can take on the form of either a crow or a dark-haired young woman in order to appear to and interact with humans. They show up in many of Charles deLint's wonderful stories. Here I was trying to show a glimpse of them in both forms on a cold northern Halloween night. For the specific imagery, I was inspired by the last stanza of a poem by Aine MacDermot.

The Crow Girls ever seen the Crow Girls, singing 'neath the moon of the sadness and the gladness that both fill their tune, piercing hearts that know the secrets of the Crow Girls' song knowing deep down inside it won't be long, won't be long