Between the Moon - 2. Storytelling through Ecological Illustrations with Seven Ravens Studio

Episode Date: May 17, 2022

On today's episode of Between The Moon, I have the pleasure of speaking with Meegan Painter from Seven Ravens Studio.Meegan is an artist and a seventh-generation Californian and somebody who I have known for many years. We spoke in the fall of 2021 after she had said yes to collaborating on the wall calendar that features her ecological mandalas. These mandalas depict webs of connection and relationships within ecologies.You will hear her deep love of these landscapes, plants, animals, and creatures that are all interconnected. Meegan's work has always been about storytelling and uncovering hidden connections.I hope that you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.To learn more visit https://themoonismycalendar.com/Connect with Meegan: https://www.sevenravensstudio.com/Follow Seven Ravens Studio: https://www.instagram.com/seven_ravens_studio/ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit themoonismycalendar.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome, dear listener, to Between the Moon, a podcast about self-study in relationship with cycles. I'm your host, April McMurtry, founder of the Moon is my calendar. On today's episode of Between the Moon, I have the pleasure of speaking with Megan Painter from Seven Ravens Studio. Megan is an artist and a seventh generation Californian and somebody who I have known for many years. We spoke in the fall of 2021 after she had said yes to collaborating on the wall calendar that features her ecological mandala's. These mandala depict webs of connection and relationships within ecologies. and you will hear her deep love of these landscapes, plants, animals, and creatures that are all interconnected. Megan's work has always been about storytelling and uncovering hidden connections.

I hope that you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. And so I just wanted to start, Megan, by asking you the two questions that I I like to, that help me to orient myself, which are, where is the moon right now, where in the cycle or however you want to answer that or address that and that relationship of where are you right now in any of the cycles of where you are physically or emotionally or creatively. Awesome. Thank you.

And thanks for having me. It's really good to talk with you today. So I am currently in the unseated territory of the Mutzin and Shalom peoples. So I'm in what we commonly know as Central California, about 60 miles from the coast, between the Gabblin and Diablo ranges. So sort of the outer coast ranges. The moon is between, let's see, it's not quite full. It's a few days from full, and I'm definitely noticing the brightness at night where I live is really dark at night. There's not a lot of light pollution. And so I have a very good sense of where the moon is because of the light at

night, which is really delightful. Thank you for sharing that. I love just even feeling that ecologically where you are finding finding yourself. So I'd love to hear and just to share your, where the inspiration came from, probably many sources, but to really for creating a visual way of

conceptualizing ecological webs. Maybe I didn't give you a proper introduction about your background and where these like, where are these you know, the streams of your work are flowing from. Maybe you can give that to us as well of painting for us. Yeah, sure. Yeah, my background is, I have a background in fine art.

I've been drawing since I can remember. And always the place I started was with, you know, drawing animals, which I think is really common. but I think for me especially it was like really formative in my in my life in lots of ways. And so yeah, so I definitely have a formal training in art. I have lots of informal training and art, but also I've always had an interest in sort of the natural world and science and understanding the world around me. And so that all sort of plays into, you know, it's sort of coalesced into my work as it is now.

And in terms of my first inspiration for these particular pieces, I think where it is most clear that it started is I probably like six or seven years ago, I bought like an adult coloring book. and it was like nature mandalis and i was like oh this would be really cool you know it's just fun for me as an artist to just like have no pressure and i could just color and so um as i started like as i flipped it through you know flipping through it and looking at the imagery i realized that like none of the creatures were connected to each other at all it was like zebras and hybiscous and like just random things that I was like, wait, I don't understand. I mean, you know, I can understand

the appeal of wanting to draw like color a zebra or a giraffe or a hybrose or whatever. But I, I just thought like, these things have no relation to each other at all. And so I, I just thought, like, well, I could do something. I could do something around that. And so that's sort of where I I started. It was like, I can do better than that. And at the time, I was sort of learning a lot about the relationship between like moths and butterflies and the plants that they rely on, which, you know, I think a lot of people are familiar with the relationship between monarchs and milkweed. So, but that, you know, there's all kinds of relationships like that. And so I was learning about that. And so that's sort of where I started was exploring those relationships. And then it

sort of evolved from there. You know, I first thought, first thought about them as sort of food webs. So things that were related as sort of a, um, and some sort of food exchange. But as I learned more about even something like, you know, acorn woodpeckers, right? They eat oak, you know, they eat acorns, they live in oak trees, but they also plant oak trees, right? Like, they are also responsible for regeneration of oak forests, you know, not exclusively, but, but they're part of that. And so I started thinking about like, well, you know, these relationships can be much more complex and it's not always one way, right? It's a, you know, we think about food chains and it's really more complex than that. And so, so yeah, that was sort of how they've evolved,

is thinking more broadly about how things fit into a community of life or a community of organisms that, yeah, that's all connected. As you're saying that, I'm like, humans have so much to learn about this. Yes. There has been a forgetting and a repair. And I just see in your work that the stirrings of that kind of repair of, yes, like zebras and hibiscus are connected in the realm of like, we're on this planet together. Yeah.

But the way that we, you know, who's relying on who for, like you said, a very complex. It's not just the predator prey kind of. Right. We're also talking about the difference between linear and. circular or even more complex than that interwoven. Not one direction. Right. I'm wondering just if you were able, we can take one of them, which is on the cover,

a detail, some detail on the New Moon calendar and journal on the wall calendar of the wet mountain meadow. If you're willing to describe some of this community of plants and animals, and who you chose to include in that and your relationship with that, with that community. Yeah. So that piece is inspired by sort of broadly the, let's see. So there are sort of wet places in the dry forest of the Sierra and the cascades. This is primarily in California. This is the place that I know best.

And, you know, so these are sort of generally dry forests, particularly dry right now, but in general, they're sort of dry forest. But they all have these sort of wet places that are fed by springs or by streams or by other sort of water movement or presence of water. And so I, so, and this is actually inspired by a very specific place. because in the summertime, I go up to the mountains and participate in butterfly surveys. And so part of that is going to different habitats in a particular area and looking for different butterflies. And so this is based on this little kind of oasis of wetness in the forest, in the Plumas National Forest in northern California. and kind of right where the cascades and the Sierra meet. And it's, you know, a pretty dry mixed hardwood forest.

So mostly pines, various kinds of pines and then other hardwood trees. And then you kind of walk into this place that there's some, there's like a spring or something kind of upslip a little ways. And there's a lot of water. And the plant community is totally. totally different. So starting at the top of that web, there are shooting stars, which is a kind of spring emerging flowering plant, an annual plant, and it has a sort of beautiful inside out, bright pink flowers, and they really love wet places, right? Like that is where you find that is on wet,

in wet places. And right under that is the Sierra Nevada blue. butterfly, which is a sort of small blue butterfly that lays its eggs, the females lay their eggs on shooting stars. So they, that plant is a host plant for the caterpillars of the Sierra Nevada Blue. So when we're looking for scare Nevada Blues, this is where we go. Because we know that the host plant is there. We don't always see the butterflies. But if the host plant is there, we have a good sense. Like, oh, yeah, there's probably, they'll probably be here. Hopefully our timing is right to see adults. And another plant that I love that is also sort of like sort of wet and shady places are the leopard lilies. And these are, you know, shooting stars are pretty short.

They're pretty small plants. Like maybe they stand 12 inches off the ground. But a leopard lily can be like six feet tall, you know, depending on the situation. And so that's the kind of yellow and orange lily plant. know, very recognizable as a lily. And I just adore those. They're just spectacular and they are often blooming sort of, they're in their early blooming as the shootings are just sort of fading. Let's see. And then there's also, and so kind of right next to that is the, well, yeah, and then there's a bumblebee. And there's lots of, you know, there's tons of bees with,

hundreds and hundreds of species of bees in California. This one is not necessarily limited to this place, but it is a common bumblebee up there in the mountains, and it is pollinates all kinds of things, including the lilies. And yeah, I just love being able to include a bee, especially a big fuzzy one like this one. And then there are sort of three, creatures that are both predators and prey, right, in the system. So tree swallows, which sort of live in the, you know, they nest in cavities in trees. They need trees that have, you know, are either dead and have holes in them or have, you know, another creature has created a hole or some other process in the tree has created a hole for them to nest in. And they eat insects primarily while they're flying. So they'll eat, you know, mosquito. and flies and whatever else they can, they catch. And they're really active in the summertime. Of course, when there's an abundance of insects.

And of course, you know, they eat lots of insects, but they also can be prey for, you know, for raptors and for other creatures. You know, the snakes will eat their eggs and that kind of thing. Or other creatures that can get into their cavities, their nest cavities. And then this year, Nevada, coarse frog, which is also one of my favorite creatures. Widespread in California, we have them here, you know, near the coast.

They're up in the mountains. They're sort of all over the place. But, of course, they rely on wet places. You know, and this meadow is not, there's not a lot of standing water, but there's enough, right, for a frog to lay eggs and survive in it. And, you know, they are eating insects, of course, but also can be eaten by the garter snakes. So that's the middle creatures are the mountain garter snakes. So those are limited to the mountains. And yeah, so that's the whole piece.

And so there's sort of lots of multi-dimensional or multidirectional relationships here. Of course, I had to leave out, you know. Who do you see that? Yeah. Well, yeah. So another big, you know, kind of really, um, a characteristic plant of this place and specifically is, um, I forget what they're called. They're, um, I think we call them sundew.

It's a, they're like a, um, a carnivorous plant native to California grows in these wet places. incredible, just a really incredible, and, you know, very small, very nondescript. Like, if you didn't know that it was there, you might not even see it. But yeah, just a really neat plant. And then there's things like corn lilies, which are also very, very much dependent on wet places, and they're everywhere in these wet meadows. But also a really beautiful plant. So, you know, I always have to sort of make editorial choices that I'm always like, well, I can do another one with other creatures, right? The list just goes on and on. So, yeah.

That's so beautiful. I'm just thinking and feeling of that oasis of wetness and how, yeah, that who lives there and the dryness that's being experienced right now, especially. You said the laying eggs on shooting stars. And I think taken out of context, that's just that is like so, so poetic in and of itself. So it is. Yeah. Thank you for for weaving that with words that,

that interconnection of their relationships. And so I'm wondering too now that we, you have many, I don't know how many at this point, but a number, right? There's a starting place of creating the webs and then now exponentially, and at each web, there's other webs that can come from those webs. Yeah. And connecting those with a lunar cycle. So pairing them with a time of year or lunar cycle.

I wonder what that process was like for you and seeing that connection. Yeah. Yeah, I was thinking a lot about, you know, when I was sort of thinking, through that, I was thinking about kind of the seasons and, you know, what maybe is going on in that, in that time or in that cycle that might be related to, you know, like when those relationships might be most apparent. So, for example, the slugs. So banana slugs, you know, are tied to Redwood Forest. And, you know, in my experience, the time that you see them, are most likely to see a banana slug out in the, you know, outside of its sort of shelter is when it's really wet. And in the redwood forest, the Sanctuary mountains, that's generally, the wettest time of

year is generally January, February. And so that's sort of why I paired it, you know, in that, in that time, because it was like, well, this to me is like when this might be the most, you know, you're most likely to witness this, or at least part of it, because the azalea blooms a little bit later. But, you know, but certainly they're all sort of in that place. And then, you know, thinking about also less so like the nut hatch piece, which is centered around the Jeffrey Pine and inspired by the, there's like pure stands of Jeffrey Pine on the east side of the Sierra in the Mono Lake Basin,

which is sort of unusual. Usually, Jeffrey Pines are sort of mixed in with other trees, other pine trees and other sorts of trees. But on that east side, there's these pure stands. And so, you know, the August, September cycle is kind of the traditional harvest time for pine nuts, which is a hugely important source of food, right? For all kinds of creatures, humans included still. And so I think, you know, that's part of that too, is thinking about like, you know, what, what part of the cycle is sort of featured. And then that piece, the pine cone with the with the nuts is right in the middle. So, yeah. And so I tried to sort of pair, yeah, just pair things in that way thinking about when relationships are sort of maybe most obvious or. are most salient.

Yeah. And interesting, too, to think about those relationships as having their own phases of when just sprouting or just blooming or like with the pine that there's the time of the harvest. I love this conversation and thinking in this way, you know, as flowers are timekeepers. Like all in the way that all of all things that go. through cycles are keeping some kind of time. Is there, you know, even this idea of like ecological time or time that that moves in different cycles that's not based just on a year?

Like we have a lunar cycle and we have the day and night cycle. But I'm wondering if there's any other just thoughts because I love talking about time. And all of these relationships, is there other thoughts that you have about that? this kind of tuning in and connecting in and for, you know, kind of, yeah, inspiring any thoughts about connecting with ecological time and these other cycles that are happening that really do take a kind of awareness to be paying attention to. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, one of the pieces that is in the calendar is the PICA's and the bristle columns, the Crystalcomb pines are the oldest living creatures that we are aware of. And they live at high elevation. They're, you know, they're pine tree that lives only in high elevation places. So, you know, in California, that's in the White Mountains. They live out in Nevada. And there's also another subspecies that lives in like Utah and maybe in Colorado. though. But, you know, we're talking like eight or nine thousand feet elevation or higher. And so

when I go to visit those trees, and I do feel like that is what I'm doing is I'm going to visit them. You know, I'm doing other things while I'm there, but that's why I'm there. And that is such a reminder to me about long time. Right. And for me, like, of course, course, I think, you know, some folks think in geologic time, which is much longer, of course, than human time. But I have a harder time sort of relating to that, I think. But with the pine trees, I think because they're living creatures and they have, you know, they have ecological relationships. They have a place in the ecosystem. There's all kinds of other creatures that share that place with them that also are dependent on high elevation, right?

the picas are that's why they're included they can they also can only live at high elevation um but yeah there i love those trees because they're just they just remind me of like my experience is so limited it's so short on the on a different time scale and so it reminds me to be humble and also to not worry so much because it's like you know these trees were here long before anyone I can even imagine and they will be here, I hope they will be here long after we're gone. And so, yeah. And you know, and the living trees are, you know, four thousand some years old, something like that. But the lineage of those trees goes back much farther. And, And so that's, that's just really, for me, it's a good reminder.

Perspective. Yeah, it just gave me goosebumps. Like, wow, what would it be like to live for 4,000? Oh, my goodness. Yeah. And as you were saying that, too, I was thinking about just even the observation of the moon and this connection to the moon. And because I think my work isn't that.

involved with the science of how old is the moon? What is the moon like the material of the moon made of and dating that and stuff like old, really, really old. Yeah. And, you know, possibly made of part of the earth, an extension of the earth. That's the theory that I kind of play with or go with in thinking of a part of the self, orbiting the self, observing the earth of the self. and reflecting back. But just how old the moon is when we're looking at the same moon, the same material that's been orbiting, like, how long? Yeah, right.

Or like the geological time of it. Yeah. We're looking at time. We're looking at the movement of time through light. And I was about to say light and shadow, But this is my little, like probably maybe 15 years ago, I used to maybe think that the dark part of the moon was shadow. Like there was, that it was, there was no light because there was shadow there. Mm-hmm.

Until I realized that it's like the void. It's the space, it's outer space reflected back. Mm-hmm. angle that's turned towards like the great mystery that that's the part that's not visible. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And that's how those other time scales work, right?

That there's so much that's just not visible or that we can't perceive for various reasons, right? I mean, I think I've been thinking a lot of course. I think as many folks are about fire. and about the role of fire in our ecosystems and why things are the way they are right now and why, you know, and there's lots of reasons there. But one thing that I think is really interesting to me is to think about the timescale of the plants that rely on fire and how we've sort of, not sort of, we have absolutely intervened in that and still

there is still a sort of cycle that exists whether we have interrupted it or not when fire comes that cycle resumes

I mean not always right depending on the conditions but it can and so it's been very reassuring to me to see some the places that I love dearly that have been very seriously impacted by fire in recent years. I mean, continue to be, are currently being impacted by fire, to know that there is a cycle there that I have not been able to witness because of, you know, fire suppression and all kinds of

things. And that maybe it's important to witness it and to remember that it's there. and that it is a cycle, even if we've messed with it. Yeah. Yeah, or haven't allowed that kind of the, the, the tending of nature, the tending to nature that native people and communities know how to do and have known how to do and continue to know how to do. Yes.

That is that, the fire alarm going off. It's like there's a knowing. There's a knowing that has been suppressed. Yeah. And also a knowing in nature that that does know how to regenerate and come back to life and its cycle. It's just pretty extreme at this. Yeah. Right. And of course it's impacted and there's all kinds of things that have interrupted and will continue to interrupt that cycle, right? And like invasive grass and, you know, coming back into burnt scars and all coming. I mean, that it just goes on and on and on. And it's true that the cycle is there and it is possible for things to shift and to restart. So I have to, I personally have to hold on to that as I witness the change that's happening.

I'm wondering and just as to think witness that the role of, an artist, an illustrator, as being a witness. And witness and kind of what came to me earlier too was the stillness of, you know, and just picturing these, the mandalayas and picturing that those relationships and connection, that how much stillness also went into the object. observation and the creation. So anything you'd like to share just about your process in that way? Oh, sure. Yeah. I mean, I do, you know, I do spend a fair bit of time, like, out just sort of observing and trying to pay attention to what's happening. Sometimes I have lots of time, right?

Sometimes I'm, you know, when we're doing butterfly surveys, like, we have a lot of work to do. It is a long day and we have and sometimes a lot of ground to cover and not very much time and so um and so sometimes it's just sort of a sort of notation right in my mind of like i'm going to have to come back to this and and learn more um so i do try to experience as much as possible myself um you know in in person and that's not always possible um there's processes i can't You know, I just can't be a part of or there's limitations or whatever. And so I do, I do spend a lot of time also reading. And so there's a lot of sort of, yeah, a lot of research, you know, a lot of reading,

a lot of kind of trying to wrap my mind around how are these things connected and how does the system work and what else is going on that I haven't quite figured out yet? no one has figured out and, you know, and that kind of thing. And so I do spend a lot of time sort of processing through information that, you know, as much informational as is available and it's never going to be done. I never feel like, okay, I totally understand this situation here. I'm like, no, people spend their whole lives studying wet meadows in the Sierra's. But I try to, you know, sort of be as comprehensive as I can, you know, as I'm sort of putting things together. And then, yeah, I'm really thinking about what creatures maybe are, you know, familiar to folks or there's some, or there's some other sort, you know, they're charismatic or they're well known.

or if there's something that's really particular about their needs that is tied to the place that they live. Right. And a lot of my work features kind of threaten and endangered species, right? So and not just ones that are in dire straits right now, but like sea otters, right? Their population is doing great. And they've been a big part of, you know, they're a great kind of. ambassador for endangered species work. But that doesn't mean that there's not still work to be done because they're part of a system. So it's not just about a single organism.

It's also about sort of what does that creature need to thrive. Yeah. Yeah. Just keep thinking of the human place in this. The human creature need to thrive. drive and what is that and how really this kind of repair and reconnection can can happen. And I think, I mean, I see your work too is very educational in bringing awareness and bringing just like the visual of interconnection.

Yeah. Yeah. I thought, you know, of you and your work the other day when I was doing some homework with my youngest child and they're having to decide which things are living or non-living And I was like, everything is a, we're here and we're all living. We're all a part of life. And she's like, mom, I know that. But for the science test, I had to say that rocks were non-living.

I know they're alive. Okay. I'm like, I just want to be sure. Right. What does living mean? Right? I struggle with the words all the time. Hmm.

You know, yeah. Yeah. There are our concept of what and what the value is in living things versus non-living things. You know, there's value associated with that. That's why it matters. And so, yeah, it's an ongoing sort of process to unlearn some of that and learn, re-learn other ways of understanding the way, the world and the way that it works. Yeah.

Yeah. Because apparently the moon is non-living. And I'm like, what would life be? What would life look like without the moon on this earth? It would not. No. The oceans would not function the way that they do. No.

So again, I know my work is not scientific. But it does, yeah, just kind of questioning those, those, that the paradigm that's in. Well, I know that you have used and worked with the new moon calendar and journal in your own personal practice. And I just wanted to weave in anything that, that how, you know, any of your understandings that have shifted over time in what you've discovered or any ahas in working with the moon and that kind of self-study with cycles. Yeah, I think one of the things that really stands out to me is that I've sort of noticed more of the nuances of my own. cycles, right? Like how I move through my emotional life, you know, and I think especially paying attention to how things ebb and flow and how sometimes the best thing I can do is to sit back and just let the process unfold. And I don't have to take any action. I can just let it pass.

you know, I think that's an ongoing process of learning for me. But I think, yeah, just being able to record that in the cycle. And I do, you know, I love the sort of setting intentions at the beginning and then the reflection at the end because that really gives me an opportunity to look back and to reinforce that lesson over again every cycle sometimes. Right? That like, wow, when I don't get enough sleep, I'm really grouchy. Or if I didn't, you know, get enough, like activity, I didn't move my body enough. I didn't feel good. Or I didn't drink enough water or whatever, you know. And so really paying attention to that and sort of giving those bookends can be really insightful. And often I sort of then weave that into the next cycle. Like, okay, well, I did this last cycle. And now I want to sort of expand on that or shift it to this next piece of this process that I'm in or whatever. So yeah, it's really a neat way to reflect and sort of record that so that I continue to learn those lessons. Yeah.

And that, you know, really the only thing I can count on is. that things will change and that, you know, that nothing is really constant. Everything is shifting. And that's, yeah, really, it's just really a great reminder. Yeah. I think that's a wonderful stopping place because that that reminder really is that, that the thread of noticing each cycle that there may be. similar themes or, you know, an evolution of, or a progression or just a, um, what's next in a

development of an intention or personal practice or whatever it might be. Um, and that even the cycles kind of contained within a circle, the starting point and the ending point are not. Right. It's not the same. Yeah. There's always that shifting. Well, thank you, Megan. Thank you for all that you're just in sharing and bringing this work and connecting it in with the moon calendar. It's probably been somewhere as a seed germinating, probably since I saw your first mandala. It was like, this, this makes sense. This is like everything and without even words.

So I'm so grateful and so delighted to to feature your work in this in this year's Wall Calendar. Thank you. I am also excited. I mean, I think maybe for me also there was like, wait, these two things totally go together. And so, yeah, I'm just thrilled that we're getting to collaborate this cycle. And yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

Yeah, me too. And I will put links, but if anyone wants to find you in your work, it lives at Seven Ravens. We're all Seven Ravens Studio. Seven Ravens Studio.com and on Instagram and all the places and your work is available in prints and on stickers and on all kinds of beautiful things. I know I have a card set that I send to special people in my life. And yeah, it's a beautiful way to support your work as well. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for being here.

Your presence is a gift. If you like this podcast, please subscribe, leave a review, share it with a friend, all the things to help it reach more people who will benefit in some meaningful way. I'm April, and I'll be with you next time on Between the Moon. Thank you.