Lost Dreams

The wide rectangle composite image has a golden background with a horizon of trees in silhouette and wispy clouds above. In the upper central area are three images connected by small shen symbols of eternity. The same fallen fledgling, laying as if in a stance of strength, are featured in the two images on the left. Each of the bird images is treated differently, the left in a harsh monochrome light, the center in a softer texture and a golden overlay of light. To the right in a deep umber to golden hue across, is a bas relief of Horus in bird form with wings spread to the right, where the source of light arises.

Dynamism Lost and Restored with Horus

Arising along the path...

Does photographing the dead baby bird for art’s sake give meaning to a life cut so short, or does the photographic act matter at all?

Those philosophical concerns bear no weight in comparison to the tenderness of those moments — to the messages contained in that interplay of a life scrutinizing a death. Photographs of those ruined birds and eggs found artistic resolution in painterly retouching and compositing. In combining the birds with skies, Egyptian symbols and archetypes, ultimately these pictures became painterly images of transcendence.

The Lost Dreams series is digital in origin and takes form as archival pigment prints on textured archival paper. The photo origins and cameras used reveal artistic process in the significance of travel and creativity beyond studio walls, the immediacy of perception, and how exploring various surroundings resonate with artistic themes in play. Also, that as a mixed-media artist, whatever camera is present becomes the artist’s tool.

I never sought out dead birds to photograph; whatever appears here emerged upon the path, caught my sight, and lingered in my mind. The subject matter is dark, usually we avert our eyes to such things, but who can say why inspiration calls the mind toward one subject or another, or why the subject itself may beckon attention and regard. In working the creative process the time simply arrived to ponder the questions the birds posed… to think about my own lost dreams in life, and to make art out of imagery presented and personal reflection, and no doubt more.

K. M. Ehrenfeldt 3/13/2013

Composite painting presents a hawk form of Horus bas relief, in lime-green hues, in the upper left quadrant of the cloudy blue and white sky background. The Horus image rests at the upper edge of an image of a redwing blackbird laying on a lawn. The meeting edge is a soft transition with overlaying symbols of transformation and renewal overlapping both images.

Transcendence (Horus)

This rectangular composite painting features a violet-hued square image of an Horus bas relief. In the relief, Horus bears a disc on his head and within it is the life cycle of a bird: egg, adult, and deceased. This violet image rests upon a radiant sunset background in golds at the base to pale violet at the top. Superimposed is an egg shape at each side of the square, pointing outward, and at the very corners of the background are sustaining symbols of the solar rays and djed pillars.

Carrying a Life

This wide composite painting features seven bas relief images of Horuses in bird form, spaced equidistant apart in the upper half of the background. Each is a different hue, from left to right: carmine rose, warm brown, grass green, silver, turquoise, gold, and violet. The background is a sky blue at the bottom transitioning to light blue gray at the top. Wispy long thin clouds traverse along the bottom half, with a more vibrant colorful area of a natural cloud-bow on the left cloud. Sacred Egyptian symbols subtly appear in various places behind and between the Horus images, the most obvious is a solar ray with rays touching the cloud-bow and solar disc touching the bottom corners of the two Horuses on the left.

Coming Forth by the Light

This composite features a background of white clouds densely covering a blue sky at the top, transitioning to a solid cloud cover at the bottom. Rising up like a pillar on the right side is a three image stack with a square harshly contrasted ,smashed robin's egg at the base, the same image soften above, and a sky blue hued bas relief of the Goddess Hathor's face topping the pillar. At the seam of the two egg images there is a softened area on the right side with an life giving ankh symbol spanning both sides. The seam to Hathor above is blended to allow the sky blue hue to overlay the egg image, with another ankh on the left spanning the two sides.

Home — Seeing Farther with Hathor

The tall composite rectangle shaped painting begins with a background of cypress treetops at the base and cloudy blue sky rising upward into a transition to foggy white at the top. On this cloudy sky is a photo of a smashed robin's egg onto cement at the top, and space beneath. Below is a joined set of two images, the top is a version of the same smashed egg image that has been altered to resemble a starry burst of energy in the night sky. Just below is an image of the Goddess Nut facing the earth below. Her thoughts are toward Earth, the Moon is at her lips, and the Sun streams rays of light to earth from her hips. At the meeting edge of the night sky image above, where her back touches, is a soft transition with an overlaying Scarab symbol of transformation and renewal overlapping both images.

Potentiality Restored with the Goddess Nut

This nearly square composite painting has a warm, subtle sky background of soft fog at the bottom transitioning to a pale orange-violet at the top with a few puffs of radiant coral clouds visible in the upper left quadrant. In the lower left area of the painting is an image of a skeletal fallen fledgling, beige to burnt umber coloration, in harsh light, it resembles a carving. A square portion of this same image is repeated in the center right area, joined with a square image of a bas relief featuring Anubis as a dog-headed priest holding a disc in his hands. Powdery blue dusted areas of the Anubis image bleed into the fallen fledgling image beneath, coloring it in a sky blue wash. The seam between the two images is softened where Anubis stands, and to the right overlapping both sides is a wedjat-eye.

Anubis Carrying the Ancestors’ Dream

The tall composite rectangle shaped painting begins with a background of a foggy hilltop ridge at the base and cloudy bands of violet-pink, coral and blue sky rising upward at an angle to the top. At the ridge line on the lower right side of the background is an image of a fallen-flattened fledgling, laying as if in a defiant stance, in monochrome grays and isolated, alone. High above on the rosy-blue sky is a joined set of two images, the top is a deep rosy-hued bas relief of the Goddess Isis with hands raised in healing position. Just below is the same image of the fallen fledgling, softened with a rose pink overlay. At the meeting edge with the image above is a soft transition with an overlaying Tjet symbol of strength and healing overlapping both images.

Seeking Out the Wings of Isis

Two photographs appear centered on a white background, level horizontally, with white space between them. The left depicts a fallen flattened nestling that lay on an asphalt background that is half gray and half charcoal. The right image pairs a softer violet hued version of the same image on the left side with a violet-hued bas relief of the bird-headed Sokar on the right side. Symbols of renewal and transformation overlap the seam of the two images.

Sokar Knows of Impossible Choices and the Cost of a Dream

The square composite image has a warm background with a hilltop horizon and streaks of gray clouds. Radiating upward and outward from the bright area of the Sun setting behind the hill at the lower right, the blue sky behind the clouds is slightly visible to the upper left side of the background. In the central left area is a dark image of a speckled cream-colored fledgling. Though a fallen-flattened fledgling, it's poised as if in a dance or about to take flight. To the right, touching the tip of the hilltop, the same fledgling image with a softer appearance and a golden overlay of light is poised on tip toes. Above it, in a deep golden hue, is a bas relief of a Pharoah gently cradling a small bird. These two images are connected by a solar ray symbol of light.

Presence and Difference

Three images of the same fallen fledgling, laying as if in a stance of strength, are positioned equidistant apart on a background of sky blue that transitions gradually to a light blue-gray at the top. Each of the bird images is treated differently, the left in a harsh sepia light, the center in a soft deeper blue effect, the right in a soft sienna brown effect. Illustrating the different view of the same subject one obtains during introspection.

The Wall and the Mist of Introspection

Top of Page