Through image and ritual, we are ushered into a precious moment when we can simultaneously look back in grateful remembrance of our ancestors and look forward with a sense of our own future promise.

The importance of birds in the painting Ancestral Ascent and many other paintings symbolize our spirits taking flight, spiraling upward in an ascent toward the sun and light, toward freedom and liberation from suffering and fear. They accentuate our innate creativity in rising up to meet the challenges and course of our lives.