Ola Art Lovers!
Last June
my soccer devoted husband and I followed the Socceroos to Brazil for the World
Cup.
There spent 5 weeks travelling a country bigger than our Australian home and now I
think we have seen more of the Brazilian countryside than we have of Australia!
We spent
time in 8 of Brazils 27 states and along the way I fell in love with the art,
culture, people, rhythm and landscape. I have so many Brazilian tales to share with you but for now I will focus on the time we stayed in the city of Curitiba in
the state of Parana and took a wee boat to Ilha do Mel – Honey Island.
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| On the way to Ilha do Mel by boat |
We drove by
bus from the city of Curitiba which is over 900 meters above sea level down through the jungle land scape to the port. From here we then took a colourful wooden boat for 30 minutes to the island.
Honey Island is mostly an ecological reserve now, with over half of the island inaccessible to the public due to the presence of the endangered ecosystem of the Atlantic Forest that used to cover millions of square kilometres of Brazil but now around 5% of that forrest remains.
With no cars and a very laid back tropical surfers island
feel I was in hippy heaven!
We walked barefoot along white sandy paths under
jungle trees to the top of the lighthouse with breathtaking 360 degree views
of the island.
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| Our Puppy travel guide |
Cheeky
local dogs followed us on our trail and even showed us where to go when we got a bit lost!
I gathered feathers as we wondered and I
could feel the magik of the island in the air.
It was the Winter Solstice – the
longest night of the year, a really magikal time and here we were on this beautiful island!
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I loved the
local accommodation and cafes with fresh juices and great coffee and a very
chilled out artist from England, i think, who had come to live here and escape the world!
I really wanted to do just that too!
Fly away to this deserted island and learn to
surf and then paint and surf and get lost under the trees – magnificent!
It had such a relaxed, quiet, Zen atmosphere – it truly was chill out, hippie
heaven, so laid back, my heart was full of squee!!!
From there
we wandered through the island paths past quirky restaurants, cafes, accommodation and local housing. Beautiful tropical wild
life and a little blood red local bird called the Tanager.
We then took a little colourful wooden boat to the eastern rocky coast to find the Grutas das Encantadas - Enchanted Grotto where
Mermaids are said to live! The Encantadas Port welcomed us with colourful wooden cafes and bars along the waters edge - can we live here!!
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| Encantadas Port |
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| I found this pic of the Grotto from a brazilian travel site - what a view! |
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We wandered the wooden path to the entrance of the cave. We perched
on rocks and walked through the cave and I really could imagine mermaids
enjoying the sunshine here.
Within the cave up the back on the wall was
a shrine to Nossa Senhora Aparecida - Our Lady of Apericida.
She is like the Virgin Mary and is worshipped by Brazilian Catholics as the Patron of Brazil as well as mothers, children, beauty, honey and the ocean! I had found another altar to her in a cave by a beach in Rio earlier in our trip and here she was again surrounded by offerings and curios.
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| Nossa Senhora Aparecida |
I collected
drift wood sticks and flat wooden pieces from old boats and with my water
colour pencils I sat on a rock like a mermaid and drew an offering to the goddesses of the cave and left
it by the Mary statue. Being watercolour it's an ephemeral offering and
as the tides rise, she will wash away into the sea but isn’t that perfect for an offering to the mermaids!
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| Honey Island Mermaid offering |
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| Art Love Offerings |
Since being
home from Brasil the inspiration from our travels has continued to stir within
me, and inspired by the mermaids of the Enchanted Grotto I have painted her
again, this time in a more lasting acrylic on recycled wood.
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| Handmade Wonderland - What if I'm a Mermaid, 2014 |
I have also
been called to make a mermaid wand from a piece of gathered drift wood from the
Enchanted Grotto set with crystal quartz and shells.
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| Handmade Wonderland - Mermaid Magik |
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| Handmade Wonderland - Wand |
I have had
the wand ‘cooking’ on my main working altar at home for 3 full moons and on the last day
of the recent Leo Full Moon I took the wand to the beach to photograph.
The
energy of the wand really sung at the waters edge as the sunlight glinted off
the quartz point and the turquoise waves crashed behind it.
She carries
within her all the magik of the Enchanted Grotto of Honey Island and all the
beaches and oceans connected together around the world.
As the wand
rested on my local beach, I packed up my camera and carefully stowed the wand
in my bag. It wasn’t until after I had driven to a
local café and gone to take the wand out of my bag to rest in the sunshine that
I noticed she wasn’t in my bag anymore – oh my
goodness!! It must have fallen out!
I zoomed my
car with whispered beckoning’s of “please don’t be lost or taken, please be easily
found” and jumped out of my car and scrambled
along the road to check under other cars near where I had earlier parked – I
must have looked quite the frantic woman, I then marched down the sand to the
beach that was slowly filling up with people to enjoy the sun for the day and there standing straight up in
the air like a spear was the wand in the middle of the path – what the! It must
have leapt out of my bag and obviously needed some extra alone beach time! I
ran to it and yoinked it out of the ground with glee “Phew!!” I then carefully carried it back to
the car and laid it in the sun.
The wand
sold later that day, so I am pretty sure it was just getting the most out of its
beach adventure before it made its way to its new home!
I have also finished 2 more very different wands recently and there pictures will be up on the Facebook Page and Website Gallery Soon.
Brightest blessings
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