Artists statement for Phyllis: Croan Sibyl
The sibyls were prophetesses or oracles in Ancient Greece that go back to eleventh century BC:
“The Sibyl, with frenzied mouth uttering things not to be laughed at, unadorned and unperfumed, yet reaches to a thousand years with her voice by aid of the god.” (Heracilitus, fragment 92, ed. Charles H. Kahn, 1981, p. 125)
Croan: the collective wisdom of the tribe, family. The ancient cultures held her as their Wise Woman.
In reflection during the sitting, Phyllis inspired this title for me. She recalled a full rich life at almost 90 within a context of melancholy and wisdom accrued. She has become my muse.