The last entry here refers to my Catholic/Buddhist/Pivotarian beliefs. I have rubbed elbows with a few wisdom traditions since my birth: from being baptized and raised Roman Catholic (post-Vatican II with guitar masses and a church drop-in center for long-haired hippie youth) in an Irish Catholic family, to the Village Zendo in NYC during grad school and all manner of astrological, tarot, and candle-lighting and chanting with new age people in between. Living in Kenya for nearly a decade and working with Mary Ann Burris and the non-profit she founded, TICAH (Trust for Indigenous Culture and Health),  I met and sometimes facilitated a digital presence for Asian and African elders from many traditions. An app called WeCroak, being married to a service-minded Episcopalian, visiting holy places when I travel, and sitting with Pacific Zen Institute keep my wisdom mind active. 

My intention as a book artist is to show a thought, usually attached to an emotion or a spiritual feeling; it’s simple but not easy. Several years ago I saw an image of the Hail Mary in komowejwi’kasikl (aka Mi’kmaq hieroglyphs) on Wikipedia. I saved the image in a folder I keep called “All the Unmade Books.” After a 24-year hiatus from creating art (~1994– 2018), it seems like a good idea not to spend too much time with blank page anxiety. Forever Now is the result of many months of thinking and tinkering.

I attempted to describe how the piece emerged after a conversation with Dr. Michelle Sylliboy, a multidisciplinary artist whose devotion to setting the record straight about “suckerfish script” struck a melancholic chord about not being acknowledged. In several interviews, Sylliboy quotes her elder, Lillian B. Marshall, about the origins of the language. I studied and read about suckerfish script and learned to draw a few words. 

I bid on a paper-making lesson with Michelle Wilson, “an interdisciplinary thinker, whose work involves papermaking, printmaking, book arts, textiles, installation, and social practice,” during an In Cahoots Residency fundraiser. Before we got started, Michell asked me what I was working on, and we talked about suckerfish writing. I was considering a Rosetta Stone-esque coffin-shaped book to express sadness about lost languages. Who wants to see the Hail Mary in Irish, Latin, and suckerfish writing? That book work did not materialize; I started to think about my core beliefs.

As I wrote to Dr. Sylliboy after a recent Zoom conversation, “The beauty of the komowejwi’kasikl first attracted my attention. When I started reading about the missionaries taking credit for it, my heart cracked. I started reading online and found this book at the UC Berkeley Library. I started copying some of the writing to learn a few words. Forever & Now are visually true to their meaning, and I felt a deep spiritual & philosophical link to the two together. The present is the only thing we have; when we fully accept and live it — we are then connected to the everlasting.”

Yesterday, the 54th annual exhibition of the Hand Bookbinders of California opened, and the catalogue description of Forever Now reads,

The Mi’kmaq hieroglyphic writing system, known as “suckerfish script” by the Mi’kmaq or L’nuk (formerly Micmac), developed before colonial contact. Some scholars claim that the beautiful hieroglyphs were a pictographic mnemonic device for learning prayers brought to the First Nations by missionaries. Contemporary interdisciplinary artist Dr. Michelle Sylliboy believes what her departed elder, Lillian B. Marshall, said: “’suckerfish script’ has always been with the Mi’kmaq people. bit.ly/BelieveMissLilly

Materials: charcoal & 4B pencil on handmade washi under the tutelage of Michelle Wilson, upcycled blue washi and contemporary Japanese stationery in origami shapes (one box, one scroll, and eleven 3-sided pyramids).

After the conversation with Dr. Michelle Sylliboy, I re-wrote the description.

The komowejwi’kasikl language of the Mi’kmaq Nation — known as “suckerfish writing” — arose before colonial contact. Some misinformed scholars claim that the beautiful hieroglyphs were a pictographic mnemonic device for learning prayers brought to the First Nations by missionaries. Contemporary interdisciplinary artist Dr. Michelle Sylliboy believes what her departed elder, Lillian B. Marshall, said: “‘suckerfish script’ has always been with the Mi’kmaq people.” bit.ly/BelieveMissLilly