On the autumn equinox of 2021, I woke from a dream where I was delivered a coffin with a Cambodian man named Georgie in it ~ dead, decaying, dark & disturbing. Georgie was one of the 1.5-2 million people who were massacred during the Khmer Rouge in 1975-1979.
The coffin sat in front of a fire as I wondered if it would be right for me to burn it.
I felt grief, honour and pain.
I received a vision of a painting I would do where Georgie was mirrored by his spirit.
Interestingly, and by no coincidence, I had visited the killing fields in 2017, quite unaware at the time of the intensity of this experience.
Before the dream, I’d been connecting with many butterflies, so I’d already started painting this butterfly. It made sense why after I had the dream, as I remembered being at the killing fields and there were hundreds of butterflies flying above the grassy mounds and ditches where the bodies were buried ~ it was said they were their spirits.
I painted with the prayer for healing and releasing of the pain that was endured and is still rippling out.
I also held the intention of honouring and connecting with the Cambodian people, the Buddhist culture and the beauty and continuity of the life ~ death ~ rebirth cycle ; one that we all go through, maybe many times in one lifetime and like the butterflies metamorphosis, we enter into the mystery of the unknown.