In a search to connect with my celtic roots I have been doing some research. The music dancing and folklore have been passed down through my family and on the newfie side remain a strong cultural influence and the newfs culture has changed very little since coming to Canada. Dialects, cooking, superstitions and attitudes are most the same as they were a few hundred years although with TV and Internet hitting the rock and newfies being forced onto the mainland to work there is a fear we are losing some of our traditions. dialects are thinning and I have to confess my kids do not have a trace of the newfie dialects at all.

In an attempt to help preserve our heritage we are grasping onto the things that made us uniqly who we are. A revival of musical styles and dance has been aggressive, even on the mainland. I noticed however the art thread is thinning. I want to bring that back, but I also want to understand where it came from in the first place, which takes us overseas and back in time, so i can see what and how it was incorporated with some understanding. The goal is to eventually be able to produce original but culturally accurate artwork and maybe keep another piece or two of our artistic heritage from becoming extinct.

While I am getting a better understanding of my grandparents (like why they have beliefs in the fairy people) it's also very frustrating. History has lost much understanding of the ancient roots. Sources can not agree on a lot of symbols, and alphabets and argue on which are authentic and which were added later and when or why. It looks like it will be a long but interesting road.

This morning my six year old daughter whose birthday is today and who often mimics my art and watches how I create like a hawk brought me a picture and said "I made a sun disk mommy" it looked a lot like the ones I have been working on. It made me smile. A small piece of history has just reached the artistic hands of the next generation.