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“Lunar Rainbow at Yosemite Falls” and “Turnings”

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By Sister Celeste Marie Nuttman


Lunar Rainbow at Yosemite Falls

even in the dark night
Spring falls
amid the granite cliffs
the moon rises
and in the deafening
thunders
a rainbow


Turnings

Turnings can make
me dizzy
loose my footing
churn my stomach
feel link fear

then I recall
the dervish
dance
and its End
and my heart
centers

still
in the spin





*Sister Celeste on her process:

I thought these images might speak to our COVID experience.

The O Abyss is colored pencil on paper. (“O fertile Abyss … come and deliver us of our fear of chaos and emptiness. O black hole of dieing borning universe pull us into yourself.”)

The Dark Night is wax crayon resist with transparent watercolor on paper.

Lunar Rainbow at Yosemite Falls is watercolor (Falls), photo (Rainbow) and photoshop (making the rainbow overlay and the dark night using a gradient) so “mixed media.”

The Lunar Rainbow happens only once a year, if that often, and depends on an unclouded sky in May and a full moon and full flow of Yosemite falls (so a non-drought year!). It is a mystical experience to be there with the huge roar of the falls, the mist, the darkness and then the appearance of the silver-toned rainbow!!!  WOW!