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| Wolf Pattern 1 by Amy E. Fraser |
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| Wolf Pattern 3 by Amy E. Fraser |
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| Wolf Pattern 4 by Amy E. Fraser |
Wolf Patterns by Amy E. Fraser (1997) are expressive, colorful, hand crafted, one of a kind, pen and ink pattern designs featuring wolves. The Wolf Pattern series was developed through the process of old school xerography. The final Wolf Pattern designs were completed with pen and ink, markers, paint markers and colored pencil in 1997 and then digitally updated in 2019 for your Print on Demand pleasure. All images copyright Amy E. Fraser. All rights reserved. More designs from the Wolf Pattern series by Amy E. Fraser are available at Aefraser.com.
Xerography, Xerox Art or Copy
Art, is the time consuming, often tedious process where the artist is required
to take numerous trips back and forth to the corner copy shop, drawing,
cutting, layering, and repeating, until the pattern’s completion. Most people, (even
smart young ladies who went to super fancy art schools) did not have regular
access to computers, and quite frankly, wouldn’t have known what to do with a
computer if they did. Back in 1997, there was no miraculous make pattern button
available to the masses.
In Folklore, Religion and Mythology “the wolf is a common motif in the foundational mythologies and cosmologies of peoples throughout Eurasia and North America (corresponding to the historical extent of the habitat of the gray wolf). The obvious attribute of the wolf is its nature of a predator, and correspondingly it is strongly associated with danger and destruction, making it the symbol of the warrior on one hand, and that of the devil on the other. The modern trope of the Big Bad Wolf is a development of this. The wolf holds great importance in the cultures and religions of the nomadic peoples, both of the Eurasian steppe and North American Plains.
Wolves were sometimes associated with witchcraft in both northern European and some Native American cultures: in Norse folklore, the völva (witch) Hyndla and the giantess Hyrrokin are both portrayed as using wolves as mounts, while in Navajo culture, wolves were feared as witches in wolf's clothing. Similarly, the Tsilhqot'in believed that contact with wolves could cause mental illness and death.” - Wikipedia As a symbol for Heraldry “The wolf has been widely used in many forms in heraldry during the Middle Ages. Though commonly reviled as a livestock predator and man-eater, the wolf was also considered a noble and courageous animal, and frequently appeared on the Arms and crests of numerous noble families. It typically symbolized the rewards of perseverance in long sieges or hard industry.” - Wikipedia
The Wolf Pattern series was part of Amy E. Fraser’s senior thesis project at Parsons School of Design where she explored Pagan, Feminist, Humanist and Womanist symbolism in her art. The wolf theme was heavily inspired by the book “Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype” written by Clarissa Pinkola Estés Ph.D.
Here are some insightful and inspiring words of wolf wisdom from Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés:
“The wild nature has a vast integrity to it. It means to establish one's territory, to find one's pack, to be in one's body with certainty and pride regardless of the body's gifts and limitations, to speak and act in one's own behalf, to be aware, alert, to draw on the innate feminine powers of intuition and sensing, to come into one's cycles, to find what one belongs to, to rise with dignity, to retain as much consciousness as possible.” ― Clarissa Pinkola Estés
“Wolves and women are relational by nature, inquiring, possessed of great endurance and strength. They are deeply intuitive, intensely concerned with their young, their mate, and their pack. They are experienced in adapting to constantly changing circumstances; they are fiercely stalwart and very brave.” ― Clarissa Pinkola Estés
“We know the soul-spirit can be injured, even maimed, but it is very nearly impossible to kill. You can dent the soul and bend it. You can hurt it and scar it. You can leave the marks of illness upon it, and scorch marks of fear. But it does not die, for it protected by La Loba...” ― Clarissa Pinkola Estés
“What does this wildish intuition do for women? Like the wolf, intuition has claws that pry things open and pin things down, it has eyes that can through the shields of persona, it has ears that hear beyond the range of mundane human hearing. With these formidable psychic tools a woman takes on a shrewd and even precognitive animal consciousness, one that deepens her femininity and sharpens her ability to move confidently in the outer world.” ― Clarissa Pinkola Estés
“Though fairy tales end after ten pages, our lives do not. We are multi-volume sets. In our lives, even though one episode amounts to a crash and burn, there is always another episode awaiting us and then another. There are always more opportunities to get it right, to fashion our lives in the ways we deserve to have them. Don't waste your time hating a failure. Failure is a greater teacher than success.” ― Clarissa Pinkola Estés
“Though her soul requires seeing, the culture around her requires sightlessness. Though her soul wishes to speak its truth, she is pressured to be silent.” ― Clarissa Pinkola Estés
“Practice listening to your
intuition, your inner voice; ask questions; be curious; see what you see; hear
what you hear; and then act upon what you know to be true. These intuitive
powers were given to your soul at birth.” ― Clarissa Pinkola Estés
“There are many artists
who’ve not yet gotten a good foothold or who are old war-horses at developing
their creative lives, and yet and still, every time they reach for the pen, the
brush, the ribbons, the script, they hear, “You’re nothing but trouble, your
work is marginal or completely unacceptable—because you yourself are marginal
and unacceptable.” So what is the solution? Do as the duckling does. Go ahead,
struggle through it. Pick up the pen already and put it to the page and stop whining.
Write. Pick up the brush and be mean to yourself for a change, paint. Dancers,
put on the loose chemise, tie the ribbons in your hair, at your waist, or on
your ankles and tell the body to take it from there. Dance. Actress,
playwright, poet, musician, or any other. Generally, just stop talking. Don’t
say one more word unless you’re a singer. Shut yourself in a room with a
ceiling or in a clearing under the sky. Do your art. Generally, a thing cannot
freeze if it is moving. So move. Keep moving.” ― Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Listen to
this wise and wondrous woman people, she is a force! Speaking of amazing women,
here is me with my friend Maria, a beautiful, successful, intelligent
powerhouse of a strong independent woman, mother, business owner and fabulous fellow
artist at a Parsons Illustration Exhibition in 1997. I included this photo
because I noticed not only were we super cute but that we just happened to be
posing in front of one of the Wolf Patterns
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| Amy E. Fraser and Maria with Wolf Pattern at Parsons Illustration Exhibition 1997 |
For more Amy E. Fraser art and information go to Aefraser.com.
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