Laura Mark-Finberg

Celebrating the beauty of our Natural World

Original Painting ,Limited Edition Prints on canvas & paper

ABOUT THE PAINTING:

"All Creatures Great And Small"

First, let me say that the title comes from a poem by Cecil Frances Alexander ,"Maker of Heaven And Earth"

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.

The stained glass window in the painting is from the Grace Luthern Church on Queen Street in Lancaster, Pa. The windows were completed in 1908 and are as beautiful as the day they were installed. I was initually planning on putting a dove in the painting but in the end, after the painting sat for four months , felt a young crow was much more interesting. Hopefully, rather than just being just a beautiful piece of art it creates an inner dialogue for the viewer. Afterall, the crow has been both persecuted and revered through out history. Recently, modern science has found that crows have the ability to make premitive tools in order to complete a task. In addition, they mate for life and have a very tight knit family and social structure. Evidience has shown that crows do less harm to the crops than initually thought and actually benefit farms.

Some Native American lore sees the crow as a protector of the recently departed as it leads the soul to heaven. The crows major predator,man.