Beyond the Veil

2024
12″ x 12″ (felt)
Status: Sivertson Gallery, Grand Marais, MN

Wool needle felting measures 12″ x 12″. Many fine blended layers of varying shades of blue, pink, purple, orange, and white were used to create the sky, clouds, and sun pillar.

The photo inspiration behind this piece, titled ‘Beyond the Veil’ (formerly ‘Winter Sun Pillar’), was captured 4 minutes after sunset on March 10, 2020, in Superior National Forest near the end of the Gunflint Trail. It’s worth noting that was the night before the day the World Health Organization declared the global COVID outbreak a pandemic. Maybe this sun pillar was an omen for all that was about to transpire. All I know is the peace I felt gazing at the beauty in the sky that evening.

Sun Pillars appear as shafts of light extending vertically above the horizon, most often at sunrise or sundown. They develop when the sun is low on or below the horizon, and its rays reflect off falling ice crystals associated with thin, high-level clouds, such as cirrus clouds.