July 16th, 2011

By Carol Alleman

in an edition of 36
20.5″ h x 14″ w
cast bronze vessel

Please contact Gallery MAR for pricing inquiries

Celestial Joy invites us to witness and join the hummingbird’s dance of joyfully giving, receiving, perching [resting] and trusting. Coupled with the peaceful purity of the orange alpine lily, the vessel glows with a delicate, wide open invitation to live in complete celestial joy, peace, love and trust.

Celestial Joy was born with the union of the delightful, flame colored, wild alpine lily and the female, black-chinned hummingbird.  Commissioned by a couple living in the Lake Tahoe area, the orange alpine lily was a perfect choice for their classically shaped vessel. One of the most frequent and beloved visitors of these lordly lilies of the Tahoe area, is the black-chinned hummingbird.

From the artist, Carol Alleman, “I reflected on the natural beauty of the peaceful wild lily. So often I get distracted with what I shall wear – beyond a practical degree. The lily of the field reminds me that my most worthy garb – always – is the mystical spirit I allow to purely envelope me and radiate around me no matter what my physical garb. There is nothing wrong with wearing quite beautiful clothing, except to the level of distraction from our own inherent, mystical, natural beauty.”


Celestial Joy stands  20.5” tall (14” wide), with 12 stems of wild orange alpine lilies, and 3 female, black-chinned hummingbirds. The female hummingbird was chosen to represent the importance of the feminine energies currently being birthed in new ways in our world. The edition size is 36 (3 x 12). This symbolizes the divine trinity of 3 coupled with a highly tribal number (12) of humanity or the cosmos, while mirroring the 12 stems of lilies and the 3 hummingbirds on the vessel. The edition size is also intended to be symbolic of completion (the number 9 as with 3 +6). To some, the number 12 also represents a number of completion. The companion poetry of Celestial Joy is 9 stanzas, with 4 lines in each stanza equaling 36.  I, as well as, many teachers and leaders believe we are nearing the end (completing) of a huge phase of humanity while growing into (hopefully) a very new, higher and peaceful level of conscious living. The energetic joyful loving of the hummingbird is symbolic of the chosen divine attributes for this transition time on our journey – the attribute companions of joy, love, mutuality and trust. She invites all of us to choose, and to trust joyful loving and peaceful  living.