For the second time I had the privilege of being assisted by New Zealand artist Marc Spijkerbosch. In this illusionary mural entitled He Taonga Kakariki (Maori for 'Green Treasure'), a previously seamless hatch has louvered-open through a mosaic of Lake Rotorua. Peering through this mysterious portal and allowing our eyes to adjust, one notices a green glow emanating from a chamber behind. Ghostly moss and micro-ferns remain half-hidden while serving as entrance sentries to this unseen world.
Through metaphor we can journey from the exterior mosaic layer -- the external surface world -- into the inner spirit world. Or is it the other way around? Perhaps without this unseen internal force, our perception of the jeweled lake mosaic is only skin-deep.
The real koru (spiral fern / new life) resides inside. There, unfurling in the deep green glow is the whakapapa (divine father spirit), where the music is eternal. And there, misty voices of the ageless mother are heard like a song inside the soul. And there, the door opens outward, to all the infinite glory of the universe.
