The Moon in Art

Myth, and My Own Sketchbook

My dad was really into astrology and he used to make astrological charts for people. Somewhere along the way I found out I was a Cancer sun. A Moon Child.

As a teenager I was drawn to moon imagery in that way you're drawn to things before you fully understand why. It showed up in my art naturally.

Then as an adult woman, in my thirties and beyond, it got a whole lot deeper. I became much more aware of my own body's rhythms and how they move in sync with the lunar cycle. The moon isn't just a beautiful thing in the sky. She governs the tides, the seasons, the cycles of all living things. Women have known this forever. It's woven into folklore and myth across every culture on earth, the moon as feminine, as cyclical, as sacred.

You see her everywhere in art history too. Diana the huntress. Selene driving her silver chariot across the night sky. The triple moon goddess representing the maiden, mother, and crone, the whole arc of a woman's life reflected in the waxing, full, and waning moon. Artists have been reaching for her for as long as humans have been making art, and I don't think that's ever going to stop.

My Moonlit Atelier sticker is probably the piece that captures that feeling best for me right now. A moon goddess in silver and shadow. If you're a fellow moonchild you might just want her on everything, which, same.

I also have a whole collection of moon postcards over on Zazzle if you want to send a little lunar magic to someone you love.