Kiss Me, I’m Irish (sort of)

I’ve added another wet one to my watercolor kiss series as my annual March/ St. Patrick’s Celtic tribute.

The popular colloquialism actually stems from the legend of the Blarney stone.
The ‘Cloch na Blarnan’ is a stone built into the battlements of Castle Blarney in County Cork, Ireland. Kissing this stone is said to endow one with the gift of gab (excellence in flattery and persuasiveness).
The legends are varied and many regarding the stone’s origins, but one says that Cormac MacCarthy, the castle’s builder, asked the Irish goddess Clíodhna to help him win a lawsuit. She told him to kiss the first stone he found in the morning on his way to court. He did so, and won his case very successfully. He then placed the stone into the parapet of the Blarney castle. There are other legends that attribute the stone to the Holy Land, but the first legend has more of a Celtic flair, so that’s the one I’ll stick to. As a sidenote, the staff at Blarney castle believe a witch saved from drowning told the MacCarthy family about the stone’s power.

Kiss Me
Watercolor

Whatever the source of its power, heads of state, literary giants, and Hollywood stars have gone to Ireland to plant one on a rock with the hopes of being supernaturally blessed with great eloquence. Millions of people from around the world have traveled to Cork to kiss the famous stone. If someone mentioned wanting to kiss the legendary stone, an Irish person would jokingly say, “Kiss me, I’m Irish”.

That’s how the phrase, and its proliferation, began. Whether from the mouth of a full-blooded Irish citizen, or a tipsy lass whose great, great grandmother was from Ireland, <em>sort of</em>, those words are now part of our vernacular, and we love ‘em. Even if you aren’t Irish, who could blame you for saying that bit of ‘blarney’ to get a kiss?

The colors of this kiss painting represent the national flag of Ireland;
Green represents the Gaelic tradition of Ireland, orange represents the protestant followers of William of Orange, and the white middle bar is the hope for peace between them.

The original watercolor painting has already been spoken for,

but you can order a hand signed print  by clicking the buy now button below,

(dreneewilson.com watermark does not appear on actual print)
Or you can customize your own Kiss Me print on canvas, metal, acrylic, etc. by clicking here.And since this particular painting is of such a social nature, I made sure to make it available
in my Cafe Press shop on apparel, decor, and gift items so you can show your love for Ireland, and maybe even get a few kisses out at the pub. 

Until next time~

An Irish Blessing for this St. Patrick's Day

 Happy St. Paddy's Day to all and a special Irish blessing for my friends in Savannah that are looking at a rainy day-

Today only- use the code SLAINTE at checkout for 17% off orders over $20 in my Etsy shop.

May the blessing of the rain be on you—
the soft sweet rain.
May it fall upon your spirit
so that all the little flowers may spring up,
and shed their sweetness on the air.
May the blessing of the great rains be on you,
may they beat upon your spirit
and wash it fair and clean,
and leave there many a shining pool
where the blue of heaven shines,
and sometimes a star.








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Book of Kells 
Peacock

Shamrock Searching & A Run O' Luck

Detail of watercolor "Run O' Luck"

 Since leaving Savannah, every year I celebrate St. Paddy's Day with a little bit of sadness and a ton of nostalgia.  If you've ever experienced the magic and mayhem of a Savannah St. Pat's, you know what I mean. As a SCAD student, our spring break was always scheduled around St. Patrick's Day.
(There's just no way to realistically hold college classes amidst a throng of three quarters of a million people, many with deep Irish roots and some just pretending to be Irish for a day, if not all week.)
 I miss the smiling faces of my friends romping through the historic district and the Guinness fueled revelry of Tybee Island's Irish Heritage Parade. And to be quite honest, though at the time it seemed a special level of hell, I really do miss tending bar during the greenest week of the year.

Celtic Peacocks, original in private collection, prints available.

 To cheer myself during the St. Patrick's season the past couple of years, I've had my own little celebration of my ancestry and favorite European culture by painting a Celtic themed piece whilst imbibing a few pints of the black stuff. Although the phrase "Luck of the Irish" is usually misused and taken out of historical context (it was first coined as an ironic phrase), this year I focused on the concept of luck.

  The traditional symbol of Saint Patrick is a shamrock with three leaves; each one representing a figure in the Holy Trinity. The shamrock was also seen by Brits as a symbol of dissent during the 19th century and worn to promote Irish nationalism.

Run O' Luck

  It's no surprise that with a misunderstood phrase like "Luck of the Irish", many people would associate the popular lucky "charm" of a four-leaf clover with Ireland.
 Traditions says that each leaf of the 4-leaf clover stands for something-
~faith       ~hope      ~love      ~luck
 It's also estimated that there are 10,000 three-leaf shamrocks for every four-leaf clover found. Those aren't great odds, but there are clover collectors that have found as many as 160,000 recorded 4-leafs.

 But have you ever found a four-leaf clover? 
I've found a handful in my life; crawling around through the soft clover, breathing in the freshness of a cool day while the sun shines on my skin. When you find one, it really is like you hit the jackpot.
 I don't think I'd want a 4-leaf someone else picked. You do have to look pretty hard, but isn't that the fun of it?
It's all in the search.

 The core of St. Patrick's 3-leaf shamrock Trinity illustration and any good luck charm is faith.
Our belief dictates what we see. If we see our luck as running out, it probably will.
Our thought patterns train our brains to recognize what we tell them to see.

But maybe if we choose to focus on the minute details and evidence that things actually are going pretty swell, we will see our good luck mixing in, around, and overflowing.
Sometimes a physical trinket or charm helps to remind me to shift to a more positive mindset, and that's totally worth any eye rolling I may get from others.
 Many say a four-leaf clover is very lucky while others say you make your own luck. To both I say, yes.
And this year, I made both.

 What's your lucky charm?

Emerald Eyes