The Winter Wolf

In the time before spring and summer, when all the world was winter, the First People emerged from under the earth, guided by First Mother. All the above ground was owned by Winter Wolf and he covered the land with a thick blanket of snow and ice. The First People were starving and begged First Mother for food.

“I cannot grow food here,” said First Mother, “but I can give you gifts to help yourselves.”

The First People chose the bravest and strongest amongst them: twins named Spring and Summer and implored First Mother to give her gifts to them.

To spring she gave a large rock and flowers and animals would follow her on her path. To summer she gave a golden spear of sunshine and warmth and birds would follow on hers.

With their gifts, Spring and Summer battled the great Winter Wolf for their people’s survival. The warriors chased Winter Wolf across the world and into the sky where Forest Mother turned them into stars and they chase him to this day.

Calamity Cole is a Pop-Surrealist artist out of Southern California. She lives and works out of the pine studded mountain town of Crestline. Cole battles with the autoimmune disease, rheumatoid arthritis. She is currently, happily in remission.

Her work is deeply inspired by nature and the wonderful and strange creatures that live there, 1950s retro illustration, folklore, monsters and cats. We are invited to see the strange new worlds of her creation through the eyes of the little girls often seen as the protagonists in her work. She finds narrative art to be the most intriguing and strongly relates to the suggestivism movement.

Cole attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago as well as The Art Institute of San Francisco. She utilizes a variety of mediums including pyrography, watercolor, charcoal, UV ink, decoupage and gold leaf. She enjoys using unexpected materials to create subtle kinetic details in her artwork.

She hopes her art will invoke a longing for forgotten magic and nostalgia for the intangible freedom of childhood.