LiDona Wagner

 MAGIC IN THE AIR

Dance of Joy     LiDoña Wagner 2023

Three Strange Angels

Standing at the entrance to my benefit art sale, was a Baba Yaga figure such as I learned about from Clarissa Pinkola Estes in Women Who Run with the Wolves. In the eyes of this contemporary form of magic and mystery, I glimpsed a woman I had once met at a yoga retreat. 

Coming up behind her was a man in jeans and tee shirt with a friendly grin. I welcomed them into my gallery home where Baba Yaga made her way through a series of rooms - Global Crossroads - Navigating Change - Sun, Moon & Water - Our DNA Tells the Story - My Happy Place & Our Evolving History. 

Meanwhile, her companion - an affable teacher from Los Angeles - engaged me in conversation.

The LA teacher and I connected over our common appreciation of KDFC radio’s From the Top. We marveled that I had heard one of his social activist students play guitar on this San Francisco youth musicians program. 

Hearing the door open, I turned to see a person of Middle Eastern descent entering the gallery. It turned out that he completed a trio of friends who had met in their youth as students at the State University of Iowa in Iowa City. 

Two decades before them I had spent a year at the same illustrious Iowa school but left after failing to be admitted to its Writers Workshop. Lines from a D.H. Lawrence poem came to mind: “when three strange angels appear at your door, admit them, admit them.” 

So, yes, I engaged the trio with grace and wonder. 

I learned that Baba Yaga had not told her companions to what event she was bringing them. Nevertheless, there ensued memorable in-depth conversations about two of my large paintings that had attracted Baba Yaga’s attention. 

They then stunned me by purchasing both paintings from my 'solace from grieving' period. 

Whether you call it magic or the stars being aligned, there was something seemingly unreal about the whole experience.