This mural was a family project. We laid out the basic structure of stones with charcoal (using Bright Niches in the Castle Wall as an inspiration.) Then we just worked on painting and texturing the stones, leaving all the open spaces painted sky blue. Each person claimed the spaces he or she wanted to paint an image in and we went on from there, doing whatever we felt like.

I painted the central figure of the woman in the trilithon doorway--she’s an ancient inhabitant of Malta, pouring a water offering in one of the temples there.

The image (above left) of the lapwing bird with raised arms is the hieroglyph “rekhyt,” which signifies “the common people.” It is carved on the walls and pillars in the temple of Karnak in Egypt to show which spaces can be entered by the public.