To use the winds as allegories of the vagaries of fate, or destiny…. The actions and options of both are unpredictable, uncontrollable, inevitable. Yet we manage sanely with them when in retrospect we can honestly reconcile our choices made of their offerings.

Taken all together, the winds or “wind” is a constant, precocious force. “Wind” is at once incessant and unpredictable, sometimes friendly, sometimes terrifying. When considered individually, specific characteristics of the winds can be identified and specific consequences can be expected. We learned eons ago that the direction of the wind signified its identity and its nature.

The portrait of the blower of the East Wind shows the head of this wind tilting at an angle to accentuate the active dynamism of this wind – the wind of change. With the power of endurance and the ease of movement, blowing powerfully and yet with an ease like a toss of the head, as if the need to shake the old out of her hair to find patterns of the new.

The portrait of the blower of the West Wind shows the head and neck of this wind in straightforward, columnar position. This wind is the wind whose incessant action is known as the result of the turning of the earth. Yet despite the deep furrows due to a lack of change of position, there is a glint of humor, perhaps mischief, as if this wind knows that our perception of it can wax or wane.