They looked at me with wide eyes when I walked into my first ceramics class saying, “I want to make a jackal.”
You don’t just find a clay jackal behind every bush.

For 27 years, as an art curator, I showcased the beauty of others. My eyes could match art with clients. But 2024 was a tough year for many art dealers. Every cent had to be stretched. Plans were few, and the zest for life seemed far away.

The month-long ceramics class was a gift from a good friend—to spoil myself, to socialize, or so I thought.

At 47, the Father blessed me with a supernatural gift for working with clay—effortlessly and quickly, with no prior experience, not even art at school. Just a simple farm girl who knows animals well, understands them deeply, and now creates her childhood playmates from clay.

After six months of excitement that almost included the whole ark, so many people still ask me, “Why a jackal—and jackals specifically?” I honestly don’t know. It bothers me, because in Afrikaans, the word “jackal” doesn’t carry a positive meaning.

So I decided to ask Google: what is the spiritual meaning of a jackal?

And there I found my answer—and now I know what the path is, what the Father’s plan is with my beloved animals.