“Progress”

Barbed Wire“The Devil’s Rope” 11 x 30” Watercolor and Gouache on Paper

I am struck by the similarity of The U. S. government’s containment of the Native Americans to that of the Natzi handling of the Jews.  As I look back at history, it is amazing what is justified, and what is conveniently forgotten in the name of “progress”

This painting depicts a pictorial history from the era in which the land existed in an open and seemingly never-ending plain, to the concept of fenced-in land ownership. Barbed wire was referred to as “The Devil’s Rope” by native people.

 The people’s use of the land dates back to pre-history, and came to a very quick end.  Rendered at the top of the painting are images borrowed from a Sioux winter count, known as The Big Missouri Winter Count.  It spans 131 years, and dates from 1796.  A winter count is a hide painting depicting an important event for each year, and was passed down within Plains Indian tribes.

The images of people from behind, united, is a powerful symbol of unity and is adapted from The Black Hawk Ledger.  Stylized horses are represented, such as those found in the Leatherwood/Scares the Enemy Ledger, a Brule’ Lakota from the Rosebud Reservation and the Richard Henry Pratt Papers.

Symbols

I love exploring symbols.  I began thinking about symbols when teaching elementary education, along with being a new mom.  Seeing my child and my students relying on the very same symbols I remember using as a child was exciting to me.  Happy houses… suns in the corner.  They started finding their way into my art.  See my website Gallery, where the Photoanalysis series I have been developing is on display.

“Thunderbirds Through Time” 11 x 30” Watercolor and Gouache on Paper

The Thunderbird is a powerful Native American symbol. This painting explores many depictions left behind of this important icon from prehistoric to modern day.

Petroglyphs are rock carvings found in the region in which I live and are very old, some dating up to 10,000 years old. Thunderbird images utilized in this artwork are found at many sites in my area. Several used in this painting are found at Deer Medicine Rocks, Montana and The Dinwoody Site in the Wind River Canyon, Wyoming. The powerful force of the Thunderbird was later revisited by the Ford Motor Company, as the logo for their Thunderbird.

The shield represented is Sioux. A painted rawhide shield, it is representative of the owner’s dream vision of a thunderbird.

Rumbling across the Plains no more

I am very interested in history, and the area in which I live is filled with it.  History in the United States is not very old when compared to the rest of the world.  A great deal has happened to shape our current world in those 200+ years.

“Coming of the Iron Horse” 11 x 30” Watercolor and Gouache

Progress comes at a cost. The seemingly endless supply of bison supported the Plains Indians for centuries. It took but a decade of massive hunting by the whites for their hides, bones and for sport to nearly annihilate them. To subdue Indian insurrection and to feed the workers building the cross-continental railroad, the bison were hunted to near extinction.

Trains were referred to as an Iron Horse. Their continuous rail connection to the two coasts, the advent of the telegraph for rapid communication, and of course, the discovery of GOLD, led to the end to an era.

From the Earth

From the Earth” 11 x 32” Watercolor & Gouache on Paper

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust…. it is true for all time: we are linked to the earth.  I believe the truth is: we are not autonomous at all, but a part of an interconnected existence.  We cannot sustain our depletion of the earth’s resources and annihilation of the earth’s living things. (be it vegetation, or something with a heart…)

Man has always survived off of the earth, and regardless if we live in a technological world, the components in these nifty computers comes from the earth.  The food we eat comes from the earth, as does the home we live in and the clothes we wear.  (yes, synthetics are petroleum based, and that comes from the earth)  Come to think of it that way, it breaks down into food, shelter and clothing: those things deemed necessary by   hierarchy of needs….

Animals forms

As I paint, the ideas I am exploring take on a life of their own.  There is a sort of “zone” I am able to tap into which allows me to intuitively respond and create.  This is vital to me: a need.  I have not been painting for awhile now, needing to spend time and energy on the promotional aspect of being an artist.  Because of this, I am getting a very strong urge to get back to the studio part of this career: the painting part!

This painting is ironically one of my favorites: I say ironically, as it was one of my least favorites as I began it.  Because of this, I allowed myself free reign to tap into the magic, and the animal forms “spoke” to me, and the painting became what it is now: animal inspired!

“Petroglyph Symbology” 11 x 30” Watercolor and Gouache on Paper

A kinship with nature is created through acknowledging the unity that exists between the elements. “The earth and myself are of one mind.” Chief Joseph

A petroglyph is a rock carving which is found on boulders, rock walls and in caves. They date from between 300 – 3500 years old. The intriguing thing to me is that nobody knows their original purpose or meaning. Much can be inferred, but little is known for a fact.

Petroglyphs depicted in this painting come from images found at various sites in Wyoming. The oldest depictions are found as pecked-out imagery. Later, outlined shapes became prevalent, later followed by painted imagery. Often, one image overlaps those from another time, suggesting that the message is more important than the previous images themselves.

Animal forms such as owls, thunderbirds, birds, elk, and turtle provide their intrinsic powers. The human form is prevalent at many petroglyphs sites. Here, I am reproducing a warrior with shield and sword, wearing a feathered headdress.

Borrowing Symbols

Symbols have been borrowed and exchanged forever.  I am drawn to the petroglyphs and symbol studies I have been painting, by that very thing: how symbols are a visual language, which seemingly jumps across time and continents.  Many of the same type of imagery in yesterday’s petroglyphs is found the world over.  Those same images are prevalent in society today.  Take the American Eagle for instance…

“Bird of Thunder and Lightning” 11 x 30” Watercolor and Gouache on Paper

Where does the Bald Eagle as the national symbol of America come from? It is no big mystery when contemplating the importance of the Thunderbird in Native cultures.  It must be remembered that the contributions which the first European settlers found here, and from which they borrowed liberally, is an important part of the collective American heritage.

The stylized image of the thunderbird spans many Native American cultures.   Often depicted with characteristic zig-zag lightning streaks, the thunderbird represents a powerful and sometimes angry force. Coming from the sky, it is recognized as a Native American constellation as well as being credited as the source of thunder and lightning. 

As the Thunderbird is present in many rituals, this painting depicts it on a ceremonial beaded pipe bag.  Petroglyph depictions, rock carvings, represented in this artwork come from numerous sites, such as the Jeffers Petroglyph Site in Minnesota.  The image of a Thunderbird beneath an arc is a Cheyenne petroglyph from the Southern Black Hills. 

Turmoil of Change

I am at this stage of my life reflecting on change: how it is necessary and how it is inevitable, and how it is so DIFFICULT!

Our world would not exist as we know it without change… time changes, we age, the seasons change (in South Dakota they do!) I crave change and fight it at the same time! 

“Blood, Sweat, Tears” 11 x 30” Watercolor and Gouache on Paper

America is a nation intrinsically linked to the histories of the many people who first inhabited the continent.  Records of their lives and struggles go back to pre-history and are found etched into rock walls.  Later, the Plains Indians used hides as a portable record, depicting important events to illustrate the narrative story handing down of their ancestral history.  As tribes were forced onto reservations, they often utilized discarded ledger books to continue the tradition.

 

 

Lives of turmoil and struggle are depicted in these images.  The vital importance of food sources and the significance of the horse are often rendered. To the Plains Indians, bison were vital.  Nothing from the bison was wasted: it fed, clothed, and sheltered them, as well as provided materials necessary for survival in battle. 

 Conflict with enemies was frequent and shields for protection are also commonly rendered.  The Teton Sioux shield incorporated into the painting is made of symbolic and naturally occurring materials: hide, hawk feathers, wool cloth, paint and sinew.   

Signs of Change

“Pictograph of Change” 11 x 30” Watercolor and Gouache on Paper

Nothing remains constant.  As humans we tend to resist change while at the same time, craving it.  Life is uneventful without variety and change.  Yet, we often cling desperately to the comfort zone we are accustomed to.  As my son hits his teen angst years, I am reminded at how we seek for individuality, while at the same time, are trying to fit in, thus conform.  It is a constant dichotomy.

As mankind moves through time, change of course, is a big part of the advancement of culture.  Wheter for good or bad, culture changes.  At no time in man’s history is there such rapid change as there is today.  The information age has brought with it such rapid advancement of knowledge that is is mind-boggling to me.  At the same time, it is signaling the end to a great many ways of which things have been done in the past.

Ancient rock carvings and pictograph paintings are found across North America.  These mysterious images hold profound meaning as well as questions.  The rock carvings depicted in this artwork are adapted from those found in the Wind River Basin in Wyoming.  By etching a mark into the stone, it is believed that early people were making a symbol of permanence which bonded them to the sacred powers of the earth. 

While creating this piece, a prehistoric rock carving depicting a person took on additional meaning for me.  Selecting petroglyphs to include with the war bonnet, I was startled to realize an image I’d often seen before, now had clear meaning. I knew instantly: it depicted a warrior with a feathered headdress.  Each pictograph and rock carving held stories long ago lost to time.

The Castle Garden site in Wyoming depicts many shield images, which are rendered in this artwork.  The more “modern” painted imagery at the bottom of the painting depicts guns and hash marks, which represent kills.  Painted pictographs are not as old as carved images and are often painted over more ancient imagery.  These pigmented depictions are as seen at the Pictograph Cave State Park, near Billings, Montana.

A representative icon from the past is a Sioux feathered headdress.  Stately and proud, the headdress, or war bonnet, was a status symbol to the Plains Indians.  Each feather was a reward for a deed in battle, and each also held a story.

Local Lore

“Apsaalooke – Children of the Large-Beaked Bird“

11 x 30” Watercolor and Gouache on Paper

Local lore takes on a reality that is or isn’t truth based. Nicknames are deserved and un-deserved.  A collective belief in something somehow makes it true.

The Native American tribe known as the Crow Indians call themselves “Apsaalooke”, meaning Children of the Large-Beaked Bird. French traders mistakenly translated the name to Crow, although this is not technically a correct translation.   The powerful large beaked bird was something fierce and magestic to the tribe: they did not equate this to a crow, but the name stuck.

I am utilizing the wonderful tool of the Internet with my art and to put my thoughts out there.  I am, however, keeping a wary eye on what this tool can do to a society.  Of any time in history, this information age has power beyond any which mankind has created thus far.  Ideas can be posted and stated as fact, which may or not have a realistic basis.  The power of stating an opinion and hitting “send” to every person in one’s address book has an incredible amount of power.  It had the power to get a president elected.  The same power, unleashed, can be the source of much mis-information and scaire tactics.  (And could, in essence, bring down the same president!) An opinion, I have decided as I am getting older (and wiser?) is like a coin… it has two sides! 

Revisit

24×36” Oil on Masonite

I have let the holidays come and go, and have been working almost daily on my artwork and framing for my May show in London’s Brick Lane Gallery.  I am back to posting, and will have some fun new images to share online.

This is a favorite of mine: the motion and colors of this piece are very appealing to me.  I have not painted in oil for awhile now: my most recent pieces are watercolor and gouache on paper.  Life changes necessitated some changes in media, and have opened a whole new door of exploration.