12 x 36” Watercolor on Clayboard

This profusion of glass trade beads is not only pleasing to look at, but intriguing to contemplate.  Mankind has always bartered; as one area of the world had different resources and technologies that the other wanted.  Such was so with the early trading of goods in American westward expansion. 

The trade and inevitable merging of cultures has entwined and influenced the current culture of America.  

I’ve upped my game: this one is long and vertical: very fun and echoes the fall of the beads as they are hung on display at a rendezvous.  Glass trade beads: symbolic of the complex nature of economic and personal exchange..