Akoka'tssini

I k t o m i

2011-04-07T16:50:00.000-07:00

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW)

Medium(s): Micron Pen .005, Sharpie

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Iktomi, in Lakota-Sioux spirituality, is a spiritual deity held in the oral history and storytelling aspect of the Indigenous culture.
He, who takes the form of a spider, is more often then not portrayed as a negative trickster spirit against the people, believed to entangle webs in the lives of people and create a domino effect of unfortunate coincidences, depression, anger, and self-pity. His ability to control people unknowingly like puppet strings to create unfortunate events in the lives of individuals, believed to be preyed on the weak spirited and weak minded.

In everyday communication, it is often said to "have an iktomi on your back" relates to said sudden chain of negative coincidences over a short or long period of time. Often this expression is used towards people who are suffering depression, heavily into alcoholism, or doing things to hurt other people.

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Aside from the quick background of who Iktomi is, I often see him portrayed as said being, shifting between human or specimen. Though I enjoy a more surreal interpretation that shows the predatation aspect of spiders often involving coiling, constriction, and injection. ironically as often as we find spiders in the bathroom, the bathtub to me represented vulnerability as well as most associated with a time when we are usually alone and by ourselves.
The smaller side on the left depicts a house fly being attacked, which scales the humans down to the same level of prey.
The only faces of the piece are arachnids, where the human ones are shrouded in the constricting organic-like vines, and the other's skull remains at the bottom of his feet, replaced by old, rotten. and broken picture frames..which represents my drastic change in identity-shifting.

With currently an "iktomi on my back" for at least 4 months now, I basically drew what it feels like, which is rather new for me personally as an artist. My works have usually been socio-political at the very least. Though "Afternoon Tea" was as such, the atmosphere and "milieu" of the piece was much more darker and serious than I had done before, and it extremely appealed to me...which I believe will result in more of these surreal ink works from now on.

The official end of my "Indigasphyxia" thesis (the impact of colonization and technology on indigenous culture), and a shift towards a "Milieu" focus (personal experiences in my environment, and being a prey of Iktomi since December)

Beneath The Millpond

2011-02-15T18:42:00.001-08:00

Steven Black Weasel

English 283 (1:00-1:50)

Free Verse

February 14th, 2011

As a voice beneath the millpond sings,

From his past the lost August days are woken.

Through years, where the darkness roars,

Until with whirlpool panic heart he looks,

Out of the looking glass,

And sights the cluster of ghastly ghosts,

Huddled together in familiarity of an asylum party.

In a blurred hurried bliss,

The grandfather sonorously sings,

his cherished chime of thirteenth hour.

Then the audible dissipation,

The summer swallows on the eve of cold.

Bounds breached.

Ripples ring,

As a voice beneath the millpond sings.

Scratched ankles and nail-bitten hands,

Grasped and groped the Johnson locks,

Raven follicles turn to desolate deserts of

White scalp

Lying, pure and pale, bloodless…

As a young stillborn boar, motionless…

Though, cold tears tumble, hopeless.

Through a shared distance of gaps and gullies,

The looking glass reveals the misfortunate,

Proving, that the dead can dance.

Rhythmic rhymes chime the air of barbaric tones,

Until smiles rise the sun of dawn.

Standards shown.

Plucked wings,

As a voice beneath the millpond sings.

Shuffling pond pebbles as he circles jagged rocks,

Caught between linear lines of ideals and illusions.

Appearing apparition to distant spies whilst walking,

Like delicate muscles,

Sleep-walking through shapes that razors blind.

But noise does not abate the essence of ears,

As young geese yawp and squeal above the moors.

Though escaping ebony is filled absence of color,

Flight feathers all but are due to return,

Like cut canvas,

Eager to expel the quintessence that artists fume.

He casts the final skipping stone into the bog of buttresses

Bounds breached.

Ripples ring,

As a voice beneath the millpond sings.

M i l i e u

2011-01-04T06:48:00.001-08:00

Photography Studies

2010-12-17T12:56:00.001-08:00

1800-1830's Cemetery, Northbridge, Massachusetts

"Afternoon Tea"

2010-11-13T15:42:00.000-08:00

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW)

Medium(s): Micron Pen .005

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"Afternoon Tea" was definitely a test of patience with such a small-tipped micron pen. The crows themselves took me about a half hour each, maybe more on the flying one. I'm sure I could have used something similar with a bigger tip like a sharpie or pen&ink, but I love the black that comes out of these pens when given the time to make something black in its entirety.
The piece is pretty complex, as my works usually are subject/meaning wise.

After drawing Mr. Umbrellaman there, I got the idea that I wanted to make Natives doing a "routine" activity that just screams Western culture. I couldn't really think or find anything better than afternoon "tea time". Afternoon tea is a light meal typically eaten between 3pm and 5pm. The custom of drinking tea originated in England when Catherine of Braganca married Charles II in 1661 and brought the practice of drinking tea in the afternoon with her from Portugal. It became prominent in the 18th century of aristocratic culture and those seeking the same for themselves.
Since thats explained as predominately Western custom, I attempted to bring that aspect into modernization, assimilation, and colonization, my usual topics. Dressing nice and drinking tea (aka following Western customs and trying our best to be Americans/Canadians) will never cloud over the fact of what we are, and definitely as what others see us as. In these acts of colonization, the decomposition and decay of traditional ceremony, culture, and beliefs die out if not become infected by radiation (modernism/mainstream society). Socio-radiation I like to personally call it.
To further show direct decomposition of traditionalism, crows come to the top of the umbrella where they one by one take the cottonwood branches; the couple and their dog seemingly surrounded by crows as if they themselves are near death.
The umbrella itself represents ceremony, particularly akoka'tssini, Sun Dance. The prayer ties represent our sufferings and indulgent hopes of things changing, when clearly we further aide in the decay of our hopes, dreams, and traditional ways.
The sign falling apart implies to the viewer the setting is a Native reserve. This also represents what we have done to ourselves, our land, and our environment for attempts to stimulate tribal economies and simply cash, again dependency on the government. If we are dependent on a mass-global warming contributor, we cannot be any less to blame if we support and even partake in their efforts to further unbalance and outright destroy. Our own people in the arctic north have already been documented and interviewed about how much their culture and traditional lifestyles have changed due to melting ice alone.
Smaller aspects are my notorious beer bottles covered in traditional-evil colors and hailstone symbols to represent evil beings. The Lakota best describe this as "Iktomi has you"..the trickster spider. Iktomi is in every bottle, and within every bottle is sorrow, despair, and violent acts waiting to happen. The effects of alcoholism on reservations is a ultimately worse contributor to many issues of sexual assault, rape, and domestic violence.
The dog, of course, represents loyalty, represents children and future generations. The world we teach and show our children is the world we ensure they will know well and live in, and unfortunately most of the time pass down to the next. Children, like dogs, blindly and loyally follow those they love and look up to, regardless of a good or bad role model. Dragging the travois represents the burdens we have that we subconsciously force upon them to experience.
Any native will tell you, children are our future, they always have and will be. What kind of world are we bringing them up in and teaching them to treat it as? The livelihood of our orally-surviving culture depends on people now preserving it and passing it on. Are you decolonized enough to rightfully say you are your nation, or are you the man and woman here? Living lies, living someone else's culture.
Absorption rather than adaptation. It plagues our native world, and our whole world.

Untitled Micron Pen WIP III

2010-11-12T15:24:00.000-08:00

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I'm rummaging now with names and ideas as this kinda self-forms itself into this, apocalyptic, culture genocide, prim-and-proper tea party.
The top of the umbrella was bothering me, that it needed some sort of movement and actions in an effort to more centralize the umbrella as a symbolic Sun Dance tree. The ravens/crows come, a symbol is death and decomposition, as they one by one take bits and pieces of cottonwood branches, to symbolize the slow death, decay, and loss of ceremonial practices as we bring, still, our colonized ways and views to them.
The dog with the travois might be carrying something related to this "tea party", perhaps a picnic basket. Maybe something more apocalyptic like gasmask tubing/filters. Still up in the air.
I also added some smal things. The row of hanging drying meat was to coverup my mistake that I originally had him planned to be sitting on a park bench. In front of the woman and man's feet are beer bottles covered in traditional-evil symbols and colors...my well-known addition to art these days.
Excited now finally where this composition is bringing me, as I'm excited to work more and more on it.

Untitled Micron Pen WIP II

2010-11-12T05:04:00.000-08:00

A piece I've started to work on, not much to say about it yet because I'm struggling to decide what I want to do and where for it to go. I'll update constantly.

The balance of the piece was bothering me (look at update prior to this one). I wasn't sure at all what to put, or where to put it, that would balance the piece, yet keep it interesting, unique, but along the same lines as the first subject. What balances a man better than a woman version? I'm enjoying where this composition is going now.

Untitled Micron Pen WIP

2010-10-28T12:52:00.000-07:00

A piece I've started to work on, not much to say about it yet because Im struggling to decide what I want to do and where for it to go. I'll update asap.

"Where do we draw the Line?"

2010-08-13T19:47:00.000-07:00

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW)

Medium(s): 2H Pencil, Pen, Sharpie Pen

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A quick, yet thoroughly and exploratory worked sketch, "Where do we draw the Line?" defines and illustrates that question for Indigenous people on where it is we stand today, technologically, politically, environmentally, medically, every way possible that affects us from the Western world compared to our Old world. The questions are a bit difficult to grasp as I had been researching and reasoning/discussing with a friend on Existentialism. Where is it we, as cultured Indigenous people, place ourselves? As individuals? In this globalized and colonized world where mental and technological assimilation has no preference to race, sex, gender, religion, etc...

The human figure defines an elder, someone of extreme cultural, social, and governmental importance to Indigenous culture.

The figuratively-implied shape out of lines defines a traditional-style horse.

These two one in the same relatives and relations in traditional culture, still amidst the same world, but have become vastly separated in ways that are not recognizable, to the point it is easy to make out the human face in our eyes, but the horse figure almost abstract and unrecognizable unless putting in some visual effort. An abstraction to visually define a broken connection..an old belief and view now apathetically unthought of. This defines symbolically our lost sight of animals as our relatives (symbolically including our earth's place as a whole), as we have become swallowed by cooperate agendas and dependence on colonized needs. We now exist as Indigenous people in a synthetic-nature, where everything is clearly defined with an exact scientific and mathematical answer, purpose, and reason.

I quote from my artistic thesis the part this piece defines visually:
"Technological acceleration does not affect out way of living - it is our new and comprehensive host of life, the environment of living itself. It is not the effect of technology on the environment, culture, economy, religions, etc., but rather that all these categories exist in technology. In this sense technology is new nature. The living environment, old nature, is replaced by a manufactured milieu, an engineered host-synthetic nature. In a real sense, we are off planet, swelling on the lunar surface of stone, cement, asphalt, glass, steel and plastics, engulfed in the atmosphere of radioactive oxygen and electromagnetic vibrations - the soothing aroma of atomic nuclear energy, the soothing lullabies of the machine. The common notion tells us that technology is neutral, that we can use it for good or bad. Though, in my opinion, we do not use technology, we live technology; technology is our way of life. Being sensitive entities (especially as Indigenous people), we always have and will become our environment - we become what we see (or may not see), what we hear, what we eat, what we smell, what we touch, etc. Where doubt and questioning is prohibited (indigenous or not), we become, without question, the environment we live in..."

Where does the line exist between adaptation and absorption? Between integration and imitation? Who defines these lines?

This line is completely individual-based. Which is what this entire piece is created from, individual lines.

"Assimilation Shelter in Sweatlodge"

2010-07-06T08:03:00.000-07:00

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW)

Medium(s): Acrylic, Pen & Ink, Sharpie, String, Tracing and Palette Paper Mix Media

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"Assimilation Shelter in Sweatlodge" is a mixed-media composition I completed in two weeks during my staffing of the Oscar Howe Native American Summer Art Institute (OHSAI) at the University of South Dakota. During the visiting artists of Bunky Echo-Hawk and Roger Broer, I was inspired by the gallery of Northern Plains Indian Art Market collections the Fine Arts department owned during OHSAI. I had never done mixed media in this fashion, nor had I taken a painting seriously. This was the result of ultimate experimentation outside of my comfort zones.

I leaned into the works of abstract by my mark making. Using the teeth on a buffalo jaw, I covered the teeth in paint and dabbed the canvas, which created a very unique and decomposing-looking texture. Aside form painting, I used adhesive spray to directly place my drawing of the sundancers on tracing paper directly onto the canvas. The sundancers being my startingpoint, I expanded outward in the composition from there, like an atomic bomb.

The piece has unlimited symbolism, but will review the major points here. Below is a link of a close-up photo of my pen&ink work alone of the sundancers.
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http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs038.snc4/34268_405896237927_549737927_4365412_3619457_n.jpg
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The Sundance, akoka'tssini, is one of the most sacred and most honorable spiritual practices that can be done in our traditional culture. It is the iconic ceremony that makes us Indigenous people, completely non-western ceremonies that we've done annually every summer for centuries and generations.
THis piece is about the decomposition of it, of the people who should be involved. I incooperated materialistic objects and things related to society that tempt us, but we choose to let overcome who we are freely, based on our own decision-making rather than some adversary thats holding us back. Things that cloud our mind from who it is we are as Native people, and recognizing the fact that it is what we do that makes us Native, not what we happen to be in bloodlines.
The strings off the sundancer connect to a dead tree, to symbolize decomposition of ceremony. Much fighting goes on about who is doing what wrong and it seems everyone individually knows "the right way", nevermind those who do not even attend or recognize the Sundance as a primary event in their life. Hanging from the tree are alcoholic containers and cut braids, to show how many people are no longer connected to the tree, but the reasons they are not there. Addictions, issues, and loss of cultural fundamentalism all relate to why we are not involving or attending ourselves to not just sundance but all red road commitments and ceremonies. A lone cross rooted into the ground showing the dominance of Christianity and other western-origin beliefs that many of my people have turned to.
Traditional symbolism is related to my color choices. Black and white was and is considered an evil color-palette of evil spirit beings that visited and tempted us so long ago. My view is that since we as people have changed, so have they. This belief resulting in my design of traditional evil colors and markings on beer bottles; the direct temptations that destroy us from within.

I combined it all with a Fallout Shelter sign used in the 50's and 60's during the Nuclear-era. As a means to direct people to a safe haven and protection from harm. I'm thinking about doing a series of these with that similar topic. C.D. (Civil Defense) put them out, and figured it'd be fun to twist it to C.D. (Culture Defense). Overall, this piece I believe is the start of a new direction.

Graphic photoshop work for Screenprint Project

2010-02-08T15:08:00.000-08:00

This is a image I made in photoshop and gimp mostly for my next assignment in Printmaking II (screenprinting). We were required to make our own images graphically, posterize them around 9 levels, and use them as referances for our screenprint processes.

I chose a photo of a traditional painted Native, black face with a red forhead which usually signifies he is a veteran of war. I darkened most of the image with speckle tools of black and then began to work in my detailed white parts in. After putting a cigerette in his mouth, I spent a while creating a realistic crying running tears effect on his left side, then continued to make traditional symbol hailstones and lightning bolts, even added one in his eye to create a more vampiric looking pupil.
White hailstones and lightning bolts were used traditionally in a lot of traditional cultural stories and artwork were used to portray evil, or evil in a physical form. I wanted to show the battle of classic good and evil I suppose in a more Indigenous style portrayal. The battle of traditional culture vs. modernism and technology.

I'll update with screenprint processes.

My Official Current Artist's Thesis

2010-02-01T15:41:00.000-08:00

"By any measure, we live in an extraordinary and extreme time. Language can no longer describe the world in which we live like it used to. With antique ideas and old formulas, we continue to describe a world that is no longer present. In this loss of language, the word gives away to the image as the 'language' of exchange, in which critical thought disappears to a diabolic regime of conformity - the hyper-real, the omnipresent image. Language, real place gives way to numerical code, real to virtual; metaphor to metamorphosis; body to disembodiment; natural to supernatural; many to one. Mystery disappears, replaced by the illusion of certainty in technological perfection.
Technological acceleration does not affect out way of living - it is our new and comprehensive host of life, the environment of living itself. It is not the effect of technology on the environment, culture, economy, religions, etc., but rather that all these categories exist in technology. In this sense technology is new nature. The living environment, old nature, is replaced by a manufactured milieu, an engineered host-synthetic nature. In a real sense, we are off planet, swelling on the lunar surface of cement, asphalt, glass, steel and plastics, engulfed in the atmosphere of radioactive oxygen and electromagnetic vibrations - the soothing aroma of atomic nuclear energy, the soothing lullabies of the machine. The common notion tells us that technology is neutral, that we can use it for good or bad. Though, in my opinion, we do not use technology, we live technology; technology is our way of life. Being sensitive entities (especially as Indigenous people), we always have and will become our environment - we become what we see (or may not see), what we hear, what we eat, what we smell, what we touch, etc. Where doubt and questioning is prohibited, we become (indigenous or not), without question, the environment we live in.
With our Indigenous origins based in the natural order, should this context radically change, the mysterious nature of the human being shall also radically change - a change that will reflect the transformation of nature itself, whether it be a turning point or vanishing point. Natural diversity becomes a burnt offering, sacrificed to the infinite appetite of technological homogenization. We now live in the fiction of science. We are most definitely now, not in some made-up future, cyborgs. As we always have been, we are at one with our environment - we are technology. In this 'wonderland', freedom becomes the pursuit of our technological, industrial, and material happiness. Our standard of living is predictated on commodity consumption, as the practice our new spirituality is "pray for more". In vehicles of ecstasy, with cinematic engines of inertia at audiovisual speed, trans-port and tele-port blend into one. The beginning becomes the end. The 'port' disappears in the speed of light. The nanosecond, technological speed, transforms reality as it creates an ecstatic phenomena of compelling and unparalleled intensity. By human measure, charismatic technique portends the miraculous, as it engenders the condition of 'exit velocity' - a condition that blurs human perceptions, shatters all meanings, drains all content and breaks our bonds with the earth's natural order. All locations are consumed into the startling terra firma of the image, a demonic conformity that is the genesis of man. In this shadow of the mass, all previous definitions crumble.
The 'time' and 'space' of history exist to a homogenized zone of no return. In this supernatural implosion of g-force, human moorings give way, sending humans out-of-orbit into the void of technological space. The loss of original habitat and our subsequent relocation into accelerated space, throws nature into catastrophe, as it engenders traumatic stress syndrome as the now normal condition of post-human existence. Technology, while promising comfort and happiness as its 'result', means power, means control, means conformity, means destiny. Technology creates a condition of war that is at once both universal and unseen. The explosive tempo of technology is war; the untellable violence of genocide, relocation, assimilation and colonization in technology is war.
All of us, are refugees driven from our human and indigenous state."

(ENG283-Creative Writing) Ballad Poem Assignment

2010-01-23T21:49:00.000-08:00

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The nobodies that want to somebodies,

but not until they're dead.
Not worth the bullet that kills them,

worth more than what they said.

The people who live has gastank heads,

televisions instead of faces.
Who don't speak languages, but dialects,

empty souls in alcoholic cases.

Who are not but could be, is what I see,

Who don't have culture, but folklore.
As toxic as they make the air today,
gas masks have no use anymore.

The surest way to them is only the same,
the different is who they hate.
With work to "change" they'll never see past,
the elitest barriers they create.

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Re-worked "Terse Existence" Print; Painting idea

2009-12-28T12:10:00.000-08:00

During my three hour flight home, I worked on the fourth print (the best in my opinion) of the "Terse Existence" prints with a very fine micron pen and at times a regualr pic pen to add in darker darks and more defining mark making. I loved also how the plate tone came out on this piece and figured it'd look better with more mixed media work put into it.

The left piece was some fooling around I did in both Gimp and Photoshop to a recent self-photo I took yesterday. I was mostly playing with color relations next to one another and mixed, as well as compositional ideas such as the 4 directions "stack". Aside from those 4 colors I loved the mixture of black, blue, green, and yellow together, and the splatter effect behind my head. Just an idea, but would be an interesting painting I think.

"Scavenger Hunt"

2009-11-23T17:37:00.001-08:00

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW)

Medium(s): Bic Pen

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I completed Scavenger Hunt bacially in the same amount of time as Terse Existance. I enjoy coming home some days and just sketching with pen the ideas that are in my head, and the ways I see them.
Finished in a few hours or so, my new influence in gothic style and music has really done positive things for my style as well as my ideas for the toxicating effects of assimilation.
This piece here of a woman, bending down to inspect a buffalo skull that is decorated in paint for a Sun Dance, while her newly cut hair hangs over her shoulder as she bends, holding the now discarded braid in her left hand and the scissors for doing so nearby.
All assimilation referances and the decay of Indigenous thought, morality, and overall culture can be referenced in the piece before this.

"Terse Existence"

2009-11-12T16:31:00.000-08:00

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW)
Medium(s): Bic Pen

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A pretty spontaneous composition I did that took about 2 1/2-3 hours using a regular black bic pen. Lately I've been combining my ideology for Indigasphyxia with some morbid and gothic elements to convey Indigenous assimilation. I entitled this "terse existence" to show that cultured life for most Native people is cut short (not so much abruptly, but chronically) as American and social radioactive temptations and mentality infect the Indigenous mind. They, in time, become diluted from these outside influences subconsciously to where it becomes all they know. Right or wrong, its what they know, what they are comfortable with, and what they can fit into with other people. I also consider this a human "stochastic matrix" almost, where regardless of what P is, it fits into the concealed and grouped matrix.
He's holding his braid he cut off to show my favorite and personal choice of direct assimilation. The syringes are a more chronic and over-time effect of assimilation, hence the "terse" aspect of it. The wires that lead from the head are a direct mind-feeding and mind-control aspect of assimilation, which is the root of it all. Assimilation is solely mental and visual. I also used these "feeding tubes" as a means of constricting the body to the chair, but not in a sense that it binds him like a prisoner. Instead of showing enslavement directly from the tubes, I feel that assimilation isn't a painful or hindering bind, but a more unnoticeable one to where it doesn't affect your movement directly, but keeps you in one place...in a chair.
The idle bottles and cans of alcohol that sit off to the side are obviously tools to help someone to lose their self-control, self-awareness, and is a social means of bonding and fitting in. I refuse to use realism on alcohol, and will always cover the containers in black with traditional white lightning bolts and hailstones; traditionally how we artistically conveyed evil when telling visual stories. Alcohol feeds assimilation. It is technically a poison as well as a mind alteration that can lead to uncontrollable behavior, loss of ones personality, and even death. It is an evil temptation, and a modern evil that will always be conveyed by me as such in the way my people always have shown it.

"Cold
Blue
Lifeless
Deathless
Illuminated by the machines
That hold you on this side
Anger or fear
So calm
Unaffected I cease to live
I fear my infection
Watching over your soul as you sleep
Injecting nightmares as you sleep
All I want is your purity
All I want in this world is your mind."

Indigasphyxia: Ideas while awaiting frames arrival

2009-11-06T20:16:00.000-08:00

As I await my camvas frames to be sent here from the east, I've been using some small Printmaking class assignments as well as Finite notebook sketches to continue formulating and sketching compositional and figurative ideas for Indigasphyxia. The top image which was sketched rather small this morning in my Finite notes this morning is an overall thumbnail plan of the entire composition (figuratively). I placed figurative subjects where I felt they were somewhat most appealing to me personally, as well as their forms, arm gestures, etc. The far right standing figure is referenced to the sketch which is already on the 6 ft. canvas.

The larger image below it is a planned sketch for a mezzotint print in my Printmaking class. I felt I'd use the down time from the original piece and use my time wisely in Printmaking to formulate more detailed and concrete figurative ideas. The idea of constricting wires comes from the first figure on the canvas where the wires constrict the TV to his head, and debating on making that a continued ideas throughout the compositon for other figures. My love for figurative drawing I feel will bring a lot of personal fulfillment to myself in my class as well as keep hope for my future plans for Indigasphyxia.

"As A Means of Contact"

2009-10-21T10:15:00.000-07:00

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGE VIEW)
Medium(s): Linocut Relief Print
October 12, 2009

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USD Printmaking 1 composition done on a linoleum pad (9 1/2 x 11) with about 5+ hours spent. I was very pleased how this turned out (even though this wasn't my final product paper but a proof done on newsprint). I was inspired, as I've stated before, on the current cultura clash of the Jarawa's on an island off the coast of India as well as the other surrounded tribes that have no real contact with the global world. The Jarawa's however have finally opened up to Indians settling on their land and are no longer hostile but eager to hitch rides from a major highway going through their reservation as well as begging for goods. With a very high level of annoyance and discust from settled Indians, the Jarawas are becoming less and less respected on their own land and their culture is at risk.
This piece reflects the mental impact of them from their now constant exposure to technology, even though they themselves feel no effect from it, so is my thesis of radiation.
"CD" on the forehead of the gas mask represents another image I plan to incorperate more into my works, which stood for the "Civil Defense" in the 1950's that was an organization that planned to be organized and defend the public from possible nuclear attack by arming them with knowledge such as "duck and cover" etc. I have turned that slightly to stand for "Culture Defense" in which obviously the gas mask is to resist radiation of our modern world that is toxic to the cultured person and mentality.
As I have personal cultural concern for the Jarawas, this piece represents all cultured people. Not so much the modernized but those that have yet to be uncontacted, such as the many tribes in Brazil and South America where many have yet to even be discovered, nevermind contacted.

-Artist's Critique-
As much as I love the composition as is, as I have said this was but a proof, and I've been having difficulty creating similar, repetative prints. Something I'm sure will come with more exerience in printmaking overall. I have yet to recreate a print similar to this where all my details (done with a thumbtack mostly for the clothing texture) actually are visible repeatively on prints.
Compositionally this was originally just a small time sketch I did that I chose to try out for my class. I'm glad it turned out the way it did and I recieved a lot of positive feedback from professors and peers. I enjoyed working figuratively with printmaking as I do with most mediums, and learned a lot about creating light and reflection as well as textural lines. Overall a piece of work I was content with.

"The Last But Not Least" WIP

2009-10-14T19:13:00.000-07:00

This rather small sketch (4 1/2 x 6 inches) is for a drypoint etching project the same size on a copper plate. I feel I'll really enjoy etching considering every single line made will show up, rather than lino printmaking where every line has to be made deep enough in order to be seen on the printed paper.
This is a pretty famous photo in Indian Country of Geronimo and his few followers, one being his son I believe. They resisted defeat to both U.S. and Mexican armies and refused reservation life during the 1890's in the southwest desert. He is considered to be the last warrior to fight the Indian wars for cultural solidarity and real freedom to live as they always have. Though the fight continues, to have the odds against him and to still fight I believe many Indigenous traditionalists and activists look to the past to this man to be inspired for "the" cause.
As usual, I gave him a gas mask to symbolize his fight to survive against mental radiation, to preserve his culture and way of life.
This is simply a sketch which will be forwarded onto my copper plate. I'll update with further progress.

P.S. "As A Means of Contact" lino print was somewhat successful in the printing process. I spent 5 hours creating very fine lines to discover they all disappeared in the ink rolling. Disappointing but art is not always product but process. As long as I'm learning, I can only move forward I believe. I will still update with the final print I did once they dry.

"As A Means of Contact" WIP 2

2009-10-03T12:57:00.001-07:00

Poor photo quality but, figured I'd post the next phase in this composition. Instead of a pen piece like I first intended with this, I instead turned it into my next project assignment fro Printmaking. I transfered and flipped my drawing onto this linolium pad, and all that is white at the moments has been what I've carved out and what will be white when I roll ink over the pad. I made some mistakes in what I intended to be white or black, but printmaking takes experiences I think to realize and visualize the future product and look before making the next carved mark. Once you carve, you can't erase, so I try to be careful but also not afraid to experiment and make/learn from mistakes. I'm hoping to finish carving next week sometime, but still have a lot to do. Next week I'll be spending a lot of extra time at the FA building trying to get this done before Thursday, and start seeing how it looks as a print.

"As A Means of Contact" WIP

2009-09-20T07:06:00.000-07:00

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW)

"As A Means of Contact" was inspired by recent discussions with a friend of mine about the Sentinels, Jarawas, and other uncontacted tribes around the world that have yet to be intoxicated by westernization and technology; every indigenous peoples dream when it comes to cultural preservation and mentality.

The Sentinels live on an island of the coast of India, and have met any sort of outside contact with militant resistance of hailing arrows. There are a few coverages of their interactions with outside people and helicopters, and find it fascinating and recommend reading up on them as well as the recently discovered tribe during a flyover in Brazil a few years ago in 2007.
The Jarawas however don't live as separated as others do. Their island has become settled by Indians and have been exposed to technology. At first for a while they met outside contact with resistance as well, but soon opened up interactions with settlers and now openly go about their business with them. Though they have become a "nuisance" to settlers and are being treated less and less as human beings. A major island highway was constructed right through the middle of their homeland, and now encounter a lot of traffic in which they ask for rides and beg for food. Some have even stopped hunting and become solely dependent on handouts they receive from settlers and tourists. Its a pain I have, definitely.

Visually, I wanted to portray some Jarawas, one with a gas mask of course, and contemplating the rest of the composition. I've recently become interested in the heavy contrast between contemporary and untouched traditional culture. The mask itself provides a means of protection against westernization and technology, and to continue their traditional life uncorrupted, especially while they are still so close to their culture and way of life, a lot closer than most Indigenous people of the world can say for. I'm still trying to make artistic decisions in this one, and haven't quite laid it all out yet, but figured I'd post a WIP.

The Endangered Jarawa
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlRSsvB4iLE

***Side note being my 6 foot canvas will hopefully be sent out here soon and I can continue that piece. Hopefully in time to somehow finish it before Spring semester and the Stillwell Exhibition.

Intro to Printmaking 1: first assignment

2009-09-17T11:03:00.001-07:00

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW)

Medium(s): Printmaking, X-Actoblade

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USD Printmaking first assignment of the semester included drawing anything to get a feel and look at how what you do effects the visual after rolling the ink on, etc etc. Personally boring for me because I've had plenty of experience with this and haven't been in the mood to do artwork that fits in the palm of my hand. Though finally got a little release on wanting my gasmasks done in my artwork. This isn't Native fallout related but figured I'd just wing this assignment with doing any old thing.
I really really disliked whatever this cardboard we used for a base. Paper is paper, and cutting and carving in paper isn't really that enjoyable, especially after being used to woodblocks and linoleum for making prints. Displeasure aside this was one of the best of my 5 or so prints that came out of this assignment, and think its ok. Nothing amazing, but ok. My professor did like it, and I did however like the etching effect of the x-actoblade for lines. It reminded me of doing scratchboards which can be a lot of fun and come out nice if effort is put forth.
Overall, first mini-intro to printmaking assignment, thought it came out ok so figured I'd post it.

The Beginnings of "Socio-Radiation"

2009-08-25T08:42:00.001-07:00

After receiving my long-wanted gas mask for my 21st birthday last Thursday, I was excited to slap it on and create a new "artistic image" of myself and the road I am taking with creating an art thesis. I've decided I just find the mask too appealing to not use in a contemporary way of portraying Native American issues, as well as just mental issues in general that are subconsciously created. "Socio-Radiation" applies to the toxic effects of modern society (whether it be capitalism, communism, etc..they are all equally blinding) on a person's ability to think for oneself as well as see reality. I'm fascinated with the nuclear era and this constant fear of the end of the world as we knew it. The fear of toxic radiation, a substance invisible to the naked eye but affects health and causes many problems. I see the robotic blinding society as a "invisible radiation that is now in the air", and people are openly exposed to it, 9 times out of 10 have no natural defense against it. The results being long-term effects such as loss of perception, loss of culture, and "visual imparities" such as believing everything a person hears, and the heavy reliance on media and taking every word from it as truth.
Personally I love the cross-visual of a gas mask with feathers and traditional braids, to symbolize the "mask" we must wear as cultured Native people to defend our minds against losing it to a tempting modern society, with this toxic radiation that we're forced to live in today.
I feel its a creative concept that I have yet to see anything close to, especially Native related.

These photos I took today, playing with lighting as well as manipulating heavy contrast in GIMP image program. I was too excited about my favorite visual finally being in my hands, and being able to portray it the way I've always wanted to. This is just the beginning of my portrayal to my "socio-radiation" phase in my artwork.

"Indigasphyxia" 6x6 ft. Canvas Project commences

2009-07-22T14:41:00.001-07:00

(CLICK IMAGES FOR LARGER VIEW)

I've finally gotten to a point where I take a break and reflect what I've done so far. Its taken a lot or re-sketching and re-proportioning (mainly of the arm and hand as you can see). This is the first time I've ever scaled something 10-20x its normal size, so its a learning experience as I go. I took two photos, one to have a nice centered image of the piece so far, and one with me working on it to show a size comparison of how big it actually is. Considering this is something totally new and out of my comfort zone, and I'm not doing to bad at it, I'm really having a lot of fun.
I gain more ideas for the piece as I work on it. Instead of just a plain feather from the mask, it seemed pretty parallel to the area of direct vision to the eyes, and figured I'd put a TV hanging of it, as well as kinda forcibly strapped to the face, almost like a forced focus fixation on the TV. Below too, a somewhat altered idea, is going to be a child hugging onto his waist with scissors in his hand and looking up to him. Along the line of to show the subconcious act of the child following in his footsteps.
So far this is only about a third and a half of the piece, and have some lingering ideas about the untouched side. Though at this point I'm sure tons more will develop as I continue working and my ideas start accurately portraying what I'm seeing in my mind.
I'll keep updating as I continue to pursue this piece.

Referances/Ideas for my 6x6 ft. Canvas Project

2009-06-29T18:56:00.000-07:00

The two referances I've found so far that really caught my personal art interest for my new project I'm about to conduct, which is a painting/mixed media done on a large 6x6 foot canvas. I'm going to use my sketch of the post below of the Native man with the gas mask and cutting his hair, and I believe I'll have him doing that as he watches Naive children, also with gas masks on, playing jump rope like the photo on the left. Mostly to symbolize the impact of what adults do on child role models and how that effects the passing down of Native culture as well as identity.
The composition on the right "Ben: Jinnwoo" (http://fc00.deviantart.com/fs8/i/2005/316/5/2/ben__jinnwoo_by_squeakersqueakin.jpg) is a piece I found that really interested in me in color/chroma usage as well as the combination of ink crosshatching. I may not crosshatch with ink, but I do enjoy the look of ink being used as well as paint. A graduate student at the university this past year had done a similar mixed media (ink with paint) and it also had really drawn me to his work. I figured I might as well try to do what is compelling me about this mixed media usage of these two mediums. The dark vs. light in this piece as well as the intense high-contrast usage also has been something Ive liked for a long time.
I'll update with photos of the WIP when I get things down on the canvas.

2009-05-16T21:58:00.000-07:00

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW)
Rough sketch of a new idea, with a most uncertainty one what to do with it, add to it, or medium to use in it. The body language and position is very appealing to me and don't want to ruin it without thinking things through.

Will update with any developments on it physically or decision wise.

2009-05-11T21:41:00.000-07:00

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW)

Medium(s): Pastels, Charcoal
April 28, 2009

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USD Drawing II Final Porfolio composition using pastel. This was a perceptual and observational piece that was combined with a creative composition. I observed a sculpture on the second floor of the Fine Arts building of an African woman (main subject in the piece) and did a rough charcoal sketch at first, then created her clay flesh tones, which then resulted in the overall color pallete for the rest of the piece.

Basically I saw fear and sorrow in the eyes of the sculpture, and related it to most of my knowledge of Africa and what really happens there. Mostly also how because its a "world apart" and that we know it so much that we no longer really care about it or wish to hear about it. As much as dislike to admit it, in general not just Africa, as a human race could the heavenly being ever really forgive us for what we've done to each other, based on race, sex, religion, politics. In most cases, its the innocent, which I portrayed in this piece, that become the most affected, the most hurt, and the most lost. I created the disturbing, almost ghost-like visual of child soldiers in Africa. Children are usually stolen from their tribal families and brought up in rebellious revolutions and groups that are usually driven most likely by money, natural resource profits, and political affiliations. There is nothing more innocent in this entire world than children. Minds that have no yet discovered or been taught judements, racial discriminations, and hatred overall. We poison the minds of our own children when he automatically affiliate them with our beliefs and use them as tools and billboards for what we fight for.

The same goes for women and mothers. I discovered the treatment of women when they are attacked in their tribal villages. If not shot, are mutilated severely. Used as sexual objects but also are attacked severely by having their breasts cut off and their unborn children cut out of their wombs. Its something that we cringe at and become discusted and possibly nautious. But this is planet earth, and we need to accept and know these things happen.

I tried to be mindful of my color blending as well as color choices. I wanted a contrast between warm and cool temperatures as well as melding and markmaking. We associate colors like purple, blue, and white as "cold" colors, colors that are usually associated with a visual feeling of cold, low temperatures. We also associate cold as something lifeless, which I attempted to show in my piece. A cold area of the body, being where the woman was hit by bullets, also represents death and decompsition of flesh and body tissue. So much interpretation can go into this piece, and I feel that I'll allow it to be so. People percieve many different things from death and visual pain representations. Overall it was a piece I spent the longest on, using it to improve my color attempts, blending, temperature shifts, and markmaking.

--Artist's Critique--
Probably one of my personal favorite, and best technique wise especially relating to a brand new medium I've never fondly used or try to master. I studied mark makers and color users like Degas and Franz Marc who used color and mark making moreso as expressive tools of movements and symbolic meaning rather than attempting to always achieve the local color of objects. How markmaking can create such visual movement and power in artwork, I've always loved how it was achieved but never thought personally it could be something I could get into that much. I'm hoping this piece was a breakthrough.
Otherwise, my professor was not too crazy about my composition as a whole, which I could agree. Sometimes I get confused in basic art classes as to whether I have the freedom to create my own compositions from what I have to draw from observation and how things are realistically. I started drawing the sculpture perceptually but then discovered it was a creative composition assignment. I probably would have made some better decisions in the early stages, but regardless I enjoyed how it came out regardless.
My color blending even impressed me, especially for a person whos emphasis is printmaking. There were some if not a lot of errors in decision making when it came to the location fo certain colors and temperatures, but overall towards the end I felt I had a good grasp and control of what I wanted and where. I tried to combine some realism of the woman's body with a more expressive body of the child, and I enjoy the combination.

"She's Miss United States"

2009-05-11T21:07:00.000-07:00

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGE VIEW)

Medium(s): Pastels
April 28th, 2009

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USD Drawing II Final Portfolio composition done in about 2 hours time in an assortment of colored pastels. I've been making an artistic topic "move" to gas masks, and all that they can really symbolize and mean, especially in our time.
The gas mask to me personally represents things from a loss of individuality and identity (culturally, socially, and mentally). It can represent, with the loss of mental and cultural individuality and identity, we begin seeking, naturally, the pleasing and acceptance of others. Emmulating what other people want, when we ourselves are unsure of what he want or feel is right, has become almost a base and foundation for social development for people of all ages in this modern world. I relate some art to it because of how much I see it in my everyday life the second someone shows a certain appareance or usually opens their mouth, and how much I'm discusted with it.
I entitled it "She's Miss United States" relating to the event in which the "ideal" women of all over are to compete basically who has the best smile, the best breasts, the best body in a bathing suit, and the most fake mentality a person could have. How many girls are modeling themselves to these people as idols, and the "this is what I have to be in order to be seen as attractive".

The teardrop coming from the gasmask eye symbolizes how behind the curtains and show people put on for us, the more lost they are, the more inside they are dying for a place to feel accepted, regardless of how much it hurts them personally. They hide their true feelings and pain behind their fake identities.
The grusome belly button piercing sort fo symbolizes the body modifications we put our sacred bodies through to "achieve beauty" and attraction, from plastic surgery and breast inplants to pierced penis's and clitoris's. The things people do to themselves because they feel they just can or feel they will be more attractive in someones or society's eyes.
The blood and semen stains between her legs can represent a lot of things, kind of open for interpretation once the viewer understands a basic grasp of the meaning, but I'll explain some things I had in mind. The obvious semen and blood can represent anything between rape to selling their bodies. From prostitution to simply having sex for just pleasure, women have really lost the sacredness and meaning to what makes them special compared to men, and how sacred their wombs really are. How women throw themselves around and at any guy who will have them, or have been talking to him for 2 weeks, or met them at a party drunk, I couldn't be more discusted with when it comes to women in this society and the mentality we seem to have to feel wanted and accepted. Everyone seems to be out on their own and a "every man (or woman) for themself" world, where competition is waiting for us outside our doors in countless ways. Are you going to sell yourself to simply fit in a society in a point in time of the earths history?

--Artist's Critique--
This was one of the first pastel pieces I had taken seriously, and used what i had been learning relating to color and its visual effects relating to chroma and value. Discovering techniques of the pastel itself, color blending, and temperature. With pastel, especially in my Drawing II and Design II classes, I've been learning there are more colors than just an objects local color. Something that may appear black off the bat, may just be, in reality, a mixture of purples, blues, and dark reds. The green of the grass could be a mixture of orange, yellow, some green, purple, etc. I've been trying to use these in my own drawings to create more visually interesting compositions relating to the visual effects of color and color blending and mark making.
Compositionally, I enjoy that her body is not fully shown, some disappears and gives the body a very left-sided radical light source.
Things I would change would be the chroma intensity of her skin. Her skin, for this topic anyway, is too bright, pure, and healthy looking. Also her torso/stomach area to me feels too empty. Something I feel needs to visually be there and not just a plain body.

2009-04-22T16:56:00.000-07:00

Franz Marc style self-portrait, paint, project 1 of 2

Drawing II Project (Work in Progress 2)

2009-04-14T10:38:00.001-07:00

Further worked on, about 6 more hours of work adding monocramatics. Pastels

Design II: Franz Marc Style Self Portrait WIP

2009-04-08T15:05:00.000-07:00

Self portrait of me Chicken dancing in the style of famous Expressionist Franz Marc. Work in Progress

Drawing II Project (Work in Progress)

2009-04-07T09:15:00.001-07:00

Drawing 2 pastel assignment WIP, contour line sketch of it so far
Subject: Clay sculpture of African tribal woman in the Fine Arts building

"Militance for Existance"

2009-04-04T17:48:00.000-07:00

New song completed - http://www.myspace.com/artivistrationale

Drawing II Midterm Portfolio Strengths

2009-03-17T10:11:00.001-07:00

Charcoal Composition using water to spread the media

Inkwash Composition

"Intoxicated Midnight"

2009-03-11T12:13:00.000-07:00

http://www.myspace.com/artivistrationale -my song completed

"They say your life is an open scripture,
so unwrap your ignorant ears and seize this picture.
This isn't a composition for ache and love,
its a piece dedicated to sights expanding above.
It's not a universal credence among my people alive,
apparently its just what I suffer inside...

And what I refuse to let hide.

At midnight, you're comatose on the base,
cutting the strands from wisdom grown into place.
Mutilated and reshuffled like a puzzle,
vigor and support, trickster chooses to scuffle.
Your life timer twisting down to its closing stages.
Morality and culture apathetically left in cages.
Revered children eyes are the ill-fated circumstance,
nothing now but a modernized providence.

Look back and see your reason for existence.
To traditionalists you pay forward repentance.
Drunk at midnight, another intoxicated midnight...
Beloved aged principles down the drain at midnight.

Try to picture this reality..

Poison bottles hang silent from tree's piercings.
Sage, sweetgrass and feathers now elapsed things.
The mother's womb weeping stridently from peace.
The sanctified pipe tipped towards the nearest city streets.
With the sniping spider whirling webs of deception,
you're included in his tactics of pretension.
All of this fails to convene your inadequate attention.

Society sculpturing children into a mere replica.
Assimilation raping our lands with a blazing swastika.
Littered drapery shadowing over the branches reachings,
blocking out the warmth of our once daily elders teachings.
Rubbish from the tree cascades and splinters child eyes.
A tipping bottle to drench their now sole disguise.
Their only role models they appeal to suffice.
You keep this soulless ceremony a perpetual motion device.

Look back and see your reason for existence.
To traditionalists you pay forward repentance.
Drunk at midnight, another intoxicated midnight...
Beloved aged principles down the drain at midnight.

They say art doesn't replicate but makes visible,
so unlock your eyes to distinguish what's observable.
They say children have limited ears but constant eyes,
can't value words but your proceedings can't speak lies.
They say from our children we're loaning our traditions,
so make your culture in life an unconditional expedition.
They say children need guidance more than instruction,
so search for profound understanding and start a reconstruction.
They say one generation plants trees, the next gets the shade,
You'll comprehend down the road the alterations you have made.
They say that your life is an open scripture.
The book hasn't closed yet, so paint a new picture."

- - - - - - - - -

A reflective poetic composition in response to my new art piece that's developing, which depicts the effects of alcoholism on children, how it affects their decision making, how culture is slowly being lost because of it, and the etc domino effect. Below I'll re post the poem, and go through each line's symbolism.

"They say your life is an open scripture,
so unwrap your ignorant ears and seize this picture.
This isn't a composition for ache and love,
its a piece dedicated to sights expanding above.
It's not a universal credence among my people alive,
apparently its just what I suffer inside...
And what I refuse to let hide.

At midnight, you're comatose on the base,
cutting the strands from wisdom grown into place. (Relates to a drunk Native man at night, so drunk he has no control over his body, laying on the floor and getting his hair cut by fellow drunks, losing his indigenous identity and purpose for his long hair.)

Mutilated and reshuffled like a puzzle,
vigor and support, trickster chooses to scuffle. (This adds to the effect of losing control of his body, being rearranged and mutilated like a puzzle. His "strength and support", aka the people who love and care for him, "trickster chooses to scuffle", which relates to alcohol itself being a traditional symbol of a trickster spirit having control of his body, and forcing him to scuffle and fight with those who care and try to help him.)

Your life timer twisting down to its closing stages.
Morality and culture apathetically left in cages. (This refers to how life passes by each day, losing chances to do the right thing, and how so much of his culture and morals are left behind him in life, apathetically or "not caring for".)

Revered children eyes are the ill-fated circumstance,
nothing now but a modernized providence. (Children are considered very sacred, for they are the next ones in line to pick up and practice our culture..but their eyes only see this man who is his role model..and instead of being what he should, he becomes a similar figure from nurture. A modernized providence relates back to my previous art piece.)

Look back and see your reason for existence.
To traditionalists you pay forward repentance.
Drunk at midnight, another intoxicated midnight...
Beloved aged principles down the drain at midnight.
Try to picture this reality..

Poison bottles hang silent from tree's piercings. (Refers to beer hanging from the sundance tree, from the ropes attached to piercing skewers for sundancing. Beer bottles are replacing the sundancers to symbolize how many have lost their way.)
Sage, sweetgrass and feathers now elapsed things.
The mother's womb weeping stridently from peace. (Traditional beliefs view the sweatlodge as the womb of the earth, from which we go in to purify ourselves and pray. She weeps loudly from the peace and silence, because people are no longer entering the sweat lodges to conduct loud singing ceremonies.)

The sanctified pipe tipped towards the nearest city streets. (The most sacred medicine pipe, smoked during sweat lodge ceremonies is usually placed on a rack outside the lodge facing east, but instead points aimlessly to the city to which we now spend most our time.)

With the sniping spider whirling webs of deception,
you're included in his tactics of pretension. (Again the spider is referenced as a trickster spirit, making webs of deception against our own people, keeping them off the good road.)

All of this fails to convene your inadequate attention.

Society sculpturing children into a mere replica.
Assimilation raping our lands with a blazing swastika. (How children grow up looking more to modern American/Canadian society standards rather than their cultural protocols, comparing this reason to the assimilation that has taken place since the invasion and take over of Euros.)

Littered drapery shadowing over the branches reachings,
blocking out the warmth of our once daily elders teachings. (This refers to my artpiece, which shows the U.S. and Canadian flag draped over the sundance tree in a littering rubbish fashion, to symbolize many things including the attack on Indigenous spiritual practices, and what the supermacies have done to effect how we practice them now.)

Rubbish from the tree cascades and splinters child eyes.
A tipping bottle to drench their now sole disguise.
Their only role models they appeal to suffice.
You keep this soulless ceremony a perpetual motion device. (This refers to the bottles and cans hanging from the sundance ropes off the tree, symbolizing the constant exposure and pressure to go to alcohol to solve their issues and emotional stresses. Also again referring to the role model figures they have in their lives doing this, subconsciously teaching them to do the same..kinda the "leading by example" thing. The last line symbolizes this constant domino effect it has throughout generations.)

Look back and see your reason for existence.
To traditionalists you pay forward repentance.
Drunk at midnight, another intoxicated midnight...
Beloved aged principles down the drain at midnight.

They say art doesn't replicate but makes visible,
so unlock your eyes to distinguish what's observable.
They say children have limited ears but constant eyes,
can't value words but your proceedings can't speak lies. (Children aren't always listening, but are always watching, so make sure you're aware of who is looking up to you and the actions you are showing them.)
They say from our children we're loaning our traditions,
so make your culture in life an unconditional expedition.
They say children need guidance more than instruction,
so search for profound understanding and start a reconstruction. (A call to end this domino effect and return to our culture.)
They say one generation plants trees, the next gets the shade,
You'll comprehend down the road the alterations you have made.
They say that your life is an open scripture.
The book hasn't closed yet, so paint a new picture." (It isn't too late to make changes, even if its just one person and child's life you change positively..make the change.)

"Modernized Providence"

2008-12-11T17:56:00.000-08:00

(CLICK IMAGES FOR LARGER VIEW)
Medium(s): Micron Pen, Pencil
December 11, 2008

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USD Design 1 - This is one of two compositions for my final, assignment being explore/interpret popcorn and all its aspects to create a piece. I dug around in some popcorn and found one that looked like the hand of "tree man", an Indonesian man who had a radical infection from a jungle plant to where his hands and feet turned into tree roots. His photo is linked below.

http://reviewsion.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/tree-man.jpg

"Modernized Providence" is my interpretation of portraying this man's condition using popcorn. To a simplistic view (which I got from many), its believed I "made fun" of his disease by interpreting it that way.In actuality, the title itself means a modernized change in providence, or divine intervention into someone's life. This piece symbolizes the cultural entities of Indigenous peoples that have been lost due to globalization, colonization and assimilation. This man in real life sees his disease as just that..a hindrance that keeps him from taking care of his family and living a "normal" life like the rest of his syblings and friends (which is symbolized in his careless expression in my piece, casually smoking a cigarette). Before, his culture would have held him highly that obviously it was meant that this man have a connection with the trees that is higher beyond explanation. It would have been regarded as something spiritual, and he would have lived a very sacred life to discover why it is that he was chosen to live such a life, intervened by the higher power..something I think a lot of us ask on a smaller level on things within ourselves we can't explain.Above in the top corner (the other photo being a zoomed shot) is a combination between my creativity and the style of Navajo sand painting. He's supposed to be a cultural representation of whatever it is that he is unexplainably has been chosen to be inside by the divine. Cultures around the world have all kinds of names for these type of people, and the types of things they have that are above the normal. His details include all that is "corn"..he holds cornstalks in his very wide geometric corn hands that culturally symbolize the realistic symptom "popcorn man" has. His body alone shows the cycles of life of corn, dripping water which is can be seen as a sacred need in all living things. The fact he comes out of the cigarette smoke is to symbolize that no matter what modernization the popcorn man goes through to reject what he is, nothing on the inside and most importantly nothing what God intends can change that. Relating to Native American culture..there are many people meant to be certain things that reject it..and commonly I see how many of them live modernly to forget what they are and where they come from. Poverty drives them to want to be something better...but what is better? Is it better having a ancient culture and living poor..or living with normal American "good" standards which in itself has no culture to speak of? When this view is successfully infiltrated into Indigenous people; this is assimilation, this is modernization, and this is what has happened and is happening globally.

--Artist's Critique--

Having done already a symmetrical piece in this style (Concious Vibes), I wanted to add variety in my visual portrayal. My other composition currently in progress, "Isn't Everybody Tired of the Hatred?", experiments using the similar style with a uncentered and non-symmetric overall composition, but still achieves visual interest and balance. I enjoyed the contrast of styles between realism versus cultural in the same composition, something I hadn't really done before I believe.
The background, including individualized pieces of popcorn I assumed would be a very interesting and intricate background for this piece. I was going to continue it for the whole background, but assumed it would be better to spread and space them out as they neared the cultural figure. The idea he is in cigerette smoke came from an earlier piece I had started on but never completed seen here: http://fc06.deviantart.com/fs27/i/2008/042/4/a/Tobacco_Impact_Contest_WIP_3_by_Lakota_Eyes.jpg
I also wanted to add to the visual interest of not completely filling the bottom left corner with popcorn texture as I had done above. I figured this would take away from the power of the smoke and visual trail and relationship between the two subjects. Also I figured it would take away from the powerful detail and value of his wrist, where his popcorn hand transitions into kernals.

Having achieved a perfect 50/out of 50 grade on this, I feel not much really needs to change. My only change I would do would be to better aligned his right cheekbone more accurately to where it should be, and more realism in his face overall. Other than that, this piece successfully portrayed what I had intended, while exploring new visual styles.

"Concious Vibes"

2008-10-24T14:02:00.001-07:00

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW)
Medium(s): Micron Pen, Pen & Ink, Sharpie
October 9, 2008

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USD -Design 1- project #2 required to collage images we find, then interpret value and shading using a variety of lines, designs and shapes. Concious vibes relates to the overall composition thats supposed to represent the power of music, and depending what is put out from it, how it can change and unite people for righteousness, and teach them about their own roots and the culture they come from.
Starting from the top, is the Star of Judah, with the lion created in the center of it, which can be referenced back in the description in "Jah is Forever". From the star, come rays extending in every direction. These have a few symbolic reasons withtin themselves. The rays can represent the calling to all displaced African people throughout the world to return to their homeland and regain their culture. Also, they could be causeways, the music in a way is a bridge for people to see things differently and learn something new. The causeways extended outward to all directions on the planet, giving displaced Africans a direct road and path back to their homeland. The rays can also represent the power concious reggae has, as it effects everyone all over the world and has become an international music. Teaching those who may not even be apart of the culture such as I, but have many parallels. The same "outreaching" rays can also be represented in the waves and lines coming off and extending outward off the coast of the continent.
My favorite part of the composition, the heads of an unindividualized Rastafari, a representation of a non-conformed African who is very proud of his roots and culture, and all that which is in him from where he comes from. The happiness he express relates to this, also in Bob Marley's belief that Love itself could literally cure the "sicknesses" such as Racism.
Again in the center appears the Lion of Judah, silhouetted using negative space and a dark background.
Behind the lion is the word "Revolution"..which reggae itself displays on many levels, from a person's individual inner revolution, breaking the robotic way of living in "Babylon" to living a more cultured life...to a global revolution, that which there are true people of Jah (God) versus those that aren't. In the word revolution is the word love (r-EVOL-ution), and with the greatest acts of revolution, are always rooted from the greatest feelings of love. A true revolution cannot exist without fighting for something that a person loves deeply. Before you assume a person or group of people are terrorists, look at their culture and know overall it is based on a love they have within themselves, a love so great they are willing to die for it. Overall in this piece, it is is hidden for that fact, the fact that people usually do not see revolutions are driven from love, that something so opposite from what they feel is right must be straight evil and terrorism.
Below is a soundsystem, with a center speaker blasting through the center. It expresses the power bass has music-wise, but also how many barrers and walls music has the ability to break down and go through. The bottoms of the soundsystems are shaded green, gold, red, using the words themselves as the pattern and color value. Depending on how close I made the words shows the color value. Gold is very bright compared to green and red, so I spaced the word and made the letters bigger, versus red where the word is much smaller and more compacted into each other. The effect is when seen far back enough, the visual is simply shades of value.

"Until the philosophy which hold one race
Superior and another inferior
Is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned
Everywhere is war, me say war

That until there are no longer first class
And second class citizens of any nation
Until the colour of a man's skin
Is of no more significance thanthe colour of his eyes
Me say war

That until the basic human rights are equally
Guaranteed to all, without regard to race
Dis a war
That until that day
The dream of lasting peace, world citizenship
Rule of international morality
Will remain in but a fleeting illusion
To be persued, but never attained
Now everywhere is war, war

And until the ignoble and unhappy regimes
that hold our brothers in Angola, in Mozambique, South Africa sub-human bondage
Have been toppled, utterly destroyed
Well, everywhere is war,
me say war
War in the east, war in the west War up north, war down south
War, war, rumours of war
And until that day, the African continent
Will not know peace, we Africans will fight
We find it necessary and we know we shall win
As we are confident in the victory
Of good over evil, good over evil, good over evil
Good over evil, good over evil, good over evil"

"War" - Bob Marley and the Wailers

--Artist's Critique--

A collaging composition is definitely my comfort zone, so the assignment was very easy and enjoyable for me. I also havent been able to express my new love for this music on a scale of my artistic talent (not including "Jah is Forever"). Using designs and shapes for shading was also a very new technique, and I enjoy the outcome to the point of it has influenced me to do another piece common to this with similar designs. The fact also I've been wanting to express many things I've learned more deeply in this music through art, and I feel this was a good venting of that knowledge.
I haven't really done any serious composition before using symmatry also, so I treaded new territory in many ways with this project. A thing I would change would be the left face for some reaosn is less appealing to me than the right face. It is somehow different, perhaps the outer-edged shading or what not..perhaps I'll take tracing paper to discover what it is thats so different about the other.
In actuality, the bottom corners seem to pop out because they literally do. I covered to be what I thought was a mistake using ink in a more painting technique to create some cool effect. I was very displeased with it though and thought I had ruined it, until I remembered this was my second attempt, and had an extra canvas board lying around. I cut out the overall shape of the mistake and covered it. As much as it adds to my meaning of "breaking barriers", the piece perhaps now is too static with the technique and the style. Perhaps the painted flowing ink would have given it a more visiual appeal.
Other than that thought, I thought this was a very well-developed and designed composition, using new techniques to create the same effects I've always done before. This project was very fun and interesting, and I'll enjoy doing another like it.

"Jah is Forever"

2008-10-24T12:47:00.000-07:00

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW)
Medium(s): Pencil, Linolium base
June 19, 2008

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What does it really mean to be a Rasta? To follow the rastafari way of life? Contrary to Bob Marley's popularity where people love him and his "ras colors" because people think it all relates to smoking weed, and that is what he undoubtingly has become a symbol of. When I learned who Bob Marley actually was and what he did, weed was such a small part of what he was all about and what he believed. Bob Marley was probably the most internationally well known and outspoken freedom fighter of his time in this music. He was not the first for sure, nor the last. With his songs I recommend people hearing (search youtube where he plays live) are Get Up, Stand Up..War...and Crazy Baldheads.
His dreads were extended in here because of what they actually symbolized. I learned dreadlocks actually publically showed a person's pledge to the visions of Emperor Selassie of Ethiopia, practically a living God in their view. All of this was and is a very outspoken movement about displaced africans returning to Africa to regain their roots and culture, and outspeaking against "Babylon" which symbolizes any kind of oppressor depending on context, mostly referring to tyrants like the United States. Dreads themselves were seen as revolutionary, and today most true rasta's allow only certain people to see them. Next time you want make dreads and rastafari a style and fad...keep this in mind when you exploit and disregard its rootical meanings.
The Lion symbolizes from the Lion of Judah to the lions Selassie as a child played with. It stands for lots of inner spiritual power, inner strength in Africans, and overall African pride. The little African continent in the middle is bleeding, which symbolizes all the blood that was and is being spilt fighting over the land. Enough said.
The flag on the left is the Flag of Ethiopia and the Rastafari Movement..though not the actual country's flag. I researched that many Ethiopians do not recognize the changes that were made to the flag, because the president who did led the country into poverty and famine. Many still recognize their flag with green, gold, and red with the Lion of Judah on it.
The AK47's at the top represent Bob Marley's song Get Up, Stand Up and War.

Reggae music has highly influenced my artwork presently. Concious-reggae for that matter (reggae relating to strictly lyrics that teach and speak about recognizing and regaining one's roots and culture, uplifting people from their current state to improve their lives and for their fellow people, recognizing within oneself and the natural world as creations of "Jah" or God, and many forms of revolution on different scales. Jah is Forever comes from a song "Jah Is" by Mystic Vision, which describes to the listener that the body may get hurt, grow old and weak, but not the internal fire people have within themselves, and that God is forever, since we are apart of his creation.

I have personally emersed myself in the parallels that this music has, with what I believe indigenous people all throughout the land need to hear and listen to..to go back to their roots and regain their culture..to recognize Ihtsipaitapiyopa in everything that he has created, the essence of all life.With this sight, our people will once again be a proud people, and do anything to protect and save ourselves against the overshadowing Babylon.

"Though the body grows old and weiry, but never the fire,
the body grows old and weiry but Jah is forever.
Majestic is the body's only composure.
Everything that breathes moves together,
and Jah, the orchestrator.

Though the body grows old and weak, but never the fire
the body grows old and weak, but Jah is forever,
the body grows old and weak, but never the fire,
the body grows old and weak, but Jah is forever.

Who made the mountains? Who made the seas?
The works of Jah.
Who made creations, like man woman and child?
The most high.

Though the body grows old and weak, but never the fire,
the body grows old and weak, but Jah is forever,
the body grows old and weak, but never the fire,
the body grows old and weak, but Jah is forever.

Speak of Jah Jah in a genesis revelation.
Jah the grand master of all the nations.
Who transgress the love? Transgress against Jah?
Richness

Though the body grows old and weak, but never the fire,
the body grows old and weak, but Jah is forever,
the body grows old and weak, but never the fire,
the body grows old and weak, but Jah is forever.
Jah is forever,
Though the body grows old and weak, but not the fire, never.
the body grows old and weak, but Jah is forever.

The body is complex in design.
So divine are I rastafari given,
tell them Jah Selassie I.

Jah is forever,
Jah is forever,
the body grows old and weak but what, not the internal fire, no no.
The body grows old and weak but Jah is forever."

- "Jah is Forever" - Mystic Vision

--Artist's Critique--

Originally drawn on a linolium pad intended to be a linocut print, I had made some major mistakes in my carving. The overall result had turned disaster because the inner carved color was almost exact as the original untouched surface. Unless I had really good lighting and often lifted the piece up to eye level to see the canyons versus the flat uncarved sections, I wasn't really able to tell where I had worked versus where I hadn't and what still needed to be carved. The print itself to me was ruined, but the pencil drawing itself I thought was alright, nothing special, just a pencil drawing in my collaging style.
Different pencils on different days contributed to there being a contrast in darkness between the left side from the rest of the piece and other subjects. Though in someways it displays a balance compared with Marley's dark focal point beard and the dark leaves on the african trees below on the bottom. A nice exploration more into the human face and what it does during different emotions, where skin wrinkles and tenses, etc. Overall a nice composition, the new topic alone compared to the rest of my portfolio adds variety to display and show the same meanings in the bigger scheme of things.

"In Whose Honor?"

2008-10-24T10:02:00.000-07:00

Medium(s): Regular "Bic" Pen, Pen & Ink
September 14, 2007

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Dedication piece for Native mascot activist Charlene Teters, a composition done to represent the falsehoods, discrimination, and racism involved with "honoring" Indigenous people as mascots in modern day entertainment. This was a reaction piece to her documentary "In Whose Honor?" which showed her inspiration of starting this movement, what she experienced, and her massive struggles in attacking modern day Native mascots. Thanks to her efforts though, the University of Illinois retired their Chief Illiniwek mascot, which started her life involvement in modern Native activism. She is currently a professor of Fine Arts at IAIA (Institute of American Indian Arts), so I knew she would appreciate artwork being done for her in her short 2-day visit to my university last year.
The main subject being a respected elder to represent real Native people, holds a fake eagle feather, dipped in black ink with a small pricetag to represent the fakeness of what is purchased by people to represent what we value/valued highly. The dollar bill beside the tag represents an arguement Charlene was having with someone dressed up as a Native, where he ended the arguement with "its just all about the money", which made me think in this world, when the cash is collected, does it even matter whats racially accepted? The major "but we're honoring you" words coming out of Cleveland Indians mascot "Chief Wahoo" represents what these people that support it tell us when we rise up and say no. To me, how can you be honoring someone when that person is insulted than honored, is there a need to continue it? Which also shows it really isnt about honoring us, its about the profit.

--Artist's Critique--
A rather quick and not well though out composition, it served its purpose the next day after presenting it to her during her portfolio presentation of her mascot-related activist art. The collaging images in my opinion are poorly related and melded together, and some placement of certain subjects are too random. Certain areas also between subjects leave too much negative space, which gives this compositions overall feel to be unfinished. I'm usually not a fan of written language in my art also, so there are many major factors about this composition that turn me off to my usual effort and style. Though the meaning and intention served its purpose to Charlene Teters and what it stands for.

"Love" (In the Style of Oscar Howe)

2008-10-23T22:29:00.000-07:00

Medium(s): Acrylic
March 9, 2007

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High School -Senior Project- the last and final addition to my senior project portfolio. This composition, the first of its kind in my portfolio using acrylic paint, is based on the inspiration of Yanktonai-Dakota artist Oscar Howe, a very popular historic artist and professor of the University of South Dakota, is considered the first modern Native American painter. His style of geometric shapes (but not considered cubism) to portray traditional Siouan culture, his artwork became widespread and well known.

"He became known as one of the few artists that emerged in and defined the Native American Arts Movement between the 1940's and 1960's. This movement saw the emergence of a professional Indian Arts community dedicated to expressing Indigenous values as a vital part of 20th century culture.
On another level, Oscar Howe's importance exists free from the context of his time and his Native heritage, to be judged solely as art. Based as Howe was in his heritage, he ultimately saw his art in universal terms as expressions of fundamental human responses to spirit and beauty. Without pride, he often spoke of his art as having a power equal to that of Picasso and Matisse, which many agree with and believe today." - (par. 3-4, http://oscarhowe.org/about.html)

Soley on my composition, this piece is simply a representation of his style, weaving in his purposes also by means of expressing traditional values. This shows a Niitsitapi young man from my people, courting with a flute. The love is expressed by the glowing red art, and the hummingbirds that circle and even attempt to land on his fingers. Hummingbirds are seen as symbols of love with many nations. Elk also were seen as singers that no female could resist to as well, which explain the elk tracks leading to him, as if he himself is the elk, walking to this spot and sitting to sing his songs through the flute (somewhat relating to a small interest series including "The Flute Player").
His overall body shaped formed a diamond shape, which helped me decide and define the background geometrically, as Oscar Howe does in his work. The blue represents a peacefullness which one feels when playing this instrument, blue relating to the calmness of a nice day, where the blue sky is exposed fully.

--Artist's Critique--

An extremely important and vital portion in my portfolio, its my first and so far only composition dealing with a paint medium. Acrylic to me is a bit, if not completely uncontrollable, especially at this time when creating this, but I took my time and put in the effort so the edges would not be overlapping or sloppy. I was told he also used painter's tape to achieve his very fine sharp edges in his geometric backgrounds and even shapes within his main subjects. I believe a good composition, many things could be changed though to enhance the power this piece has the potentional of expressing to viewers. Certain places the background overlaps into the body, which in some ways shows a little poor craftsmenship, but it was mainly trying to create the same blues after putting it down for a day and picking it up the next. I believe with more exposure to acrylic and other paint-based projects, colors will become easier to create later, as well as my overall craftsmanship will improve.

"The Flute Player"

2008-10-23T11:07:00.000-07:00

(CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW)
Medium(s): Woodless Colored Pencils
February 2, 2007

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High School -Senior Project- composition done with woodless colored pencils, colors red, black, yellow, and white only, which are sacred colors. This is an Apsaroke (Crow) teenager, noted by the mother of pearl shells worn by most northwestern plains nations, and his top knot or pompadour. This piece overall is supposed to represent the countless uses of the flute among indigenous nations all throughout Native land from Alaska to Argentina. From courting for his possible future wife in secrecy, to more spiritual ceremonies, it represents its pure beauty within our real people. This composition does not however represent modern-day flute music, what it has turned into, and how it is misused and seen today by people globally relating to our ways. This represents the instrument itself and us as people untouched and unaltered, simply in its purest form, for its sole purposes among our lives as Native people.

--Artist's Critique--

An exploration in the use of color, as well as a low-key background, both were extreme opposites of my comfort zone. It adds variety to my overall portfolio, and shows me also as the artist that I can actually work with color and it turns out ok (haha). Compared to the rest of my usually black and white dominant compositions, this tends to be a favorite among viewers.
I enjoyed used the woodless pencils, very smudge-free and easy to control. One thing I would change would be to somehow remove the blending of red and white, which turns pink. Viewers usually enjoy the pink tone, which contrasts to the pure red paint on the young man's face.
Another aspect of overal design in this composition is the subconcious balance the piece is given by the one eagle coup feather coming out directly left, visually filling in the negative black space on the entire left side of the composition. Overall I thought it was a successful color-exploration piece, possibly my lines and color blending needs work, but I'd say successful work.

"Youth Dedication: A Wisham Boy"

2008-08-17T15:04:00.000-07:00

Medium(s): Woodcut (Printmaking)
January 13, 2007

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High School -Senior Project- composition done with printmaking using wood block instead of linolium. This piece was based on a paper I wrote for this project concerning the importance of Native youth and their relation to the preservation of our oral history and culture. On the right is the main drawing on the wood before the carving process. The right is the result of the printmaking overall style. This was an Edward S. Curtis photo I referanced of a Wisham nation boy around 1900 or so.
This overall represents the lifestyle of warriors we once learned and looked up to in the old days, and also what was expected of them. Boys very quickly became men, and all had to prove themselves of this. Usually relating to war and counting coup, boys would be given a silly and derogatory name, but was changed once the boy gained respect by stealing enemy horses or counting coup on a human enemy themself. At this time, boys were no longer seen as such and were considered men.
This also tells the story of contemporary life of Native youth now compared to then. The drastic change and in most cases, the carelessness of youth relating to their culture, and actively participating in such. The loss of oral traditions and language, though some languages like my nation are making a comeback and have a very high likelyhood of survival. This overall represents we do what we do, whatever that may be..but at the end of the day, it all matters and depends on what we show and teach the younger generations.

---Artist's Critique---

This composition overall is simply a first attempt at something new. Doing printmaking on a woodblock is almost entirely different than doing it on a lino pad. With wood, you're forced to go with the grain, and cannot curve the carving in any way. This entire piece is entirely created by vertical lines, if you look close enough.
Not my favorite example of my printmaking in the portfolio, but is a good first attempt at using a woodblock instead. I learned in this piece that putting lines close enough together would create a shading effect, which I was forced to do in order to go with the wood's grain.
This could have been done much better I believe with more patience and not outlining the edge of the pompadour (stuck up bangs) and the eagle feather.

"Aíssksinima'tstohki"

2008-08-14T13:57:00.000-07:00

Medium(s): Pen & Ink, Pencil, White Acrylic, B&W Paper
December 13, 2006

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High School -Senior Project- class, this was my first multi-media piece to start off my independent senior project of conveying traditional culture through art. Here I have referanced from a famous Niitsitapi photo by Curtis of Bear Bull. I entitled this aíssksinima'tstohki which is the word for teacher/instructor, which our elders and old ones always were and are to us as younger generations. They held many of our people's old stories, ranging from the times before we had dogs instead of horses, the battle of Omahkai'stoo & Ksiistsikomm (Raven & Thunder) over the man's wife, etc. He symbolizes our entities, who we were as people before we were forced to change our ways, lifestyle, and beliefs. Our views on hair, the land, and our relatives that walked the earth with us. Naato'si (the sun being), iinii (the buffalo one which we survived because of) and all the other animals that shared power with humans, and overall Ihtsipaitapiyopa, the overall Creator, the Essence and Source of All Life. This piece is dedicated to who we were, the "real", original people. The Niitsitapi, the Aapatohsipikani, Amsskaapipiikani, Kainai, Siksika, and all the red nations who we lived next to and shared this continent with.

---Artist's Critique---

A very well done multi-media composition, using a black and white theme regarding all the mediums used in it. The face of Bear Bull has immense detail and is very accurately proportionate to the real photo of this man. The dark lines and use of pointalism for some shading really displays diverse techniques of design. The location of the upper layer being in the top left corner is very unique versus making it "perfectly" balanced by centering it.
Some changes could be better craftsmenship of the outter-edge cut design of the white paper, to where the sizes are equal all the way down and across the bottom. Glue stains from the gluegun are apparent on the bottom and should have been given more delicacy when placed. Also his hair I believe should have been left alone with the ink, versus trying to combine the graphite with the ink and meld the two. The corner designs on the 3 corners of the piece should have continued onto the white paper only made black with ink or even cut out the design to it uses the lower black layer's exact color and texture.

"Scroll Through History: A.I.M."

2008-08-14T13:40:00.001-07:00

Medium(s): Linocut (Printmaking)
November 12, 2006

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High School -Painting & Drawing 1- "Scroll Through History" project slide 5 of 8. This assignment was about printmaking, and creating 8 slides to tell a significant event in history. I chose the American Indian Movement (1968-1973), probably one of the biggest starts and foundation to modern Native activism today. This slide of 8 represents the militant takeover of Wounded Knee, SD where A.I.M. traditionalists were circled by the U.S. Army and Oglala goon squads in control of a corrupt Tribal government.
Besides the representation of your classic looking A.I.M. member, the background shows the white church, as well as the barriers and blockcades, upsidedown U.S. flag, and chaos of choppers circling. The Siege at Wounded Knee II was so symbolic because of its historic ties to the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, where over 200 men, women and children were slaughtered. A significant part of our modern history, and model for future activist-related movements to come.

---Artist's Critique---

My first attempt at and probably best printmaking composition to date, this linocut I believe overall was well done. The piece has a whole has no visable balance issues, with a great focal point of the AIM warrior. Instead of making the sky just plain white negative space, the horizontal lines clash with the style of the warrior, which pops out the main subject even more. There are no real big mistakes that I can see in my intentions for this to look like.
Some work could be done in the background I believe, such as some things are too small to tell what they actually are. With some practice in working small with linocuts I think would help me improve.

"The Orphan Boy and the Elk Dog"

2008-08-13T17:56:00.000-07:00

Medium(s): Regular "Bic" Pen, Conte Crayons
October 4, 2006

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In the days when people had only dogs to carry their bundles, two orphan children, a boy and his sister, were having a hard time. The boy was deaf, and because he could not understand what people said, they thought him foolish and dull-witted. Even his relatives wanted nothing to do with him. The name he had been given at birth, while his parents still lived, was Long Arrow.
Now he was like a beaten, mangy dog, the kind who hungrily roams outside a camp, circling it from afar, smelling the good meat boiling in the kettles but never coming close for fear of being kicked. Only his sister, who was bright and beautiful, loved him. Then the sister was adopted by a family from another camp, people who were attracted by her good looks and pleasing ways. Though they wanted her for a daughter, they certainly did not want the awkward, stupid boy. And so they took away the only person who cared about him, and the orphan boy was left to fend for himself. He lived on scraps thrown to the dogs and things he found on the refuse heaps. He dressed in remnants of skins and frayed robes discarded by the poorest people. At night he bedded down in a grass-lined dugout, like an animal in it's den.
Eventually the game was hunted out near the camp that the boy regarded as his, and the people decided to move. The lodges were taken down, belongings were packed into rawhide bags and put on dog travois, and the village departed.
"Stay here," they told the boy. "We don't want your kind coming with us."
For two or three days the boy fed on scraps the people had left behind, but he knew he would starve if he stayed. He had to join his people, whether they liked it or not. He followed their tracks, frantic that he would lose them, and crying at the same time. Soon the sweat was running down his skinny body. As he was stumbling, running, panting, something suddenly snapped in his left ear with a sound like a small crack, and a worm-like substance came out of that ear. All at once on his left side he could hear birdsongs for the first time. He took this worm-like thing in his left hand and hurried on. Then there was a snap in his right ear and a worm-like thing came out of it, and on his right side he could hear the rushing waters of a stream. His hearing was restored! And it was razor sharp -- he could make out the rustling of a tiny mouse in dry leaves a good distance away. The orphan boy laughed and was happy for the first time in his life.
With renewed courage he followed the trail his people had made. In the meantime the village had settled into it's new place. Men were already out hunting. Thus the boy came upon Good Running, a kindly old chief, butchering a fat buffalo cow he had just killed. When the chief saw the boy, he said to himself,
"Here comes that poor good-for-nothing boy. It was wrong to abandon him."
To the boy Good Running said: "Rest here, grandson, you're sweaty and covered with dust. Here, have some tripe."
The boy wolfed down the meat. He was not used to hearing and talking yet, but his eyes were alert and Good Running also noticed a change in his manner.
"This boy," the chief said to himself, "Is neither stupid nor crazy."
He gave the orphan a piece of the hump meat, then a piece of liver, then a piece of raw kidney, and at last the very best kind of meat -- a slice of tongue. The more the old man looked at the boy, the more he liked him.
On the spur of the moment he said,
"Grandson, I'm going to adopt you; there's a place for you in my tipi. And I'm going to make you into a good hunter and warrior." The boy wept, this time for joy. Good Running said, "They called you a stupid, crazy boy, but now that I think of it, the name you were given at birth is Long Arrow. I'll see that people call you by your right name. Now come along."
The chief's wife was not pleased.
"Why do you put this burden on me," she said, "Bringing into our lodge this good-for-nothing, this slow-witted crazy boy? Maybe you're a little slow-witted and crazy yourself!"
"Woman, keep talking like that and I'll beat you! This boy isn't slow or crazy; he's a good boy, and I have taken him for my grandson. Look -- he's barefooted. Hurry up, and make a pair of moccasins for him, and if you don't do it well I'll take a stick to you."
Good Running's wife grumbled but did as she was told. Her husband was a kind man, but when aroused, his anger was great.
So a new life began for Long Arrow. He had to learn to speak and to understand well, and to catch up on all the things a boy should know. He was a fast learner and soon surpassed other boys his age in knowledge and skills. At last even Good Running's wife accepted him. He grew up into a fine young hunter, tall and good-looking in the quilled buckskin outfit the chief's wife made for him. He helped his grandfather in everything and became a staff for Good Running to lean on. But he was lonely, for most people in the camp could not forget that Long Arrow had once been an outcast.
"Grandfather," he said one day, "I want to do something to make you proud and show people that you were wise to adopt me. What can I do?"
Good Running answered, "Someday you will be a chief and do great things."
"But what's a great thing I could do now, Grandfather?"
The chief thought for a long time. "Maybe I shouldn't tell you this," he said. "I love you and don't want to lose you. But on winter nights, men talk of powerful spirit people living at the bottom of a faraway lake. Down in that lake the spirit people keep mystery animals who do their work for them. These animals are larger than a great elk, but they carry the burdens of the spirit people like dogs. So they're called Pono-Kamita -- Elk Dogs. They are said to be swift, strong, gentle, and beautiful beyond imagination. Every fourth generation, one of our young warriors has gone to find these spirit folk and bring back an Elk Dog for us. But none of our brave young men has ever returned."
"Grandfather, I'm not afraid. I'll go and find an Elk Dog."
"Grandson, first learn to be a man. Learn the right prayers and ceremonies. Be brave. Be generous and open-handed. Pity the old and the fatherless, and let the holy men of the tribe find a medicine for you which will protect you on your dangerous journey. We will begin by purifying you in the sweat bath."
So Long Arrow was purified with the white steam of the sweat lodge. He was taught how to use the pipe, and how to pray to the Great Mystery Power. The tribe's holy men gave him a medicine and made for him a shield with designs on it to ward off danger.
Then one morning, without telling anybody, Good Running loaded his best travois dog with all the things Long Arrow would need for travelling. The chief gave him his medicine, his shield, and his own fine bow and, just as the sun came up, went with his grandson to the edge of the camp to purify him with sweet-smeliing cedar smoke. Long Arrow left unheard and unseen by anyone else. After a while some people noticed that he was gone, but no one except his grandfather knew where and for what purpose. Following Good Running's advice, Long Arrow wandered southward.
On the fourth day of his journey he came to a small pond, where a strange man was standing as if waiting for him.
"Why have you come here?" the stranger asked.
"I have come to find the mysterious Elk Dog."
"Ah, there I cannot help you," said the man, who was the spirit of the pond. "But if you travel further south, four-times-four days, you might chance upon a bigger lake and there meet one of my uncles. Possibly he might talk to you; then again, he might not. That's all I can tell you."
Long Arrow thanked the man, who went down to the bottom of the pond, where he lived. Long Arrow wandered on, walking for long hours and taking little time for rest. Through deep canyons and over high mountains he went, wearing out his moccasins and enduring cold and heat, hunger and thirst. Finally Long Arrow approached a big lake surrounded by steep pine-covered hills. There he came face to face with a tall man, fierce and scowling and twice the height of most humans. This stranger carried a long lance with a heavy spear-point made of shining flint.
"Young one," he growled, "why did you come here?"
"I came to find the mysterious Elk Dog."
The stranger, who was the spirit of the lake, stuck his face right into Long Arrow's and shook his mighty lance. "Little one, aren't you afraid of me?" he snarled.
"No, I am not," answered Long Arrow, bemused and smiling back at him.
The tall spirit man gave a hideous grin, which was his way of being friendly. "I like small humans who aren't afraid," he said, "but I can't help you. Perhaps our grandfather will take the trouble to listen to you. More likely he won't. Walk south for four-times-four days, and maybe you'll find him. But probably you won't."
With that the tall spirit turned his back on Long Arrow and went to the bottom of the lake, where he lived. Long Arrow walked on for another four-times-four days, sleeping and resting little. By now he staggered and stumbled in his weakness, and his dog was not much better off.
At last he came to the biggest lake he had ever seen, surrounded by towering snow-capped peaks and waterfalls of ice. This time there was nobody to receive him. As a matter of fact, there seemed to be no living thing around. "This must be the Great Mystery Lake," thought Long Arrow. Exhausted, he fell down upon the shortgrass meadow by the lake, fell down among the wild flowers and went to sleep with his tired dog curled up at his feet.
When Long Arrow awoke, the sun was already high. He opened his eyes and saw a beautiful child standing before him, a boy in a dazzling white buckskin robe decorated with porcupine quills of many colours. The boy said: "We have been expecting you for a long time. My grandfather invites you to his lodge. Follow me."
Telling his dog to wait, Long Arrow took his medicine shield and his grandfather's bow and went with the wonderful child. They came to the edge of the lake. The spirit boy pointed to the water and said: "My grandfather's lodge is down there. Come!" The child turned himself into a kingfisher and dove straight to the bottom. Afraid, Long Arrow thought, "How can I follow him and not be drowned?" But then he said to himself, "I knew all the time that this would not be easy. In setting out to find the Elk Dog, I already threw my life away." And he boldly jumped into the water.
To his surprise, he found it did not make him wet, that it parted before him, that he could breathe and see. He touched the lake's sandy bottom. It sloped down, down toward a center point. Long Arrow descended this slope until he came to a small, flat valley. In the middle of it stood a large tipi of tanned buffalo hide. The images of two strange animals were drawn on it in sacred vermillion paint. A kingfisher perched high on top of the tipi flew down and turned again into the beautiful boy, who said, "Welcome. Enter my grandfather's lodge." Long Arrow followed the spirit boy inside. In the back at the seat of honour sat a black-robed old man with flowing white hair and such power emanating from him that Long Arrow felt himself in the presence of a truly Great One.
The holy man welcomed Long Arrow and offered him food. The man's wife came in bringing dishes of buffalo hump, liver, tongues, delicious chunks of deer meat, the roasted flesh of strange, tasty water birds, and meat pounded together with berries, chokecherries, and kidney fat. Famished after his long journey, Long Arrow ate with relish. Yet he still looked around to admire the furnishings of the tipi, the painted inner curtain, the many medicine shields, wonderfully wrought weapons, shirts and robes decorated with porcupine quills in rainbow colours, beautifully painted rawhide containers filled with wonderful things, and much else that dazzled him. After Long Arrow had stilled his hunger, the old spirit chief filled the pipe and passed it to his guest. They smoked, praying silently.
After a while the old man said: "Some came before you from time to time, but they were always afraid of the deep water, and so they went away with empty hands. But you, grandson, were brave enough to plunge in, and therefore you are chosen to receive a wonderful gift to carry back to your people. Now, go outside with my grandson."
The beautiful boy took Long Arrow to a meadow on which some strange animals, unlike any the young man had ever seen, were galloping and gamboling, neighing and nickering. They were truly wonderful to look at, with their glossy coats fine as a maiden's hair, their long manes and tails streaming in the wind. Now rearing, now nuzzling, they looked at Long Arrow with gentle eyes which belied their fiery appearance.
"At last," thought Long Arrow, "here they are before my own eyes, the Pono-Kamita, the Elk Dogs!"
"Watch me," said the mystery boy, "so that you learn to do what I am doing."
Gracefully and without effort, the boy swung himself onto the back of a jet-black Elk Dog with a high, arched neck. Larger than any elk Long Arrow had ever come across, the animal carried the boy all over the meadow swiftly as the wind. Then the boy returned, jumped off his mount, and said, "Now you try it."
A little timidly Long Arrow climbed up on the beautiful Elk Dog's back. Seemingly regarding him as feather-light, it took off like a flying arrow. The young man felt himself soaring through the air as a bird does, and experienced a happiness greater even than the joy he had felt when Good Running had adopted him as a grandson. When they had finished riding the Elk Dogs, the spirit boy said to Long Arrow: "Young hunter from the land above the waters, I want you to have what you have come for. Listen to me. You may have noticed that my grandfather wears a black medicine robe as long as a woman's dress, and that he is always trying to hide his feet. Try to get a glimpse of them, for if you do, he can refuse you nothing. He will then tell you to ask him for a gift, and you must ask for these three things: his rainbow-coloured quilled belt, his black medicine robe, and a herd of these animals which you seem to like." Long Arrow thanked him and vowed to follow his advice.
For four days the young man stayed in the spirit chief's lodge, where he ate well and often went out riding on the Elk Dogs. But try as he would, he could never get a look at the old man's feet. The spirit chief always kept them carefully covered. Then on the morning of the fourth day, the old one was walking out of the tipi when his medicine robe caught in the entrance flap. As the robe opened, Long Arrow caught a glimpse of a leg and one foot. He was awed to see that it was not a human limb at all, but the glossy leg and firm hoof of an Elk Dog!
He could not stifle a cry of surprise, and the old man looked over his shoulder and saw that his leg and hoof were exposed. The chief seemed a little embarrassed, but shrugged and said: "I tried to hide this, but you must have been fated to see it. Look, both of my feet are those of an Elk Dog. You may as well ask me for a gift. Don't be timid; tell me what you want." Long Arrow spoke boldly: "I want three things: your belt of rainbow colours, your black medicine robe, and your herd of Elk Dogs."
"Well, so you're really not timid at all!" said the old man. "You ask for a lot, and I'll give it to you, except that you cannot have all my Elk Dogs; I'll give you half of them. Now I must tell you that my black hair medicine robe and my many-coloured belt have Elk Dog magic in them. Always wear the robe when you try to catch Elk Dogs; then they can't get away from you. On quiet nights, if you listen closely to the belt, you will hear the Elk Dog dance song and Elk Dog prayers. You must learn them. And I will give you one more magic gift: this long rope woven from the hair of a white buffalo bull. With it you will never fail to catch whichever Elk Dog you want."
The spirit chief presented him with the gifts and said: "Now you must leave. At first the Elk Dogs will not follow you. Keep the medicine robe and the magic belt on at all times, and walk for four days toward the north. Never look back -- always look to the north. On the fourth day the Elk Dogs will come up beside you on the left. Still don't look back. But after they have overtaken you, catch one with the rope of white buffalo hair and ride him home. Don't lose the black robe, or you will lose the Elk Dogs and never catch them again."
Long Arrow listened carefully so that he would remember. Then the old spirit chief had his wife make up a big pack of food, almost too heavy for Long Arrow to carry, and the young man took leave of his generous spirit host. The mysterious boy once again turned himself into a kingfisher and led Long Arrow to the surface of the lake, where his faithful dog greeted him joyfully.
Long Arrow fed the dog, put his pack of food on the travois, and started walking north. On the fourth day the Elk dogs came up on his left side, as the spirit chief had foretold. Long Arrow snared the black one with the arched neck to ride, and he caught another to carry the pack of food. They galloped swiftly on, the dog barking at the big Elk Dogs' heels. When Long Arrow arrived at last in his village, the people were afraid and hid. They did not recognize him astride his beautiful Elk Dog but took him for a monster, half man and half animal. Long Arrow kept calling, "Grandfather Good Running, it's your grandson. I've come back bringing Elk Dogs!"
Recognizing the voice, Good Running came out of hiding and wept for joy, because he had given Long Arrow up for lost. Then all the others emerged from their hiding places to admire the wonderful new animals.
Long Arrow said, "My grandfather and grandmother who adopted me, I can never repay you for your kindness. Accept these wonderful Elk Dogs as my gift. Now we no longer need to be humble foot-sloggers, because these animals will carry us swiftly everywhere we want to go. Now buffalo hunting will be easy. Now our tipis will be larger, our possessions will be greater, because an Elk Dog travois can carry a load ten times bigger than that of a dog. Take them, my grandparents. I shall keep for myself only this black male and this black female, which will grow into a fine herd."
"You have indeed done something great, Grandson," said Good Running, and he spoke true. The people became the bold riders of the Plains and soon could hardly imagine what life was like before they had them.
One day, Good Running asked Long Arrow to lead them back to the Great Mystery Lake... for maybe they would be blessed with more magic gifts, and more power. He took them there, and found the lake. But when they got there, there was no longer anyone waiting for him, there were no kingfishers that turned into boys, and when they looked into the bottom of the crystal clear waters of the lake, they saw no tipi, no people, and no Elk Dogs. Nothing except a few fish.

"Taking the Land Back"

2008-08-13T14:31:00.000-07:00

Medium(s): Regular "Bic" Pen
September 5, 2006

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High School -Painting & Drawing 1- class, first day's assignment included filling the page using a medium that is non-erasable. I chose a regular pen because it was the closest thing to a pencil. At this point is where my militance had really began to shine through, in the reaction emotions of the Oka Crisis of 1990. Though in this composition, portrays much more than just the Oka Crisis. The main subject and focal point is the masked warrior, the image that now many Indigenous warrior socities and at protests now use to symbolize resistance. Symbolism and referancing to history and events is what holds this piece togrther to teach the viewer.
Starting with the top-right, which symbolizes the old life...our traditional elders, our lodges, and our Iinii (buffalo) strong, fearless animals that provided much of what we needed for survival. Below this corner melds into the bottom right corner, where the buffalo has turned into nothing but a skull, symbolizing their almost extinction due to over-hunting for sport by euro-americans. The elder has turned into nothing but a skull showing imense pain with a branded cross of Christianity, symbolizing our forced change from our beliefs into much of what now many of my people believe in, Catholicism. The bullet holes into the skull as well as the small "massacre" scene symbolize the Marias Massacre (also known as the Baker Massacre), a massacre of about 173 (mostly women and children) with about 140 captured. With smallpox killing us, we simply didn't have the numbers to respond, and tension between us and whites declined.
Behind the raised fist and red star of freedom on the left side, is an upsidedown U.S. flag, which symbolizes all euro-controlled North American union of the U.S, Canada, and Mexico. In the stripes are the words "Bury the past, rob us blind, and leave nothing behind", which does say a lot about what has been done over all 500 years of history going all the way to now. Below that is an Mohawk warrior on top of an Oka police car, another famous photo of the event. Also below that is the symbol of AIM (American Indian Movement), one of the most modern organizations of open resistance and bring a sense of "Pan-Nativism" back to Native people.

---Artist's Critique---

This is probably one of my most well-balanced, poly-symbolic composition I have done yet that is in my portfolio. The balance is perfect with a main subject-focal point with eyes that say a lot, and all around it are 4 sections equally divided to tell different stories, but yet have no visible divisions. I attempted to get an overall equality of darks and lights put together without trying to outweigh a side over the other. With such a perfect balance with much to tell makes this a very good overall composition.
Little mistakes I see are that the warrior's hat is drawn wrong. His forehead seems to just disappear into the hat's rim, rather than into the hat itself. Also, the Mohawk warrior standing on the cop car on the left clashes a little too much with the dark freedom-star wristband on the raised fist. There is barely any contrast and his overall image is too blended for many people to even notice he is there.

"The Oka Warrior"

2008-08-13T11:08:00.000-07:00

Medium(s): Pen & Ink
May 7, 2006

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High School -Art II- project 2 of the Indigenous Retaliation series, symbolizes the Oka Crisis of 1990, a land, political and nation-to-nation struggle of the Kanesatake Mohawk Nation against Canada. Since the mid 1980's, the Mohawks of the town of Oka, Quebec, Canada had been often feuding and protesting with the Canadian and Quebec provincial government. This crisis started when a golf course was aimed at being extended. Where it extended to was a piece of the Kanesatake-Mohawk Reserve, where near that piece of land laid the sacred burial ground on ancestrial Mohawks. The Mohawks of Oka led countless marching protests against the bulldozing of trees and excavating of land to extend a golf course onto their reservation where sacred ground was not just the burial ground, but all the land the Mohawks have left today. However, Oka believed the land was theirs to do what they wish with, and that this land aimed at being bulldozed was not apart of the Kanesatake Reserve.
Soon protests were not enough, and the Canadian government ordered the continuance of extension. But to everyone's shock and suprise, the Mohawks weren't backing down that easy; Mohawk warriors ranging from all ages took up arms, and barricaded the roads leading to the extension spot and through the reserve using cut down trees, concrete blocks and dividers, and after a skirmish with Oka police, a cop car, and chicken as well as barbed wire. For 73 days, the Mohawk warriors actively around the clock guarded the barricades with rifles, their faces wrapped in bandanas for protection against the tear gas that was being shot at them by Quebec-forces.
Warriors as young as 15, stood up for this cause, and centuries worth of opressed anger exploded into one standoff that reminded everyone, both Native and White, the truth behind what the white invaders have really done to this land and the culture that had once existed. Soon many moral issues came into this one issues where people had to ask themselves, is this how we should be treating Native people, after all that has happened?
Below is a website where it has 1990 TV news broadcasts of the whole Oka Crisis. In this videos and radio recordings, you will learn the key people of this standoff, you will see with your own eyes and hear with your own ears, the unbelieveable treatment of Native Americans you thought had ended long ago. Its still here with us...amongst us. People don't think and see it everyday, but deep inside...the uneducated person of both America and Canada, have a fear and hate for what they don't udnerstand, further because of what they have not been taught; the true history and people of this continent.

Artistically, this was referanced off a famous photo from the Crisis of a 15 year old Mohawk warrior behind the barricades. On his hat is the flag of the Mohawk nation, which has evolved into the overall symbol of Native resistance in Canada and all over the continent by the Native Youth Movement (NYM), a continent-wide warrior society of Native people defending sacred sites everywhere.
On his neck is apart of the face bandana, but this part is choking him. This piece that is choking him as you can see is the national flag of Canada, which symbolizes the encroaching, hatred, and the choking of our lands as they grow smaller and smaller.

---Artist's Critique---

The composition is nicely centered, and is visually balanced by the symmetric fence posts on either side that symbolize the barricade. The only color in this piece is the warrior's warpaint, which serves as a visual focal point for the viewer to see his eyes, which say a lot about his emotions during this crisis.
Changes would be to make the Canada flag choking him a little more noticeable to people, and to show a more choking tightness of the rag, like how it wraps tightly around the structure of his face. Also some shading should have been done on the shoulders and body to not make it look so flat, maybe giving some folds and ridges of the camo jacket to give it more realism. Perhaps also a more worked on barricade behind him instead of just wire, and somehow filling that negative space on each side of the road just so its not total white blankness.
In ways though the negative space and lack of subjects drawn in the background keeps the whole visual focus on the warrior, which this piece is all about.

"Protector of the Old World"

2008-08-13T10:47:00.000-07:00

Medium(s): Scratchboard
May 14, 2006

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High School -Art II- project 1 of 3 in a theme series of portraying my theme of Indigenous Retaliation. This wasn't exactly easy due to whatever I scratched and drew on this turned white instead of black, which is in a way backwards thinking due to I'm always on white paper drawing whatever the darks and shadows are. This composition is supposed to symbolize the purity we had, with all our entities and beliefs before they were altered to mostly Catholicsm. He is a protector of how things were and used to be, using only weapons from that time also. In his background symbolize many things he protects as a warrior of his nation, including sacred sites, as shown by the large medicine wheel of rocks in Wyoming, burial grounds such as the deceased person on a scaffold high up as close as can be to the stars, and overall way of life and family symbolized by the small scene of a village and community. We as warriors and activists today still protect those things.

---Artist's Critique---

An overall well centered and balanced composition. Movement is shown in this piece well by the pulling back of the bow string and arrow, which excites the viewer of invisioning it letting go and the arrow taking flight. The curving of the rising smoke and the hawks circling the Evening star also are small factors that give this piece Movement. This is also balanced nice considering there is a lot of negative space on the top for the night sky, but knowing the symbolism of this piece, everything is supposed to be below him in the safe-guards of his protection. The brightness of his hair being white gives a good focal point to the piece, as well as the face of the eagle on his war shield.
Some changes I would make would be that overall, his body isn't exactly perfectly centered, and is kind of shifted towards the left. I'd worry about their being no room and cutting off the feathers of his shield, but just that small move to the right still would have been perfect I think and nothing would be cut off.

"We're All Connected"

2008-08-12T22:57:00.001-07:00

Medium(s): Regular "Bic" Pen
September 11, 2005

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High School -Art II- class, first day's assignment included filling the page using a medium that is non-erasable. I chose a regular pen because it was the closest thing to a pencil. This piece is a massive symbolism of traditional views of how all the Niitsitapi (original people) we're related and fit together with the earth, all our relatives, and how all the nations are connected on the one land. Every circle of somesort drawn in this piece is made into a small medicine wheel to continue the theme of connection as well as the 4 directions, look closely.
The viewer's eyes are meant to start at the focal point, the horse's eye, which many nations were impacted and adopted horses into our lifestyles. From here, the whole entire composition is linked by each of the sacred four directions. Following each line will take you to a new area of the piece as well as the line itself being apart of another object, such as the North direction forms the right side of the lodge, in the horse's mane the West direction forms the flat prairie on which it portrays a young hunter scoping a buffalo herd, etc. Every small detail in this has its own subject, meaning, and story.
Look also on the larger scale, to where you mainly see the horse and its rider, and as you scan the piece your mind will change into looking at the smaller subjects as well, that may be forming the larger scale. Such as the horse's viens on the muzzle are actually also lightning bolts in a vast wilderness scene, as well as the smoke rising from the small circle of elders up to the eagle feather, which then forms into the coup feather's notch. Enjoy finding new subjects in here, and please ask any questions about anything.

---Artist's Critique---

Overall a well put together piece, considering there was no allowed sketching first as well as not being able to afford making mistakes with a permanent medium. With the page full, the composition overall is equally balanced not just left to right sides but also the top and bottom as well. Changes I would make would be the night sky at the top right. You can see its somewhat "empty", and it seems to be negative space compared to the rest of the piece where all areas are filled almost completely. Though perhaps the night sky "emptiness" is balanced out by the blank negative space on the horse's neck, where its covered only in mane. Perhaps giving the mountains shading to look more realistic, but not too much so that it clashes with the pine forests, would maybe raise the line of "filled in" darkness to fill more of the visual negative space.
Overall I'd say the piece is so busy and filled with things to look at, defects aren't too noticeble when it comes to the principles of design.