Snow in Louisiana !
Progress on Mitakuye Oyasin — All my Relations was delayed due to an unusual South Louisiana snowfall. The accompanying ice, which lasted for days, made crossing the patio to get to the studio prohibitively hazardous. No sense in risking another fall.
After the melt I got to work finishing the buffalo and moving on to the bears. This is where the panel stands now.
Seems like pretty slow progress, I know. Except that while waiting for the ice to melt from the patio, I had an idea for another painting. And once back in the studio, though dawdling over the Mitakuye Oyasin animals, I was nevertheless speeding ahead with my new idea. Below is the completed painting in its glorious vintage frame : The Corn Maidens Return
Both the Zuni and Hopi tribes give great honor to the Corn Maidens. I chose a Zuni-like representation because I wished a more human rather than kachina appearance for my maidens. Though in Zuni legend there are six corn maidens, one for each of the colors of Zuni corn, I decided for purely artistic considerations to depict four maidens, all of them blue.
The Corn Maidens personify the fertility of a successful planting and the bounty of a good harvest.` In Zuni legend, after the ritual dance celebrating the ripening of the corn, the Maidens, affronted by the lascivious behavior of the tribe’s young bucks, escaped their advances by fading away to the sacred Summerland, their white garments becoming one with the dawn mists. In my painting they are seen as they only once returned, drawn forth by the flute-playing God of Dawn and Dew at the pleading of the village elders. For all the years after it has fallen to the village maidens to represent them in the Corn Dance, traditionally when the new corn is a foot high.