We have spent the week looking, in part, at the role of the horse —and its fiery and elemental spirit — in Native art. In its physical form, despite a seeming ability to fly through the air, the horse is decidedly a spirit of the earth, one whose long legs and strong hooves carry us over terrain too difficult for our own fragile feet, and over far greater distances than our weaker legs can manage.
In an environment like ours, rugged and mountainous, a desert that is nonetheless subject to flash flooding and extremes of weather, this is a gift of incalculable value.
Such ruminations this morning brought my thoughts, perhaps naturally, around to one of Wings’s older works, a piece that we haven’t featured in quite some time. That realization surprised me a bit, because it’s always been one of my favorites: in part because, as the band is currently shaped, it fits me, true; but also because its earthy simplicity has always appealed to me. It makes me think of the beautiful red canyon country not far west of here, gigantic outcroppings of red-gold sandstone as old as time, mesas limned crimson in the light of sunset — or the storm. From its description in the Bracelets Gallery here on the site:
Desert Canyons Cuff Bracelet
Rich brown and gray tones limned in deep reds evoke the desert’s stark, rugged sandstone canyons in the large oval picture jasper cabochon that forms the centerpiece of this striking cuff. Dual strands of heavy triangle wire support the stone, which rests in a sawtooth bezel.
Sterling silver; picture jasper
$375 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Our peaks here tend to be more green, but there are areas of tundra near their summits, and the the craggy cliff faces of El Salto that, from our vantage point here, I refer to collectively as The Old Man. They are similar in color, warm red-gold earth that shifts shape and shade in the changing light. And our mountains are home to the horses, both those who carry the people on pilgrimage and hunt and those who run unbridled and unencumbered by rope or rein, or any other attachment.
Today’s work embodies that elemental spirit of earth and horse alike: a spirit stark and elusive, softly harnessed by a pair of silvery reins in the color of the light.
~ Aji
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