It’s impossible to watch dragonflies at work and not see the dance: a whirling, spiraling execution of moves of incredible breadth and depth, in ways expressly literal and wonderfully metaphorical.
The agility of movement that Spirit has granted them — of darting, skimming, hovering, in all directions and then in sudden stasis, then again, in the beat of a wing, a fury and flurry of activity — appears to embody the sheer abandonment of giving one’s being over to unbridled joy.
It’s also hard work.
So it is with this life, whole segments of time given over to dedicated labor, punctuated by times of play,. If we do it right, if we do it well — and if we are very, very fortunate — the two merge and meld into one, a balanced whole, a harmonious hoop. If we do it right, if we do it well, we leave behind us a legacy of new and vibrant life.
And perhaps that is part of Dragonfly’s message, what he, in his role is emissary, comes to teach us. Our traditions have always taught that what we do determines our children’s future, even unto the seventh generation and beyond. But that future does not happen — not merely the children themselves, but their ability to survive and thrive — without our work procreating, midwifing, a better world today.
Wings has always been acutely aware of this. It’s what compelled him to work, long ago, as a paramedic, saving lives. It’s what drove him to work for years with at-risk Native children and youth, to strive to keep families together and always to protect them from harm.
It’s what has always, even from childhood, informed his work as an artist.
His latest work embodies that lifelong tradition. From the description in the Earrings Gallery:
To be born, new life requires the work of other animating spirits: those whose task it is to fertilize, pollinate, nurture, midwife other new spirits into being. So it is with the plants that feed the air and the bodies of other creatures, procreation dependent upon the help of wingéd beings to transfer pollen where needed and allow new life to flower. Wings invokes the procreative process in sterling silver earrings in the shape of Dragonfly. Their bodies, solid half-round sterling wire segmented by chased stampwork that evokes the look and feel of the water stalks that sustain them, curve gently inward as they dance int he breeze. Twinned ajouré wings, hand-cut with a tiny jeweler’s saw, open, flower-like, on the inside, stamped rays like tiny petals along each inner edge. Each head is formed of a rare mineral, gaspeite, in the electric green of the summer grass. Each earring hangs 1-9/16 inches long (excluding wires) by 1 inch across at the widest point (dimensions approximate).
Sterling silver; gaspeite
$325 + shipping, handling, and insurance
It is perhaps fitting that, in this case, he chose a rare mineral for the stone: It is found in only a few places in the world, occurring only under very specific physical conditions, formed through the transformative process of paragenesis.
It’s a stone like our people: scattered across Turtle Island in small groups, demographically rare yet surviving and thriving through an ability to transform, to adapt, to emerge from the earth itself into the light — to work, to dance, to leave to our children a legacy of new life.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owners.
