Mid-morning, and the mercury is already well into the mid-seventies: clear skies, a gentle breeze, and fluffy white pollen drifting through the air like stardust. The only clouds in the sky are those at the horizon, and if the forecast holds, we can expect a clear night.
Of course, we thought the same yesterday, and it began to rain just before we retired for the night.
Still, for now, we’ll enjoy the heat of the sun. It has been a difficult week for everyone here, and by now we could all use a little warmth and light.
Weeks such as this perforce turn our thoughts to the spirit world, to reflections on what it means to be an elder, a warrior, a leader, a man (or woman) of spirit. Our thoughts turn, too, to the spirit world itself, to memory of the ancestors and visions of future generations. And in times when the whole world seems too dark to navigate, too oppressive to breathe, when it feels as though dreams are all we have left, such contemplations become their own salvation. When we are failed by life and circumstance, we hang our hopes and prayers on elemental powers and cosmic forces, on dream worlds and sky spirits.
Today’s featured work, by an artist from a people far to the north, evokes them all. From its description in the Other Artists: Wall Art gallery here on the site:
Chief Jo’s Vision Mixed-Media Collage
This framed collage by Preston Bellringer (Yakama/Assiniboine) melds ancient prophecies with modern media in a piece that harks back to a ’60s ethos and feel. The iconic central photograph of Chief Joseph in the upper half of the collage is surrounded by a complex synthesis of images in multiple media: photography, paint, pen and ink, even children’s stick-on decals, all telling a layered intertribal story of warriors protecting the people in their quest for a better time, a better place, one of peace. The studded wood frame is 25.25″ high by 8.5″ wide; the visible image (no glass cover) is 22.75″ high by 6″ wide (all dimensions approximate).
Mixed media; wood
$125 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply
The work is built over a mix of watercolor skies, twilit and stormlit, a massive thunderhead still unable to conceal the sun’s illuminating glow. Beneath is a montage of images of warriors, ancient and modern, mingling with more powerful spirits: eagle and bear, sun and moon, trickster spirits and sacred clowns, all dancing across sacred Indigenous lands, places of memory and mystery and medicine and history.
It’s a reminder to us that our legacies are living ones — living on in breathing bodies and beating hearts, but also in the visions of the ancestors and the dreams of children not yet born.
And even on the hardest days, the darkest nights, we remember . . . and we work. We have the help of the ancestors, and the powers of dream worlds and sky spirits.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2019; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
