We awakened this morning, on this eve of All Souls’ Eve, to a world of spiderweb alabaster: snow white and faintly marbled with rich brown earth, all of it ashimmer in the cold dawn light.
Now, as the suns rides high in the southern sky, the web is spreading fast, warming air and earth to melt the snow at an astonishing rate. After yesterday’s high in the mid-fifties, with more of the same due today, we’re already down to a foot or less even at the deepest points.
The great gift, though, lies in how it’s melting: no rivers of slush turned to water and mud. The earth has been so thirsty, and the snow was so deep, that it’s soaking slowly but directly into the ground, nothing going to waste. As shockingly sudden as this early blast winter has been, as deep as the accompanying bitter cold has driven itself into our bones? This week’s storm has turned out to be the greatest blessing we could have been granted now.
The snow and cold were, of course, a shock to the other spirits with whom we share this land, too — to the trees and the plants and the wild creatures. The last group, though, seemed to know instinctively that it would not last; they went to ground long enough to ride out the storm itself, then returned to this place of refuge to feed and to play. As the snow melts, we are finding, along with buried hoses and a plant or two, evidence of other creatures’ presence, and there will not doubt be more visible soon atop whatever snow remains.
This is, after all, bear season.
When I use the phrase “bear season,” I mean something very different from its usage among those colonial governments who permit their hunting beyond Indigenous subsistence and lifeways. I’m not referring to their availability for exploitation, but rather, their presence: active, autonomous, sovereign and self-directed, the time of year when they venture abroad, perhaps closer to our kind than they would like, in search of enough food to sustain them through the long sleep of winter.
And so, on this still-snowy Friday, this eve of the Eve of All Souls’, when the bears walk and less corporeal spirits, too, it seems fitting that our featured works should be a whole family of . . . spiderweb spirit bears.
I’ve written before here, at length, about the Spirit Bear; at length, too, about the properties of the spiderweb alabaster used to create this family of them. This was one of two such groupings that we once had in inventory, both by the same artist, a master who walked on a few years ago. The other “family” consisted of a mother and two cubs, one baby, one adolescent, and while offered individually like this grouping, they were purchased as a set because the buyer wanted to keep them together. This is a four-bear family, mother, two adolescents cubs, and one baby, and they are carved from what is unquestionably the most beautiful spiderweb alabaster material either of us has ever seen. Like any other form of alabaster, spiderweb manifests in a variety of ways. It’s essentially white, with brown siltstone matrix, but within those parameters, color and texture and finish can vary dramatically, from the sharply-defined to the muddy. This falls into the former category, but more than that, it’s the shades and shimmer that make the stone: pure snow-white, with bold yet delicate webbing of minerals that range from metallic gold and bronze to the rich earthy shades of teak and sepia, coffee and ebony.
And the carving is just as bold, and just as hauntingly beautiful. All are on offer in the Other Artists: Sculpture gallery here on the site, but each is presented individually. We begin with the largest, the mother bear; from her description:
Mike Schildt (Taos Pueblo) created this Bear Clan matriarch (and her three cubs) in 2013. Coaxed from one of the most spectacular examples of spiderweb alabaster we’ve ever seen, this Mother Ghost Bear is solid and substantial, and she stands on full alert. Snowy white with an incredibly rich brown spiderweb matrix, simultaneously delicate and bold, she has inlaid eyes of sky-blue Sleeping Beauty turquoise. Mother Bear stands 8″ long by 4-1/8″ high by 1-7/8″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate). Another angle shown immediately below; top view shown in lower left of group photo at bottom.
Spiderweb alabaster; Sleeping beauty turquoise
$450 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply
The second bear, and the first of the cubs, is the eldest, or at least the largest. I always think of him as male and his slightly smaller, younger sibling as female. From his description:
This adolescent Ghost Bear Cub is the eldest offspring in a family that arrived here in 2013, given form and being by Mike Schildt (Taos Pueblo). Carved of hauntingly beautiful spiderweb alabaster, soft white with a stunning spiderweb chocolate matrix. This responsible little elder brother looks on closely and carefully with bright blue eyes of inlaid Sleeping Beauty turquoise. Cub stands 6-1/8″ long by 3.5″ high by 2″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate). Top view shown at lower right in group photo below.
Spiderweb alabaster; Sleeping beauty turquoise
$300 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply
The third of the group is the one who I have always thought of as a girl cub, slightly smaller and perhaps a few minutes younger than her brother, perhaps also a little less trusting and a bit more watchful. From her description:
This Ghost Bear Cub is the middle child in a family of bears midwifed from spiderweb alabaster in 2013. Mike Schildt (Taos Pueblo) brought form to this little family from a truly fine example of the stone, nearly pure white, with incredible delicate matrix lines in gold, bronze, and a deep chocolate brown. She gazes solemnly through sky-blue inlaid eyes made of crushed Sleeping Beauty turquoise. Cub stands 5.25″ long by 2-7/8″ high by 1-5/8″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate). Top view shown at enter right in group photo below.
Spiderweb alabaster; Sleeping beauty turquoise
$300 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply
The final member of this ursine family is the baby, a new cub in awe of his whole world. From its description:
This little ghost bear cub is the baby of the bunch in this family created together in 2013 by Mike Schildt (Taos Pueblo). The color of new snow, with a delicate spiderweb tracery in rich golds and browns, he stands gazing upward, happily, expectantly, through inlaid eyes of bright blue Sleeping Beauty turquoise. Cub stands 5-3/8″ long by 3.5″ high by 1-3/8″ across at the widest point (dimensions approximate). Top angle shown at center left in group photo below.
Spiderweb alabaster; Sleeping beauty turquoise
$225 + shipping, handling, and insurance
Requires special handling; extra shipping charges apply
As bears go (of the carved variety, I mean), these are some of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. They belong together, a family of fully animated spirits braced for the cold and channeling the light.
We are at the beginning of the season when the spirits walk; awaiting, too, the full arrival of real winter. This year, we must do it in the shadow of political unrest and upheaval and amid the struggle to survive a deadly global pandemic. This small family reminds us how we will survive it: together, against the cold and within the light.
~ Aji
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Wings and Aji, 2020; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
