In light of yesterday’s featured item, a new work evoking the spirits that dwell in the skies and their gift of the rain, I thought today might be a good time to revisit one of Wings’s earlier works in his signature series known, for short, as the Mona Lisa.
He had, at this point, been creating entries in the Mona Lisa series for about twenty years, but back then, they were relatively few and far between. For an emerging Native artist, they were expensive to make, expensive to sell — and it was not until his clientele broadened a few years ago that he was afforded the luxury of following this particular muse with the kind of consistency he now enjoys. This piece was, in a sense, a tipping point in the series, sold at just about the same time as his reach as Native artist began growing exponentially.
As his tributes to the Maidens go, this one was always one of my favorites. He created it, if memory serves, in 2006 (or perhaps a year earlier), and I believe it sold in 2007. It was one of his most perfect pieces in the series, with detailed stampwork that was incredibly fine, deep, and even. The setting featured matched collections of symbols on either side, wrought in relief: a shape resembling a star, or perhaps a flower, but collectively, looking like nothing so much as a group of diamonds evoking the motif of Eyes of Spirit. And from a distance, it gave the entire setting a bit of a diamond-cut look, the kind of texture that captures the light, holds it for the briefest of moments, then sends it bouncing back in an explosion of bright rays.
That texture, combined with the kiva steps pattern that formed the top edge of the tablita, made it look like nothing less than a crown, of royal dress. We may not have royalty among our peoples, but the attendant notions of honor and respect are certainly fitting for a spirit such as this.
More of the diamond shapes, this time singly, edged the top of the tablita, and directional arrows flew inward from the ordinal points. Small sunrise symbols arced along the seam where setting embraced stone, and what a stone it was — an enormous oval of Arizona turquoise, likely Turquoise Mountain, nestled in a simple silver bezel with a very low profile and subtle stampwork around the edge. At the center of the tablita, he created a hexagonal center sun from smaller freehand sunrise symbols, each stamped individually, then used squash blossom motifs to add spokes at each of the cardinal directions, evoking a stylized and exceptionally beautiful Zia-like sun symbol. He reinforced the motif above, adding a more traditional Zia sun to the hand-wrought bail.
But that stone . . . ! It was a truly spectacular Skystone, a genuine sky blue with drifting clouds of white matrix across the surface, touched here and there with the warm golden hues that are characteristic of stone from Arizona’s Turquoise Mountain. The surface was smooth as silk, and looking at it, it was easy to believe that you were looking both at a piece of the actual desert sky and at the face of one of the spirits that dwelled within it.
The rest of the work featured Arizona turquoise, as well: He added the pendant to a short, bold strand of turquoise barrel beads, likely Kingman, touched here and there with bits of white and black pyrite matrix, finishing each end off with three round beads in classic robin’s-egg blue. He made the clasp end of the findings by hand, a slender strip of sterling silver with sunrise symbols and lines placed to form a central Eye of Spirit, centered by a single intensely-hued cabochon of Sleeping Beauty turquoise.
Who wears this now is lost to memory after all these years, but whomever the wearer is, she is lucky indeed. This was one of Wings’s true masterworks, near-flawless in its freehand execution, one evoking symbols of great power, of gifts of the spirits. It’s a piece worthy of the name, and of the muses that inspired it.
~ Aji
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