Honor the Earth

Sacred Bison/22x30 inches/Oil and Gold Leaf on PaperPower Image #7-Connection to Ancestors/30x40 inches/OIl on canvas

A decade ago, we followed Bonnie Raitt, Joan Baez, and the Indigo Girls around Montana for the Honor the Earth Tour. The purpose of those musicians traveling together was to register Native Americans on the Reservations to vote. The Buffalo of Yellowstone were being slaughtered, and the point was to change some opinions in the State Legislature of Montana. It helped but the Buffalo still need support and protection from slaughter. I came home with the music and painted and painted to the double CD until it was scratched. I now have my second copy. The rhythms of the music and the messages transformed my painting. The Power Images that began as moving horses as metaphors for higher power evolved into the connection to ancestors series and that into images of bison. The recently sold charcoal of a resting buffalo references photos of the Yellowstone Bison. They are the remaining herd with a link to the prehistoric bison. I have many full circle moments in my work. Moving from Power Image #7 to the study of cave art to the Legends of Native Americans and now to connection to the only prehistoric mammal still living is a spiral that I am enjoying following. All power is found in circles.