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Now I expand the design possibilities of clay with painted textiles which are intended for use on round banquet tables. I bring the rental collection out for conferences where tribal groups gather to do the hard work of facing challenges from within and from without their ceremonies and conferences for business, health, education, and governance. Elders tell me of deep memories welling up as they trace with a fingertip the lines of ancient patterns. I am trained in the method of making regalia, and this has become my intent with the collection, to treat each piece as regalia for the room.
I work hard to bring a feeling of grandeur to cultural gatherings and seek to honor the uniqueness of each tribe and demonstrate the majesty of all of them together.
This piece was designed to be on stage where it could be back lit to glow. The white mask is painted with cool green as if it were cast in glass. The black is detailed with cut work and overlaid on the white.
Small white details are handmade 'opercula', such as one would see inlaid in the lid of a bent wood box.
Navaho style image adapted from a bowl in the Smithsonian collection. Enhanced with tiny turquoise beads and chips of red pipestone.
Quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. interspersed with African textile designs. This piece was painted while i listened to the radio broadcast live from Washington DC. Quotes from various speakers were jotted down as they wee spoken, and lettered onto the piece.
this piece is unique in the collection for it's extensive use of the written word in among the graphic design elements.
These are two 6x6 panels, of a set of four, painted to depict totemic design elements that can stand alone as individual pieces, and add up to a pair of totem poles when used as column wraps.
Salish moon, Camas basketry design, and Killer Whale box design panels.
Metallic gold, turquoise, and coral colored paints on charcoal felt. Here I adapted Navaho squash blossom design elements into a quatra-foil design. Drop shadow adds depth.
The year end celebration for the graduates of the program for urban native population in te school district.
'Shoot for the Stars' headdress painting is a 6' high by ten foot wide, made as a photo backdrop for family group poses. On the line of banquet tables is my 3 by 30 foot long. 'Mountains and River ' textile.
Happy elders seated at the Chehalis wolf table.
Mid range stoneware serving bowl, 16" in diameter. Tlingit style design inside depicts the Fireweed pattern.
Mid range Stoneware, 3 quart size.
Mid range stoneware. 3 Quart size.
Designs have specific meanings: Inside is called Raven in the Spirit world, emanating power. Outside: top row: Wisdom and Cross. Second row: Shaman's Hat, Third row: Geese in flight.
Designed to serve as a centerpiece for a Tlingit/Navaho wedding. This vine pattern represents the Jalapeño flowers and fruit.
Mid range stoneware with slip painted design outside, clear glaze inside.
Commissioned for a Tlingit/Navaho wedding.
Three quart size.
Basketry designs: inside, Spirit House, and Russian cross.
Outside: wide border of 'Once around the Cross" referring to ceremony within the Russian Orthodox Church.
Tlingit basketry designs.
Inside: Woodworm pattern.
Outside: woodworm top and bottom rows. Middle rows are alternating icons of Labret, and diamonds.
MId range stoneware bowl, 3 quart size, basketry texture with slip painted designs, glazed inside and out.
Inside design are fresh leaves of fireweed.
Outside designs: top row are footprints of the grizzly bear.
Black row, clawmarks on the tree.
Middle row: Fireweed leaves.
Bottom row: Footprints of the grizzly bear.
It tells the story of bears impatiently pacing, waiting for the fireweed to bloom, to draw the bees, whom they follow back to the honey.
Tlingit style serving bowl. Inside design: Geese in Flight.
Outside design: Blood wisdom. Rocks on the beach.
3 quart size, mid range stoneware.