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Mahnomen Illustrations
Commissioned series exploring wild rice and the Anishinaabe.
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Albums Gallery Place holder
Mahnomen Illustrations
Commissioned series exploring wild rice and the Anishinaabe.
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Before Endings and Beginnings
"Before Endings and Beginnings"
16"x20"
Acrylics
I had a piece I did nearly a decade ago titled "A Schismatic White Noise", and in the artist statement I described the image in the context of a point that I have yet to find a word for. I described the painting as "either depicting the ultimate diffusion of something or a gradual repair and coming together. I wanted to capture a single point found in every internal and external conflict; the equilibrium of problem and solution. That is, the moment in which both are so equally out of and within reach."
This piece mirrors that idea. In trying to decide how I was going to illustrate my prompt - the arrival of Europeans to Turtle Island - in a manner that was neither too violent for a young audience nor one that sugar-coated the real story, I decided to depict the moment leading up to one of history's greatest cultural collisions. I wanted to capture the more spiritual essence of the moment ... where two flourishing worlds, one at a final peak of its existence thus far and the other at a peak of curiosity or desperation, converge. With no sun or moon or heavenly bodies, is it dawn or dusk? Exit and entry, beginning and end manifest through the same nexus.
This was a 3 hour venture in a coffee shop as I finish the last few pieces in my history of wild rice series. I was most afraid to paint this prompt but it turned out to be one of my favorite images.
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