3 Feather Wolf

Way back in December, I had a request for a fan painted with wolves.  Two cubs if I could.  She wanted it by April for her man as a gift.  Now to be honest, I am ridiculous when it comes to commission pieces and I make myself nervous to the point I'm scared to work on it.  So that being said, I waited till mid March to start it.  Apparently...I work better under pressure

It turned out really great!  It was a bit of a challenge to work across three feathers.  I don't have the photo of the ends because the shafts still need cleaned up and wrapped, but hopefully everything in this go round will eventually make it much easier to do another fan in the future!

Quahog Totems

Walking along the beach in Frisco, you'll come across tons of these little purple and white shells, polished smooth by the sand and salt water.  The natives of the area used to collect these, just as many tourists do today; noticing the rare, deep purple color.  Using everything that they found, the natives used this shell as a type of wampum.  It is still used today by natives, being shaped into feathers, animal fetish carvings, and beads.

I wanted to try something a bit different with my paintings and the quahog.  I've noticed that a lot of the new age/pagan/native shops always have little stones with laser cut totems on them; simple little silhouettes that you can keep with you anywhere you go.

It took me a little bit here and there, trying to find a good way to portray some of the animals.  The striking contrast of the purple and white also presented a small problem at times.  All and all, there's about 60 as of today; from feathers to bear paws and frogs to sharks.

Revisiting Of Totems

Totems are strange things at times, but they're a good source of inspiration when it comes to what I would like to produce next.

Scurvy of PCP, we'll often pick on for being a raccoon totem.  He's a bit of a troublemaker.  He can troubleshoot like no tomorrow, but in an outside-of-the-box kind of way.  He's resourceful, resilient, and has a small problem with survival instinct.  So the inspiration for this feather has come out of long conversations with him, and reminds me of his antics.

Along with that, I've always felt that one of my totems is a red-tailed hawk (hence the title of the blog).  I had rarely seen a decent photo to help use as a reference when it comes to birds.  Their usually too shadowed, or too far away.  There always seems to be a problem.  Once I found a good one, the painting went much smoother than I had anticipated though.

Hawks are known for saying very sharp things when needed to force people to pay attention.  They're kind of skiddish in some ways.  And if they're injured, they become a bit more fragile than you might think.  Their cry is such that everything stops when it's heard.  They are connected with Spirit, in a way that they bring messages from Spirit so people can better understand.

The Meeting Of Totems

Last April, I got to teach the very basics of how to paint on a feather.  The feathers we used for a lot of them were simple chicken feathers, so they were big enough to paint something on, but inexpensive enough that it didn't break a little bit of my soul when someone just drowned it in acrylic paint.  I did some simple designs to give some examples.  All and all the whole experience went wonderfully and I'm excited to be able to do it again this coming April.

I had one of our dancers, and long time volunteer of the Powwow, come up to me and ask if I would do a commission piece.  Her partner had an experience while praying and asking for a sign that the Red Road was the proper path for him.  He was struggling a little bit, feeling it was right but still being unsure.  He sat there for a long time, getting seemingly no answer from any of his guides.  He turned from his meditation, and they started to head home.  They were driving on an open road, no trees to cover their line of sight.  When he paused at a stop sign, a huge golden eagle came out of nowhere, landed on the hood of the car, spread its wings across the windshield, screeched, and flew off out of sight.  His totem was waiting for a perfect opportunity to show itself and say hello.  For his up and coming birthday, I was asked if I could do a painting of his totem for him.  It was the first time I had done a larger feather, and stayed up all night to see what I could do.

They both loved it!  And that's one more piece that I've been blessed to have go to wonderful people!