Pehpehtahkwiik 4

2022
acrylic, wool, floral brocade fabric, vines & ink on canvas
60 x 48″ canvas

pehpehtakwiik = thunder

This piece is part of the putting on beads & feathers series

& is also one of my floral brocade works

It also incorporates elements started in my much earlier natura directus et delectabilis series
& braided series

& is related to the interTribal series

& the stardust nation series.

Pehpehtakwiik 4 was created during my 2022 residency at the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council studios on Governors Island aka Paggank, (a small island a few minutes ferry ride off the foot of Manahatta).

It is a contination of a vein of paintings that are abstract representations of thunder storms and Thunder Beings, and honor my close relationship to them. They also allude to the escalation of disrupted, intense weather, including superstorms, resulting from abuses perpetrated on the Earth by colonial cultures and their dysfunctional cultural and technological practices.

This piece features visual layers that include my contemporary continuations of femcentric
First Nations/Plains Cree adornment traditions (with circles, chevrons and/or geometric elements). Pehpehtakwiik 4 also incorporates my longstanding gathering and exaggerated draping practices, and use of braids and elements gathered from the land (in this case my particularly favored vines) in minimalist configurations. The vines are also a 3 dimensional aspect of my use of the gestural line, also present in the entangled drawings and the interTribal series, though here I’m directly collaborating with the land again, letting the gestures of the vines speak. And of course, adorning thunder, they’re also abstracted lightning..

Pehpehtakwiik 4 also continues my use – and decolonization – of floral brocade fabrics, which I began working with about 5 years ago. You can read more about my use of floral brocade in relationship to the colonial history of this fabric here.

In addition, this piece features one of my ‘interrupted chevrons’ (in this case an exploding one), which I use as emblems for the impacts of colonization and genocide perpetrated on First Nations communities and the land, and cultural continuance and positive transmutation even in the face of such devastation. The chevron is also an additional symbol of lightning and good medicine.

It is also incorporates elements started in my much earlier natura directus et delectabilis & braided series.

It is also related to the entangled drawing series

the interTribal series

& the stardust nation series.