Sun Dance is fast approaching and Tra and I have been working together, not on quilts this time, but instead on the last little prep things for the arena. Specifically, this week, we've been painting buffalo skulls.
Each of the four gates in the Sun Dance arbor/arena area faces the compass points of north, south, east and west. Each gate or opening is blessed with a sacred buffalo skull sitting at that entryway. The skulls are often painted with the colors associated with that direction and it's spirit nations. We also had extra skulls for use during the Sun Dance ceremony itself, and all these skulls needed first to be sealed, the primered, then painted, and then some had extra detailing added.
I arrived this week to having Lester, Tra and Jon all sitting in front of skulls on a table in Jon's garage and when I walked up, everyone looked at me expectantly. "Good, you're just in time," Lester said.
"In time for what?" I queried.
"Can you paint lightening? We want this skull to honor the Wakiyan nation, the lightning and thunder beings."
"Sure," I responded, if you have a photo or a picture you would like me to put on it.
They were all way ahead of me. Lester chose his favorite lightning photo graph and I went to work. Before this month, I had never even considered painting buffalo skulls as even a remote possibility of anything I would do this lifetime...but if it can help with doing anything to support their traditional ceremonies, I'm willing to role up my sleeves and dive into just about anything.
The basecoat had already been done and was dry when I arrived. Photo in hand, I found the most delicate paint brush I could, and took both pure white and violet acrylic paint and set to work following Lester's instruction as to where he wanted the lightning to run. This is what I came up with:
I think it turned out alright for my first ever lightning buffalo skull.
1 comment:
I think it is awesome - and your quilts are marvelous. You have soooo much talent. j
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