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Make a Choice
Canvas - $1,500 - Limited edition (999)
image size: 30 x 12.5
Also available as:
Archival paper - $750 - Limited edition (999)
image size: 30 x 12.5
Framed - add $190
Poster print - $40
How do you want to be in your life?
Greetings my friends:
In the spring of 1992, I was commissioned to paint a mural by Fairview Deaconess Riverside Hospital, Native American Chemical Dependency Program, that would impact the teens (boys & girls) to seriously consider sobriety.
Make A Choice - How do you want to be in your life?, comes from my personal experiences with alcohol. For generations, our people suffered with the same (what seems at times hopeless) problem with alcohol and drug addiction.
The mural begins left to right with the two trees; they represent life. We, like the two trees will reach maturity, healthy and happy, if we make the right choice. If we do not, we are the logs lying on the ground, hollow and empty.
Our men and women (painted in one color) are emotionally dead, as the logs lying on the ground depict. The other choice (since 1978, Freedom of Religion Act) is ancestral The traditions and ceremonies we can now use for many things: fulfillment of pride, dignity of self and family, knowledge of songs, stories, accurate history and look toward the future, to focus on the path we walk in a more positive way. The songs of the Lakota are still here.
The Elder man (center) is reaching out. Help is here. When this choice is made to participate in our culture, the Elder becomes happy, he transforms into a young man and then to an eagle and returns to the center of our universe: Bear Butte.
A new day, new life begins, the water changes to color. The most sacred ceremony in our way is the Sun Dance. A small cottonwood tree takes root and begins to grow. It too, will help. Look close, you can see a face. Our people are happy, they are singing and dancing. Sage blankets the land, Mother Earth is sacred; all life comes from her and returns to her.
The lightning ... the Thunderbeings, the most powerful natural force: the man and woman lightning is our people. The tipi lightning is our homeland. The warrior lightning, have courage to walk on our path, straight and narrow. Live by our peoples standard and values; Respect, Generosity, Wisdom, & Courage.
Daryl No Heart / Hunkpapa
Oyaté Wankapi (People Look At Him) |
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