Time Out...

    

"Those We Left Behind"    30"h x 40"w      Acrylic on Canvas

  Ancient accounts of the Kiowa Tribe tell of a large fearsome creature which occupies the deep mountain lakes and waterways within the Kiowa's old northern habitat which is now the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, Canada.  The Kiowas call this creature Zone Ait Ghahnay, which describes a terrible being having large teeth.  This creature is said to attack and devour unwary travelers of those waterways, both animal and human.

  Zone Ait Ghahnay appears in the Kiowa stories of Spider Woman and Zy Day Tahli, the "Split Boys", and it also appears in several 18th Century paintings by Kiowa artists Zone Tahm, Silverhorn, and others.  Ancient representations of this Water Monster appear on stone features throughout the northern Rocky Mountain region, and numerous accounts of encounters with the creature are told by the tribes which remain in the north.  The cover of a famous Kiowa tipi also displays two large paintings of the Water Monster.

  When the Kiowas moved onto the northern plains in the early 1600's, an argument between two chiefs caused one of the bands to return to the northwest and the old mountain habitat of the Kiowas.  Those people are known as Azan Tanhop, "Those Who Went Away Dissatisfied."

  The above painting is the first i've been able to (nearly) finish in two years, and is included in the newly published 2011 Native American Art Calendar.  I have other art and art related projects in progress but moving in slow motion due to my involvement in tribal governmental business.  I will include future postings here of some of my 'other' activities when tribal business allows some deviation.

  My wife, Allie, is selling the calendars for $15 which include 13 other well known and established artists and their works.

  I sorely needed this break, wheeeeew!

p.s.:  Click on image to enlarge for easier viewing.