After completing year two of the Westward Waters I began to reflect on the things that moved me the most or seemed to find their way into my daily thoughts.  I combined these things in an oil painting to permanently record them as significant to me and to my life.

In my painting you can see many references to Black Elk.  I was very moved by the book Black Elk Speaks and as a result our visit and hike to Harney Peak was quite significant to me.  Harney Peak in the background represents my journey not only to this sacred Native American place but also my journey to understand better the Native American people.  In the foreground of my painting I make reference to the red road running northand south and black road running east and west, of Black Elk’s vision.  I placed these roads in the circle, which in itself has great significance to the Native American people.  It also has special significance to me because seven years ago my father was very ill and nearly died.  After open heart surgery and the replacement of two of his heart valves he recovered and was able to live for a couple more years.  One of the first things he did when he was well enough to travel was visit a Native American woman that he knew.  He never told me her name or where she was from, but she quilled him a medicine wheel that he wore in his hat band until his death a couple of years later.  I now have that quilled wheel in my possession and used it symbolically in my painting.    

In the middle of the circle where the red and the black roads cross is the cottonwood tree.  The tree is dead except for the new growth on the bottom right section of the trunk. The cottonwood tree was in Black Elks vision and I have used this as a metaphor for the Native American culture.  It nearly died out but now there is rebirth or new growth just as I saw in the people from the culture that I had the opportunity to meet over the past year. 

The subtle tree line behind the wheel on the right side is symbolic of the tree lines of two very important geographical locations related to the Native American past.  The creek and tree line at Little Bighorn, where the tribes united to defeat Custer and the tree line at Wounded Knee where so many Native Americans were massacred mercilessly.  The tree line suggests both the triumph and tradgedy in the Native American past.  The vast area reaching above the tree line is representative of Little Bighorn and Wounded Knee as well as the far-reaching plains that were once free and unclaimed by any man, and watched over and protected by the Native American.  The subtle and abstract teepee at the top left of the hill opens to the east representing the Native American custom.