Thunder Woman & the Pomo Boy

One of the challenges of working on the Pomo Project is to integrate what I learn about Pomo culture with the inner process of mystery that drives my painting.

Watching traditional Pomo dancers, I'm amazed at the beauty & depth of ancient spirituality. Sometimes it's the little kids that really get me. One small boy just blew me away. Of course, I imagined Thunder Woman dancing right along with him. Thunder Woman is the spirit of Native uprising who's been showing up in my work over many months.

This charcoal drawing, 15 x 11", is a study for a larger painting.

Native Youth Dance Group

One of the joys of being part of the Pomo Project is attending events with dance performances. Joe Salinas' Native Youth Dance Group practices every week at the Sonoma County Indian Health Project in Santa Rosa. When I attend their practices, I'm inspired by the dedication of adults who come week after week to sing for them as they learn the age old dances of their people.

When I attend celebrations where they & sometimes other dance groups from farther away give their talents to the people & to the earth--I'm just blown away.

Ancient healing light shines from their faces, ancient healing sounds radiate from their feet & the voices & clapper sticks of the singers. I believe the earth is renewed--I know I am.

Pepperwood

Even before I met Armando Williams, I was becoming friends with a pepperwood tree on a nearby bike path. I felt the tree extending care & protection.

When I learned that pepperwood is the principle medicine of the Pomo, I focused more attention on that tree and other pepperwood trees as I met them.

Now a sense of pepperwood spirit infuses all my work on the project, as well as all my prayers for myself & my family. Of course they're showing up in my paintings.

A while back I heard my friends David Barnett & Jim Wilson playing recorder music by John Cage. This left me with an irresistible urge to paint rust/green lines on raw canvas strips. I gave in, adding pepperwood leaves I'd painted & cut from fine polyester & heavy paper. I made 2 of these strips, 45 x 6" & 43 x 6".

Next came a patchwork of canvas, plus one patch of screen & one of wool batting, stitched together with embroidery thread. Since the pepperwoods were in bloom, these painted & cut leaves include flowers. Medicine, 28 1/2 x 25".

The other two images here are simple watercolors, each 9 1/2 x 7". Bohem Trunks was painted in a dense thicket of pepperwood at the Kule Loklo village at Point Reyes, my fingers numb with damp cold. New Growth was painted on the bike path just a few days ago, when I was appreciating how the flowers come first, then weeks later the new leaves.

As time passes I love these pepperwood trees more & more. I hope these paintings nourish their spirit as they continue to nourish ours.

Kule Loklo

Yesterday Sterling Hoffmann & I went to Point Reyes to paint the roundhouse there. While Kule Koklo is a Miwok village, its reconstruction & use has included Pomo volunteers & dancers. Armando had suggested it as a good place to start. Currently it's taken care of by the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria. This rancheria is both Coast Miwok & Southern Pomo, as was Lanny Pinola, the wonderful storyteller who helped recreate Kule Loklo.

It was wonderful to be there. The beautiful structures belong with the trees, racing clouds, undulating land. We felt deepened & renewed.

Here's my watercolor sketch of the roundhouse & a photo of Sterling painting.

Talking Indian

A wonderful resource is Hinth'el Gaahnula (Talking Indian): a narrative history of Lake County Pomo through 1900. This dvd was produced by Round Valley Rancheria in 2006, & runs 72 minutes. Written & narrated by James BlueWolf, it begins with a view of the rich & peaceful life of the Pomo before contact with Europeans, then moves into the atrocities that followed. BlueWolf brilliantly crafts still photography, paintings by Grace Hudson, voice-overs of family memories, & perfectly chosen music. Toward the end BlueWolf notes that some people think there's no reason to remember this stuff--let it be in the past. Unfortunately, he urges, the attitudes that led to these things still exist. It happened here. If we live here, it's our history & we need to know it. I'd like this video to be required viewing for anyone staying in California longer than 2 weeks. It's certainly a good prelude to thinking about a reconciliation ceremony.

Pomo Project

The Pomo Project started when Armando Williams, Pomo dancer and healer, stopped by Sebastopol Gallery while I was featured artist last fall. Moved by the Native content in the images, he asked to collaborate on a project to honor Pomo culture in a series of paintings. Other Sebastopol Gallery artists were excited to join in. Our members voted to set aside our October 2010 rotation to show the work that emerges as Armando shares Pomo culture & medicine tradition.

The gallery members involved in the project include ceramicists Chris Boyd & Connie Robeson, & painters Sterling Hoffmann, Bert Kaplan, Susan Saint Thomas, Teri Sloat, & me. Sculptor Rebecca Love, photographers Christine Cobaugh & Laura Shafer, playwright Janey Hirsh, & activists Jeffrey Edelheit & Magick have joined us as well.

We're collaborating with the Sebastopol City Council & the Chamber of Commerce to make October the annual Pomo Honoring Month, with a variety of events & festivities. Here are a few:

Pomo artist Johnny Clay will be showing his portraits at Slice of Life. Sprint Copy Center will be hosting art by Pomo youth. Two original Edward Curtis photographs of Pomo women on the Russian River will be on display at the gallery, thanks to a generous loan by John Omaha & his son-in-law.

We see this as an exciting return of Pomo understanding to our shared community life. This ancient ecological wisdom will help us respond to the challenges of sustainability. Plus, it's just plain right, & long overdue.

The painting at the top is Thunder Woman & the Crescent Moon. Often appearing in the Blue Coyote series, Thunder Woman is a force for the re-emergence of Native paradigms. Here she stands among the tules--used by the Pomo for clothing, shelter, & boats. She shows us the worth of this new project in an overall return to indigenous ways of life.