Sculpture
Bells
HOPI MAIDEN BELL
Announcing her approaching womanhood, a Hopi girl has her hair fashioned in the traditional butterfly or squash blossom whorls. The hair is arranged over a wooden form (later withdrawn) by an aunt or grandmother for the young girl's appearance at the ceremonial dances. The Hopi butterfly symbol is known to represent change and balance.
Dimensions: 13.5"h x 17"w x 13"d
COW BELL
This bell is a nod to the ranching and cowboy culture of the West. This image
shows a windcatcher
with the letter "C" for
cow, but the current
version uses the
letter "M" and is
stamped multiple
times with the word
"moo".
Dimensions:
8.5"h x 11"w x 11"d
SHALAKO BELL
The Zuni Shálako festival, on or about December 1 annually, is a remarkable sacred drama, enacted in
the open for the double purpose of invoking the
divine blessing upon certain newly built houses,
and of rendering thanks to the gods for the
harvests of the year. Six men wear wooden frames
ten feet tall covered with dance kilts and topped with masks of the face of Shalako, a deity or divine being.
This bell is inspired by the beautiful costumes and headdresses.
Dimensions: 17"h x 11"w x 8"d
APACHE DANCER BELL
Often called Crown Dancers by non-Apaches, the Mescalero dancers are called upon to evoke blessings at sacred Apache Gan ceremonies. The four traditional dancers cover their faces with cloth masks, each carries a wand and wears enormous, painted headpieces called 'horns' which recall the Mountain Spirits of Apache culture. Their upper torsos are painted with symbolic designs and These four dancers are understood as embodiments of the four directions.
Dimensions: 27"h x 17"w x 6"d
LAKOTA EFFIGY BELL
The Native American tribes of the Great Plains believed that invisible presences exist which could be contacted to bring
harmony into their lives. Through vision quests, they
sought to bring the supernatural and natural
worlds into close contact. During a vision quest, the individual experienced a
higher level of consciousness and would be visited by an animal spirit who then became his spirit guide throughout life.
Among the Lakota Sioux, the raven was a potent spirit
guide - mummified birds
were wrapped in ceremonial
red flannel strips and placed with other meaningful
symbols in a personal
medicine bag.
Dimensions: 20"h x 12"w x 7"d
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MOJAVE EFFIGY DOLL BELL
Mojave effigy dolls are made of un-fired clay, and as a result are very fragile. These female figures are dressed in cloth skirts and wear necklaces of beads. Their bodies are painted with red, yellow and black pigment in traditional Mojave Indian patterns. It is not known when it was that the Mojave first began creating clay human figures. The earliest documented example was collected by the Whipple expedition (1854). After 1883, when the railroad route was established through Needles, the Mojave Indians were making the dolls for sale to Euro-American tourists. This bell is based on a clay doll found in the Colorado Indian Tribes Museum in Parker, Arizona.
Dimensions: 24"h x 19"w x 9"d
RAVEN BELL
This bell was created from my love of all things Corvid. A raven is perched at
the top of the bell and the bell itself
is etched with the phrase, "If men had wings and bore black feathers, few would be clever enough to be crows.”, and words such as "nevermore" and "caw". The windcatcher is a black raven feather. Current bells have a black patina on the raven and feather, and the bell itself is done in a traditional bronze patina.
Dimensions: 12"h x 6"w x3.5"d
MUDHEAD KATSINA BELL
According to Hopi lore, the Mudhead was the first being to emerge into this, the Fourth World of the Hopi. The Mudhead climbed up the inside of a reed and when he entered this world, covered in mud, he found himself at the base of the Grand Canyon. The hole he emerged from is called the sipapu and every kiva has a small sipapu in the floor to remind the Hopi from whence they came.
Mudhead Katsinam perform in a multitude of roles within ceremony. They are an integral part of all dances and perform roles from drumming to interacting with spectators. They are responsible for distributing prizes during games and filling in other roles as needed.
Dimensions: 15"h x 5"w x5"d
SONGS OF ANCIENT WISDOM BELL
This piece is loosely based on the ancient nine-day Dine (Navajo) healing ceremony undertaken to relieve and sustain those stricken with disease, sorrow or loss. In a larger sense, this is meant to reharmonize and reorder the natural world. The songs that comprise this ceremony number many hundreds and are very potent and beautiful.
I have not intended to trespass in any way on beliefs or the beauty of ceremony - only to honor tradition and human awe in the wonder of the universe, and the intrinsic power of words.
Dimensions: 30"h x 17"w x 10"d
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Happily, on a trail of pollen,
may I walk.
As it was long ago, may I walk.
May it be beautiful before me.
May it be beautiful behind me.
May it be beautiful below me.
May it be beautiful above me.
May it be beautiful all around me.
In Beauty may I walk,
In Beauty if is finished.