“Luella” English name
Chi-Ogimaa-binesiikwe/Big Boss Eagle Woman Ojibwe name 2019
48”H x 62”W. 122cmH x 158cmW
(Artist’s daughter)
The meaning within this portrait has not yet fully revealed itself for me.
The decisions I make when I am creating a piece are not what will the image be, I feel like that is instead decided for me. So the decisions I make are on how to best recreate the image in my head. It’s not until the end that I ask myself, now what does this mean? Often the meaning comes in waves or layers over time and sometimes this revelation can take months. And like the interpretation of a dream, You as an observer may have insights into the meaning that either are, or are for the time being, lost on me. These images may speak to you in a way that they do not speak to anyone else. For several of the portraits included in the show, the story has not yet completely unveiled itself for me yet, it is in the process of slowly unfolding. And for the pieces I feel I've adequately deciphered, I still continue to make new connections, to see things that I hadn’t before.
The goldfinch is a constant in my work. It is the language bird in Ojibwe culture. In my work however, I’ve expanded their representation to include the entire Ojibwe cultural and spiritual “tool box” if you will, which also includes the language. What I’ve experienced with Ojibwe culture and spirituality is that it is so much deeper than ...this is what we traditionally eat and traditionally wear, or this is our traditional language or music...it all means layers upon layers more than that...those things explain how to connect to the earth, to the spirits that dwell here, to each other, and to one’s self. Those things are saturated with meaning. The birds represent that depth of knowledge and understanding that my family and other Ojibwe people who follow a traditional path possess about who they are, where they come from, and what their purpose is while they are here.