More Images from the Gallery Holiday sale
Images with stories and memories.
A Tale of Two Images
Coupon code at the end of this post.
For a signed original of this image, click here.
For an unsigned open-edition print of this image, click here.
For a signed original of this image, click here.
For an unsigned open-edition print of this image, click here.
What you see above is the documentation of both an artistic journey borne of a personal journey. The images are abstracts created from a montage of several images captured at the national opening of the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian in 2004.
I had only recently learned from my father - shortly before his passing - that his father had sworn him to secrecy about the fact that he was Native American (Abenaki & Iroquois). Many Native Americans, particularly in the northeastern US employed a survival strategy of “hiding in place”. Doing their best to blend into their communities without calling attention to their heritage, which, too often, subjected them to prejudice. For example: My uncle lived most of his adult life in the small town of Gilman, Vermont. Though a portion of the community knew him as Bert Roy another portion knew him as Bert King. None were aware that he was one of 24 children of Simeon and Emilia Roi, an Iroquois man and an Abenaki woman. Buried today in a cemetary in Whitefield, New Hampshire. Though we would visit from time to time as we were growing up, with the exception of my father, even we did not know the secret.
For my entire life, I had experienced an inexplicable spiritual affinity with Native people. But my sisters and I were never told about our heritage. My father must have felt tortured seeing this but feeling bound to his promise to his own father to protect his family through forced anonymity.
Finally, in 2003, brought on by a private moment with me, he broke down, literally, telling me in a tearful confession of the deception structure we had lived within our entire lives.
For me it was as if a dam had broken, flooding my life with revelation and a world of questions - many of which remain unanswered to this day.
Without digressing into a long explanation of the ways that this revelation rocked my world, suffice it to say that the result of that tender and tearful conversation with my father launched me on a journey to reconnect with my paternal roots. I turned to Jim and Rick West who seemed the logical mentors to help me understand what this meant for me.
Jim and Rick were leaders in the Cheyenne nation and friends through our association with Camp Mowglis, School of the Open. I will forever be grateful for the grace and gentility with which they both took my heart in their hands - and continue to so do.
In 2004 my late wife Alice, our son Zachary, and I attended the grand opening ceremonies of the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian at the invitation of W. Richard (Rick) West Jr.
I have included in this email an image - Titled “Speak to the Sky” - of the Museum that is in Richard West Jr.’s collection and another, entitled “Esheheman’s (Grandmother’s) Breath” that is in the collection of Jim West. Jim and Rick are the sons of famed Cheyenne Artist Wah-Pah-Nah-Yah (aka Richard W. West Sr.).
Upon returning home from the opening I began work on the abstract image “Approaching the Warrior” linked above. Eventually, the image evolved into a second image: “The Winter Warrior” - also above. The first image clearly stood on its own, so I decided to produce both images, one as a larger image limited to only 5 signed originals and the second a smaller, more affordable original in an edition of 100.
The Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian is one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen. “Speak to the Sky” was captured in the late day light of that weekend. Rick’s oversight of the design process has produced an extraordinary example of a building that reflects the spirit of a people.
For a signed original of this image, click here.
Esheheman is the Cheyenne word for Grandmother (Grandmother Earth). This image was taken along the Roaring Fork River in Aspen, Colorado, in early morning. The mist rising from the river coated the grasses, trees, and bushes along the river, giving the scene an ethereal glow.
For a signed original of this image, click here.
Wonalancet Monochrome
Unlike Chocorua - who is most likely a fictional character or at best a character, created by legend, from a composite of Native people, Wonalancet was a genuine person and Sachem in the Abenaki nation, in the Pennacook band or family. He was the son of the legendary Passaconnaway. Much beloved by his people, during his lifetime Wonalancet sought to rebuild the Pennacook band who - like most of the Native people of the Northeast - had lost as much as 90 percent of their population during the decades following Columbus’ arrival and prior to his birth, to European introduced epidemics for which they had no natural resistance. He did this by making valiant efforts to maintain peace with the colonial British empire, despite the fact that he was betrayed and periodically arrested and imprisoned by the British. Toward the end of his life, he helped what was left of the Pennacook Abenaki move north to northern NH and Canada before being arrested again, without charges, and dying as a prisoner while under house arrest. The image below is taken in the Township that bears his name - part of the town of Tamworth.
Hole in the Wall Monochrome
Southwest landmark known as Hole in the Wall. This image is created with a bit of a reverse process. The image was created first in color with watercolor painting used to give the sky a unique look. Then the image was converted to monochrome. The final product has a unique look.
A quick Google of “Hole in the Wall” seems to draw up a few different “landmarks” with a similar name so I don’t know if this is the “Hole in the Wall” of Butch Cassidy renown and I don’t seem to have any notes about it.
For a signed original of this image, click here.
For an unsigned open-edition print of this image, click here.
For Anamaki Substack subscribers make your holiday giving twice as nice with a 25% discount for you and the opportunity to name your favorite nonprofit organization for another 25% donation in your name. Discounts and donations are available only on signed originals. Open-edition prints are available only from my fineartamerica.com gallery which offers unsigned open edition quality and affordable prints - but discounts are not feasible.
If you are a subscriber all images available on the full gallery are offered - at a 25% discount for originals for the next 60 days to Anamaki Substack subscribers.
Gallery of Originals. Code for 25% Discount to subscribers: Honored throughout the site: SSS25 Please note what organizations should receive the additional 25% in your name.