Coyote, Turtle, the Ark and the Dove
Considering the stories that sustain us from Native American and European Sources

In the years since I graduated from Art School, I have often returned to the subject of what we believe. I am fascinated with the ideas and themes that persist through human history and that inform and sustain our religions and mythologies.

This project looks at a variety of stories drawn from Native peoples of North America and finds corresponding or conflicting ideas from European traditions ranging from Greek and Roman cultures through Judiac and Christian religions.

The exhibition may include 6 or more large tapestry-form paintings. In each, related beliefs and ideas from both continents will be represented. I examine themes such as the Creation of the Earth, the Great Flood, Death and Resurrection, our relationship with The Other and as a boy in the Hopi story ask, “Who is my Father?”

I work with acrylic paint on 14.5 oz. Belgian linen. I call my paintings tapestry-form because they hang loose from a wrought-iron rod. The paintings in this series range in size from 48” x 48” to a two-panel piece measuring 72” high and 120” wide.

Janet Hulings Bleicken