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Some of my Art Work

Thank you for coming in.
Please, enjoy with me some of the art I ever loved to make.

Spirit of Santa Fe

Irregular hexagonal flat sandstone painted with Native Mexican motives in Native style in pastel colors. Dominating from central left is a round bordered circle with diagonal markings of the Four Directions. In it a painting of a Mexican Native Jug, with zig-zag and other decorative motives. Left of the mandala four parts of a rising Pueblo with a ladder leading to the entries. Right of the mandala a woman stands in front of a Pueblo with a ladder and steep stairway. All but her face and white moccasins are wrapped in a beautifully decorated light-blue blanket. Above the mandala six white archaic Animal Spirit symbols - Eagle, Wolf, Buffalo, Cariboo, Whale and Hawk – and two round dotted motives. To the right of this area a lower triangular level. One tattered Eagle feather fills the space. Its tip points downwards, fitting snug into the natural form of the stone. At the top a leather string wraps around the feather’s hollow shaft. An inlaid turquoise appears threaded onto the leather string. The stone leans against a handwoven carped showing similar motives and colors as the jug in the mandala.

When I went to New Mexico, the good feeling 
of ancient earth, bright colors, and beauty everywhere, stayed with me.
It has a piece of turquoise inlaid into the painting of the feather.

Buffalo Drum

Octagonal drum painted. The border painted with colors of the Four Directions: East ochre, South black-blue, West red and North white. From the left the White Buffalo leans over the Sacred Pipe decorated with a white feather attached to the pipe with a leather string. The right horn of the buffalo in the center of the drum. At the top a Buffalo Scull sun shield. Two feathers, decorated with strings attached to each buffalo horn. The strings tangling down over the white buffalo and into the open space West. The roots of the horns decorated with rings. A weaving motive adorns the forehead of the buffalo scull.

The Buffalo Drum I did for one of my Native friends.
I gave it to her, and at Christmas, was given another drum 
to paint on, this time wolves again.
It is for her sister and they are from the Wolf Clan.

Wolf Drum

Round drum painted. A dark colored Wolf stands left in front of a radiating halo around its head and breast. Wolf looks East with pointed attentive ears and open mouth, showing its white teeth. Seven wolf paw- or footprints run along the drum border from center top to left lower left. Each heart shaped metacarpal pad with four digital pads and claw imprints beneath.

The big Wolf Drum was for the Elders Group.
A donation of mine for the Mission Indian Friendship Centre
in British Columbia where I used to work.

Choker

Choker, necklace presented on deerskin. Four leather strands carry beads symmetrically arranged from the center outward: Central red bead, black oval bead, leather separator, red bead, black washer, long white bi-conic buffalo horn bead, black washer, red bead, leather separator, red bead, long white bi-conic buffalo horn bead, red bead, leather separator, red bead, and white beaded section for closing. Hanger string extending downwards from leather separators between the two red beads between the white buffalo horn beads, symmetrically from the center out- and upward: turquoise blue bead, black oval bead, red round bead, long black oval bead, turquoise disk, long black oval bead, red bead, oval black bead. Hanger at the middle at blue bead showing frontal: blue disk - twice the size of the blue disk in hanger string - on upper half of twice as big white bone or horn disk. Sitting Wolf of carved white bone howls into the blue disc center as to the moon. Hanger left and right of the hanger string - extending from between the red bead and the white bone: black oval bead, metallic bead, thick white horn oval bead, metallic bead, black oval bead, various beautifully colored small feathers.

The Choker, made of bone,
glass beads, buffalo horn beads and feathers,
is also given away. 

My Stone Carving

Long irregularly shaped flat sandstone, leaning against driftwood, surrounded by smaller driftwood, stones, dark spackled yellow maize and kerosene lamp. Graph carved into the slab shows a slender female hand holding up a dark tipped eagle feather to an Eagle shade soaring above looking down. The shaft of the feather decorated with dangling strings.

It is a chunck of sandstone,
and I used my electric carving tool to cut in the picture,
then painted the cut in with black paint,
and putting my signature on it,
the piece of turquoise inlaid into it.

Barbara Andrea Milito-Smith

Dance Me to Your Light
Meet Some of My Family
On Wings as Eagles and Angels
Hush! A Gift from My Genwar
Obituary

Kihew Iskwew liked receiving responses by e-mail: “Enjoy, and tell me how you like it”. Since she passed away on 27 December, 2021, you could consider mailing to “Genwar”, short for Gentle Warrior. - Mail Button from Destiny's Design 1999.  Back to Kihew Iskwew's Home Page. Home Button from Destiny's Design 1999.
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