EveGriffinArtWork

Owl Moon

Western redcedar, acrylic paint

15 x 25 x 2-1/4 inches

2013

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This carving tells the story of how a friend of mine rescued a great horned owl one day in Nahkw (Nahku) Bay here in Skagway. She witnessed an eagle, with the owl in its talons, being harassed in midair by two ravens. The eagle dropped the owl onto the beach, and then the two ravens swooped down to claim the prize. My friend couldn't bear seeing the poor owl being pecked to death, and got out of her car to intervene. She wrapped the battered owl in a towel and eventually, it was sent to the Alaska Raptor Center in Sitka. It recovered and was eventually released back into the wild. Here's a video of Nahku, the owl, eating for the first time after its ordeal, as it's being hand fed at the center.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvj8SRNpAG8&ab_channel=AlaskaRaptorCenter

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In my carving, the central circular figure is both a moon and the owl's head. Nahku's eye is at upper left, and his open beak is below that, with nostril at right. My friend, the rescuer, is the aqua colored figure inside Nahku's beak, beneath a row of teeth. The two ravens are depicted in black on each end of the plaque.

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This carving is a bit unusual since it is so deeply carved yet without detail. All the detail is in the painted designs. The rough texture surrounding the central figure was made with a chainsaw. This piece of wood came from the same log as the wood I used for Fight for the Light, slabbed with a chainsaw mill by Wayne Price. Using such "non-traditional" colors used to be unusual, but now, with the burgeoning contemporary art scene here in the northwest, just about anything goes. The colors that have been considered "traditional" in Lingit painting have been mainly black, some red, and maybe once in a while, a sea green. When I was working at Alaska Indian Arts, Inc. in Haines, Alaska, the master carvers there were reticent about using colors that their ancestors had not. Respect for the ways of forebears is paramount in Lingit culture. I hoped I was not being arrogant and foolish as I made this. In the end, the thing just seemed to demand it be painted with these colors.

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I made the paints from acrylic matte medium, "super loaded" with powdered pigments. The aqua color is synthetic malachite, and the blue is synthetic ultramarine.