This Archival Pigment Print titled “Skyward Return” is a fine art print made from my original mixed media work of art.

Printed on Moab 100% cotton rag heavy-weight archival fine art paper with archival ink, this UNFRAMED print has a white border around the image. The “deckled” edge of the paper is meant to be part of the art and is intended to be exposed when framing.

Each print is signed, titled, and dated in pencil.

***This print is from a series of works titled “Story Paintings” that was originally shown at the Lloyd Kiva New Gallery at the Museum of Contemporary Native Art in Santa Fe, NM. This body of work was inspired by the Cherokee creation myth and the artist is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Each print comes with the specific story and the meaning behind each piece.

Coyotes became the muses for many of my paintings in this series. “Skyward Return” is about a vision I had on a day when I woke with a particular sense of unrest. In a dreamlike state, I saw my coyote friends leaping from the earth into a portal or crack in the sky. Somehow they held information that led them to jump into this sky portal.

Were these coyotes visiting the Sky Vault to seek guidance from their heavenly partners, perhaps to return with information for their friends down on earth? Or, were they abandoning their earthly realm to return to their original Sky Vault home?

The two red circular icons are inspired by ancient Cherokee shell gorgets and symbolize the four cardinal directions.

These visions come to me like archetypal puzzles waiting to be solved. I then work these questions into my paintings. My hope is that my work will spark a curiosity in some of you and that you might feel a sense of belonging or relation to the stories. If I have related to you, we are now in conversation. And if we are in conversation, then we are closer to our common human longing for connection to each other and to our place on earth. Or perhaps I’ve helped to inspire the creative muse that also lives in you.