CROW CREATES THE WORLD

More steps in the acrylic on canvas...

If Crow is creating the World, then there must be some explosions and violent colors, right?  

But Crow, as the Creator, has to stand out - she can't just blend into the Universe!  So...above and below colors and shapes with darker Crow colors...

A little micacious iron oxide to add depth to those feathers but still keep some color there...

Now what?  Where do I go from here?

Too static - get rid of one of the orbs or add another?  Lighten around the crow?  More thinking and waiting on this one to come together.

And now the name changes to

Crow Captured all the Colors and Created the World




But it's not finished...maybe some words?  With this type of creating, you can just go on and on and on...letting it sit a few days may be the best thing for this one.

There are a lot of Celtic and Native American creation stories about Raven or about how Crow was white and became Black...I could add something of that in...

For now, it will sit and wait and I'll glance at it each time I enter my little art room and some day Crow will tell me what to do with this one.


Crows are never considered harbingers of death or sorrow in Native thoughts and lives.  Crow's intelligence is admired and there are tribes with Crow Clans.  Crow is the messenger between life and death, between right and wrong.  Listen to Crow if he calls you, because he is calling you to be smart and make a good choice, not a bad one.  Or he is telling you someone from the other side is trying to send you a message.  If Crow is your Totem Animal, you are smart, you think things through, but you sometimes see things in black and white.  You also are more aware of the bigger picture and can sense more than with just your 5 senses.


***How Crow became black (from a Lakota story)***

Now, in the past, Crow was white.  He was a friend of Buffalo and warned him and his herd whenever he was being hunted.  He would fly high above and watch out for hunters.  Seeing them, he would settle down between the horns of Buffalo and say, "Caw, caw, caw, Cousin, there is danger here!  Hunters are just in that tall grass!  Run!"  Buffalo would take heed and run.  And the hunters and tribe would go hungry that day.  This happened so often that the hunters went to the council for help.

The council made a plan to capture the largest Crow, a big white one who always warned Buffalo when hunters were near.  A young hunter was covered in buffalo hides and sent out to infiltrate the buffalo herd.  He waited until Crow saw the hunters coming over the ridge and warned the herd.  When all the buffalo ran away, the hunter in the buffalo hides stayed.    

Crow saw that one buffalo had not heard him so he landed on his head, between his horns and said, "Caw, caw, Cousin, the hunters are coming!"  But the young man, hidden beneath the buffalo skins, reached up and grabbed Crow by his legs, tying his legs with string and tying the string to a large rock so Crow could not fly.  He took him back to the council.  

Now Crow's legs were tied with string, he was held on the ground with a large stone, and the council members talked through the night, trying to decide what should be done about this big, white crow who was helping Buffalo but taking food away from the people.  As they talked, one man got impatient and shouted, "Burn him!"  Before he could be stopped, he grabbed the stone, string, and Crow and threw them into the council fire.  Crow cried out as the fire singed his beautiful white feathers, but the string burned through quickly and Crow flew up and out of the fire.  He flew above the council members and said, "I have learned my lesson.  Let me live and I will make this promise to your people.  I will no longer warn Buffalo when your hunters come."  

So Crow became a friend of the people and did not warn Buffalo.  He had lost his lovely, white feathers and now had feathers as black as night.