Stargazer

Several years ago my wife and I were on a trip through the high desert of AZ near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon on a beautiful cloudless night. Near the Vermillion Cliffs we stopped the car and stepped out for a stretch break on a pitch black road. The darkness was staggering and the sky was filled with brilliant stars clustered in breathtaking ribbons of light. I tried to imagine what it must have been like for the ancestral Paiute that inhabited this area to gaze upon these same stars and ponder their origin and meaning. I came to appreciate why the night sky had such a profound influence on their lives, their beliefs and their culture.

"Stargazer" is constructed from an antique haberdasher's form which was carved to shape and embellished with tooled copper foil and stiffened vintage burlap. The base was made from an antique, hand carved press of Mexican or South American origin. The colors are representative of the soil, plants, water and night sky that are so important to the traditions of the Paiute Tribe.