“Our pain as a people keeps my heart wrapped in tears. Provides inspiration to my fingertips that search this realm for lost hope. I am an artist, can you feel my love reaching out through my work?” - Simone McLeod
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| Ojibwe artist Simone McLeod |
PAINTINGS AS MEDICINE BUNDLES
Simone's paintings have a spiritual content that is reminiscent of the spirit powers of the midewiyaanag (medicine bundles) that her ancestors carried - which were living objects, or manidoog in themselves. Made of animal skin, these bags were usually filled with spirit guardians and sacrificial and healing items, including small pouches of dried herbs and roots whose spiritual and protective properties aided in the curing of ailments. Like the midewiyaan, Simone's paintings carry and represent the beliefs and identity of her ancestors, their long migration history, their strength and resilience and healing as a People, as well as their innate kindness, generosity, and faith in a better future. But her paintings, no matter how colorful and positive in nature, also reflect the frustrations of her People, their collective tears and sorrows as she, as a person and an artist, daily faces the grim consequences of hundreds of years of ethnocide and social traumas that to this day threaten Anishinaabe-bimaadiziwin, the Aboriginal Way Of Life.
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| "UNITY OF THOUGHTS" by Simone McLeod |
ABOUT THE PAINTING
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Bezhigo-inendamowin, or bezhigwendaamowin. It means many things: the same thought, unity and conformity of thoughts and sentiments, concord; constancy. This piece, which I did in May 2013, is a tribute to friendship between people and clans and to growing together as individuals. The man in he painting, dressed in blue, represents waabizheshi doodem, the marten clan. Name doodem, the sturgeon fish clan, is represented by the woman, dressed in red. The red and yellow of the fire that I painted at the bottom is giving life to the people as depicted with the red and yellow unity circle in the male figure's arm- which is all also the centering point for the female. It is a story of Trust, Kinship, Strength, and many other of the virtues I paint into each painting that I do. I hope you all enjoy this piece. Miigwech.
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| artist, Simone McLeod May 8 |
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