Dream Spirit ~ New Painting

First of all I want to share how this mixed media painting came about because honestly it wouldn't be a subject matter I would normally be drawn to. Once a month I get together with a group of artists from around the surrounding area for a studio day. We all work in our preferred medium with subjects of our choice. It's a fun time to see what everyone is working on and to be surrounded by other artists, who lets say "get you". At one of the studio days it was brought up about doing a painting challenge, where everyone would bring in a photograph and we would all do our own interpretation of it in our medium of choice. Everyone was in agreement that this would definitely be fun to try and to see everyone's different ideas when viewing the same photo. This is the first painting I've finished for the challenge. The original photo was black and white and had a couple tipis, with a Native American and a horse on the edge. I only used one of the elements (the tipi) and came up with the deer after doing some research. Remember, I like to have special meanings with my work. ;)

So here it is...

Now for the meaning... you may wonder why I have a deer jumping over the tipi. Well if you remember reading about my last mixed media piece HERE, I used the circles as my thought... same goes for this one. The deer actually stands for the dream. Through my research I discovered that Native Americans culture regards dreams with great respect. Dreams were seen as a way to obtain sacred wisdom and guidance for life. Dream spirits were believed to watch over dreamers and provide assistance... the white deer being one of these spirits. Deer of course were very beneficial to tribes in providing food, clothing and materials for tools, but they also served as a dream spirit that would help guide the dreamer to a destination or action.

So the deer is very powerful in what it stands for.
I used an old map to make the tipi. It's amazing to think how simply they lived, their home was a simple tipi that could be moved in a moments notice, they were not wasteful and did not have lots of "extras"... so far from what it is like today! (And we usually think simplifying is so difficult!)

I am so glad to be a part of the painting challenge... to have painted something with such an important meaning that I wouldn't have done otherwise. I'm thankful for everything I have but looking at this reminds me what the most important things are to me, my family and and what I believe in.

On another note, when I was working on getting a good print of the mixed media painting, I couldn't help but play around with different color options. I really like how this brown one came out... so earthy. The original is a lot brighter, maybe more "alive" looking... which one do you prefer?

Once again, the original has lots of texture but it is hard to see in these small pictures and on the computer screen.