woodcuts

limited edition woodcuts

Dawn Senior, of Moonhorse Art Studio, has worked in a wide variety of media including charcoal, oil paintings, woodcuts, gouaches, claybords™ and scratchboards. Her artwork, especially her woodcuts, are a greatly influenced by Native American art. She lived among the Navaho and Hopi on the Arizona deserts for five years as a teenager, and has also spent time on the Rosebud and Wind River Reservations with the Lakota, and Arapaho tribes. Native American legends and Native American myth are a great inspiration on her artwork, especially her woodcuts.

Her woodcuts are also featured as illustrations in many books by Native American authors and poets, such as Virginia Love Long, author of the book Squaw Winter and Gary David, author of Tierra Zia.

The "Lakota Moons" Series of woodcuts

This Native American inspired series of woodcuts are based on Dawn's own adventures with the landscape, with the unique wildlife of Wyoming, and with the Navaho, Hopi, Lakota, and Arapaho tribes. poet Virginia Love Long, author of the book Squaw Winter.

Each woodcut in Dawn Senior's current multi-color series is titled after a month as named by the Lakota lunar calendar. The woodcuts are based on Dawn's own adventures with the landscape and wild animals of Wyoming, and with the Navaho, Hopi, Lakota, and Arapaho tribes. She lived among the Navaho and Hopi on the Arizona deserts for five years as a teenager, and has also spent time on the Rosebud and Wind River Reservations. The woodcut series is also based partly on a totem wheel created by South Dakota poet, Gary David for his epic about the Lakota, "Inland Island." The series will eventually comprise fourteen woodblock prints.

"Dawn Senior's art work --both her visual art and her poems and fiction-- is deeply informed by Nature. Her multicolored woodcuts in particular reflect the beauty and sacred dimensions of the natural world. I have known Dawn for over fifteen years and have never met a person so attuned to the environment. She is no casual, weekend backpacker; instead she relies upon an intimate knowledge of the complex cyclical patterns of Grandmother Earth in order to create a wide range of stunning works. Some American Indians still enjoy this same ancient relationship with a cosmos in which one can become friends with individual members of animal or even plant species as easily as we moderns share human friendships. I write these words on Earth Day, but for Dawn the essence of this consciousness is a daily experience, which her art manifests with subtlety and power."
Gary David, author of Tierra Zia (poems of New Mexico with pen & ink drawings by Dawn Senior) and A Log of Deadwood: A Postmodern Epic of the South Dakota Gold Rush

Moon of Fatness Woodcut

Moon of Fatness was the first piece of art Dawn created after returning home from her first Sun Dance. Although it makes no direct reference to this powerful experience, it reflects some of her excitement and expresses the strong impact it had on her art, writing, and life.
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Moon of Red Chokecherries Woodcut

Once, when Dawn was nine years old, she looked out the cabin and saw a mountain lion stalking along the draw's cliffs nearby. He moved with sure power over the rocks, his tail swishing back and forth slowly.

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Moon of Black Chokeberries Woodcut

Around August, the wild chokecherries ripen to a rich black luster, ready for picking by humans and wingeds, and four-leggeds alike.

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Size: 14" x 11"
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Moon of Changing Leaves Woodcut

The Navaho character of Coyote is sometimes a trickster, a "clown," a fool, an anti-hero, sometimes a sort of folk hero, and possesses great powers. He is a symbol of madness.

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Moon of Falling Leaves Woodcut

When the wild geese wing southward and the years' leaves drift in layers upon the earth, the badger peers from its cozy den.  This image refers to the Navajo creation story in which Coyote steals the Water Monster's baby.

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Size: 14" x 11"
Price: Prints available

Moon of Scarlet Plums Woodcut

Have you ever tasted those little wild plums that grow here and there along the Rockies and Black Hills? So sweet and tart, you'll never forget them.

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Moon of the Deep Sleep Woodcut

Sheltered from winter ice and snow, the beaver family sleeps in their lodge.

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Size: 14" x 11"
Price: $180
AVAILABLE

If you would like more information on our artwork or would like to place an order, email Moonhorse Art Studio or call us 307.327.5381. We look forward to hearing from you!