woodcuts

Moon of Red Chokecherries Woodcut

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.

Moon of Red Chokecherries Woodcut - Dawn's Native American-inspired woodcut illustrates the impact of Native American legend and Native American myth on her artwork.

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Limited Edition of 100
Print available: On 13 x 19 watercolor paper (maximum image size 12 x 18). Price is $25 and shipping $5.

More information about this Native American-inspired woodcut below.

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. Awestruck, she called her parents and they watched him, fascinated. But soon he disappeared behind boulders, and they didn't see him again.

A day or so later, she went down to the stream to play. Squished deep in the mud along the banks she found the big round tracks of the mountain lion. She followed them downstream, deeper into the draw. Her father had explained to her that mountain lions don't attack people, so she wasn't afraid. But she didn't know where the mountain lion was, and she wondered if he could be watching her from behind a boulder or clump of cedars. He seemed to be everywhere, in the mud, in the water, in the very air that she breathed. She didn't follow him very far, but so powerful was the adventure that she still draw and write about it often, and even now when she go down to that part of the draw she feel the mountain lion's spirit still there.

Moon of Red Chokecherries refers roughly to the month of July, just before the wild berries ripen.

The design at top and bottom of this woodcut are meant to arouse the viewer's curiosity in a way similar to ancient petroglyphs. Looking at them now, you might not understand their full meaning, but their strong mood makes us try to imagine it. Many of the designs in Dawn's woodcut might suggest masks. The Hopis use masks in their ceremonials, which represent all that lives -- the Wolf Kachina, Hummingbird Kachina, Eagle Kachina, Butterfly Kachina, and many more. To create her "masks," Dawn used drawings she had made in her sketchbook of insects and plants. The mask in the lower left corner, for instance, is really part of a beetle's back.

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!