Artist Statement: With a graphic simplicity intended to be evocative of a glyph, this contemporary Coast Salish design depicts two hummingbirds in an erotic, sexual, perpetual s-form. Between the two hummingbirds is the subtle, backwards suggestion of the letter “s.” The two hummingbirds also create a visual pun and double as the red flower petals which draw hummingbirds to feed on nectar. Besides being evocative of a glyph, this design is intended to echo as a mnemonic device to remember a mating ritual of the Rufous hummingbird, in which the female hummingbird perches atop bush twigs, and watches as the male hummingbird continously swoops down in front of her in large circular and oval motions in the air. While thinking of this hummingbird mating ritual and glyphs, I was continously thinking of one of the early writing systems of the world—Mayan poetry, with such splendid poetic lines such as “Water Hummingbird is the wife of Not Right Now.”
--lessLIE
Northwest Coast (Coast Salish)
Acrylic on arches paper
Framed: 22" x 23"
2008
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