A Story painting by Rebecca Lee Kunz from her 2021 Exhibit STORY PAINTINGS: A Mythological Narrative told by the Creatures of the Anthropocene
at the Lloyd Kiva New Gallery at the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts ©2021
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If you’ve been following along with the tales from my Story Paintings, you may recall my recent posts about the Cherokee creation myth and how these paintings are my own modern translation of and reaction to these myths.
The creation myth also tells us that after living creatures came down to live on Earth, some of them later miraculously went back up to live in the Sky Vault. They remain there today, and are considered to be especially auspicious.
In one of the transformative moments I had while creating this body of work in 2020 I imagined some of these animal beings in Galunlati, the Sky Vault, as our helpers. And when I listened I heard them sending messages to their Earthly friends, guiding them. They sent instructions about survival and renewal, reclamation and tenuous thresholds. And, they asked us to listen.
I believe these creatures to be helpers on my journey. The title “Sky Guides” describes these cosmic Galunlati helpers as they march across the sky.
