Popular culture has a way of finding an image, watering it down to the components it finds useful and then marketing it. It saddens me to see that happen to Kokopelli, one of our ancient American spirits. Perhaps because he is such a mystery, relatively undefined in a sharply delineated way, some have thought they could do with him what they desire. I am quite partial however to this artistic, site specific, earth art depicting Kokopelli, shown above. Here he is honored as the primordial, primal, earthy, evasive though playful spirit that is fitting. I doubt that you are unfamiliar with the image of Kokopelli. You see him on decals, souvenirs, pottery and as jewelry supposedly representing the Southwest. Far beyond being a marketing tool, the spirit or deity, however you chose to think of him, has much more to offer. Clearly he is a trickster. We can't quite make out his original iconography in his earliest renditions which are petroglyphs. Does he carry a bag or sack o...
The virtual studio of author and artist Stephanie Rose Bird brings together artistic process and reflection with the literary arts, in a manner that is designed to be instructive and inspirational.