Sun room Ceramic floor

This is a unique, one of a kind, geometric floor mosaic I designed and installed in my mother and stepfather's home in Shediac, New Brunswick. The design was inspired by the pattern of snake skins and wild roses.

Hopi Corn Prayer

This piece is a Kachina spirit dancing for a good corn harvest. He holds a prayer stick and a corn rattle in his hands and has turtle rattles tied to his legs. There are two disk plates on his chest, one representing the world and the other representing Spider Grandmother. On each side of his legs are corn spirits and he is flanked by a snake and an ant playing the flute. He is surrounded by Pueblos housing rain clouds and the four strains of corn grown by the Hopi (two yellow, one white and one blue). There are two sun patterns above him. 

This piece was painted in Oraibi, Arizona and is now in Shediac, New Brunswick. The Hopi ceremonial Kachina costumes are considered to be some of the most beautiful indigenous costumes in the world. The Hopi almost make Kachina dolls that are highly sought after as well.

Hopi Clown

In Hopi culture they do not believe in good and evil, they believe in balance and unbalance. Kachina spirits represent balance and clowns represent unbalance. In this painting, two Kachinas are keeping a clown balanced upon the world symbol below him. They carry prayer corn rattles and whips in their hands to accomplish the task. There are guardian snakes on each side of the world and rain clouds above the clown. Keeping the clown balanced brings harmony, which guarantees the rain needed for the corn crops. The snakes guarantee that the mice will be kept out of the fields. 

The kachina have symbols on their clothing representing three clans, the crane, gila lizard and the bear. They wear turtle shell rattles on their legs. The clown has different colored socks representing lack of symmetry or balance. This piece was painted on sisal matting on the Hopi reservation in Oraibi Arizona. It was stolen from an art gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1989. If ever you see this piece, please contact me (papaproductions@hotmail.com) or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, it would be much appreciated.

African Musicians

This painting portraits four African musicians, two males and two females. The men are standing on top of their log drums, while the women have gourd rattles between their legs. The material of the painting is woven hemp. I hand-made my own paint pigments for this piece and applied it by soaking it into the hemp matting. This work was done in Africa and sold in Chilliwack, British Columbia.

 

African Fertility

These are two detail photos of an African fertility drawing i did while i was in Mauritania, North Africa. The whole piece shows a quilt work of images of humans, plants and animals engaged in actions, representing birth and harvest. I found myself limited in art materials at the time, so i painted a large board with flat black boat paint and drew on it with chalk.This piece is now in my home in Bella Bella, British Columbia.

Leaving her body

This drawing is about a woman dying and leaving her physical body. She is on a theatrical stage and the curtain of her life is coming down.... Life is a stage and we are merely actors. This piece is raw charcoal hand smudged on paper. It was drawn and sold in Vancouver, British Columbia. I spent much of my early years as an artist in Moncton, New Brunswick and later in Vancouver, British Columbia working on theater and film sets, as i was when i did this piece.

Aurora Borealis (Nothern Lights)

I have been fascinated with the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis since i was a child. One of the most mysterious and beautiful of our celestial apparitions. Fortunately, in my home country of Canada, we often have the opportunity to see them dance across our night skies. I have painted several versions of the Auroras throughout the years, this one is acrylic on wood. I enjoy painting on wood, because i like the effect of the wood grain in the finish. This piece was painted on the Sunshine Coast, British Columbia and sold in Moncton, New Brunswick.

Sea life paintings

Sea life woodblock and lino prints