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1960.6571.01 |
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On Canvas By Young Artist by Jann Farah, E-E News Staff The last Delaware Big House is gone. Once the center of a complex tribal religion, the original Big House stood on the east coast. When the Delawares were driven west, they moved the Big House to Copan. It has since crumbled. But the spirit of the Big House and the Delawares lives again in the paintings of young Delaware artist, Don Secondine, of Bartlesville, whose work is now on display at the Bartlesville Public Library. "I don't think a culture as beautiful as American Indian culture should ever die," he said, but added sadly, "So much of Delaware culture is dying away, When the o/d people die, it is buried with them." To halt this erosion of the Delaware past, Secondine paints history. Shown at the top of the page are his first efforts, two Delaware warriors. Since then he has done hundreds of paintings - perfecting his technique and knowledge of human form. His next work will be a painting of the interior of the Big House. Subject in the painting will be the carved masks which lined the walls. These masks represented the spirit forces and the creator, Kee-sha-la-muh-kong. They are symbolized by the red and black carved faces which bespoke life and death in the Delaware past. Haskell Youth Paints Ottawa Mural by Jane Lee, J-W Staff Writer When Don Secondine was done, the huge blank wall had been transformed into a vivid painting of the Delaware tribe's traditional Big House worship ceremony. For Ottawa (Kan.) University's student union, the 8-by-14-foot mural drew increased focus upon Indian culture in the Wigwam Room, a coffee shop. And for 19-year-old Secondine, a Haskell Indian Junior College freshman art student, it was a landmark in his infant art career. His hope is to eventually teach art to young Indians. WHEN HE WAS commissioned by OU for the job, he was inexperienced in painting wall murals - but then he was almost a natural for the job. Jeff McClure, an anthropology student at Ottawa, decided a Haskell artists would be a likely choice to paint the mural. "Since it was the Wigwam Room and Ottawa University is named after an Algonquin tribe, I guess he figured it would be best to have an Indian paint a ceremony that would have something to do with the Algonquin people," Secondine explained. The Delaware tribe is closely related to the Ottawa and other Algonquin tribes. MCCLURE approached Dr. Richard West, art director at Haskell and requested he recommend a student artist. West tapped Secondine, a Delaware from Tulsa, Okla., and the job was his. He had done some earlier work on the Big House ceremony and decided upon that for his subject. But merely the size of his "canvas" posed some unique problems. "I started out with a small sketch, a scale drawing, he said. Ideally the mural painter flashes his scale drawing on the blank wall with an opaque projector. But Secondine had no such equipment at his disposal. "So I just got some chalk and started sketching on the wall. It just seemed like the chalk was doing all the work for me. I didn't have any problems that day," he said. From the sketch he started filling in colors with paints - first the background, then the figures, and finally the details and fine lines. He painted for eight weekends - all day Saturdays and half a day Sundays. "I think I spent most of my time figuring out what I was going to do next", seeing how it looked overall," he explained. "You're right on it painting and you have to get back maybe 15-20 feet to see what it looks like and how it all fits in with the rest of the picture;" He used an abundance of red and black tones - symbolic colors used frequently in tribal ceremonies. Black represents death, red symbolizes life. The complete mural depicts the Delaware Indians worshipping God in the annual ceremony inside a 30-by-60-foot structure made of native, wood. In the ceremony, the structure represents the world and the universe. The ceiling symbolizes the sky and solar system and the floor represents the earth. A mask of Mee-Sing Haw-Let-Kin, the guardian spirit of the game animals, is carved on each of the 12 posts inside the structure. And in thecenter is the supportive post upon which God rests his hand and so transfers all the life forces to the earth. But Secondine remembers when it was just a blank wall. "That was a big wall there. It gives you a feeling of accomplishing something after you get it all painted," he said. MURAL PAINTER - Don Secondine, 19, Haskell Indian Junior college freshman from Tulsa, Okla., puts the finishing touches on two paintings which are offshoots from a wall mural he painted in Ottawa (Kan.) University's student union coffee shop. The mural by Secondine, a Delaware, depicts his tribe's annual Big House worship ceremony. Here, the left painting is a figure study of the guardian spirit of game animals, and at right, a tribal member gives the call to worship. Secondine is studying art at Haskell. (Journal-World Photo) |
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3 |