Pardon My Digression...

Pardon my digression, but I decided that in order to continue with the story of my life I need to go back and explain a few things.

During one of the many times when I was in V A Medical Center (after my second wife and I had split) I met a Cheyenne who had been in Minneapolis to watch his nephew’s children. The nephew and his wife had been incarcerated on drug charges and he had stepped in to prevent them from being taken by the County. He was about to have a heart bypass and his wife needed to go back to South Dakota because her mother had gotten very ill.

Well, I was about to be released from the hospital and I offered to watch the children until she could return. He was leery at first, but didn’t want them to become wards of the County. He talked it over with his wife and they agreed that it was really their only option. The children were a ten year old boy, and eight year old twin girls, and I watched them for about five days while his wife got things “settled down” with her mother in South Dakota and for about two weeks while she was back and forth visiting my Cheyenne friend during his recovery from the bypass surgery.

When he recovered, I discovered that he was an Elder in the Cheyenne Nation and wanted me to visit them in South Dakota (they were going to bring his nephew’s children there to live). I went back with them and stayed on the reservation for a couple of weeks. He wanted to do something for me and asked if there was anything that I really wanted. I told him that I would like to go through a sweat lodge ceremony and he said that he would fix it up. It was one of the most interesting experience of my life and during this time I went through a “naming ceremony” and became Stonewolf (the name that I paint under and use as my internet address) and became an honorary member of the Cheyenne Nation.

We stayed in touch for several years until his death about five years ago.

I became very interested in tracing what I could of my Native American roots…but there was so much effort made to distance themselves from the tribes and “become Americans”, that details were pretty sketchy. I found out that one of my great-great uncles (on my mother’s side) was a Cherokee Chief and had been a part of the “Trail of Tears”, and that my grandmother (on my dad’s side) was a full-blooded Choctaw.

I , initially, began painting spirit windows and mandalas to give as gifts to my children. I soon found that there was a market for my work and began selling items at local gift shops and craft shops. My art gradually evolved from cave dwelling depictions of animals and scenes like those that as storyboards in the lodges and tepees of Native Americans to more representational animals and scenes.

I must admit that my son is a much better artist than I am, and one of my nephews has had shows and works hanging in galleries all over the Midwest…his work is wonderful! But, I enjoy painting and creating art pieces...so I continue to do it to this day!

I hope that this fills in some gaps for my readers…

Until next time…