Dioramas of the Old West:Indians,Settlers, and Katchinas

This series looks at the influence of the "spirit" from a different perspective. Generally western religions view the spirit as belonging to the other world, the invisible essence of life within us, but never seen by mortal man. Secular society often relegates the spirit to the status of a ghost, a malevolent haunting object. I found the Hopi Kachina culture an intriguing view of this subject. The concept of the Kachina operates on many different levels. This series speculates how the Kachinas might have interacted with the onslaught of invading newcomers. These pictures try to invoke a sense of those theatrically lit dioramas seen in museums. Typically the painted backgrounds and the three-dimensional foregrounds are thematically complementary. In these pictures the intention was to juxtapose them in counter point. As such they work on different levels, as the Kachinas themselves are thought to do.

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