I grew up in a traditional religious church. I heard the scripture from the Bible "Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me" regularly throughout my youth. I am an artist and a visual person. When the comforting staff is mentioned, I always saw a curved herding staff and an old man with a beard.
As I moved on to study different spiritualities and religions, one of the most important studies was that of Native People before Europeans. They had their own version of staffs that both men and women carried. They made their staffs and decorated them with their own personal power items.
This painting would be called an automatic painting. It just came from the paint and the brush in my hand. There was no plan or agenda. It is just what emerged.
It is a painting about going from one image of my youth to the image of my Native American spirituality. The strength and the comfort as well as the utilitarian uses of the staff came from two different worlds but the Truth is the Truth. They are comforting. They are power and strength. Used correctly, they are tools of creation. They are physical manifestations of the higher power we all carry inside of us. It does not matter what shape they take or how we adorn them. They are the same. There is one Truth. It is the same. It is Beautiful. The Fire of Creation is the beginning and a colorful world is created.
Katherine Ari Wheelus Dannels
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