Jaune Quick-to-See Smith’s most recent work deals with everlasting war and older work from a year ago addresses religion in a broad universal sense.
The older religious paintings from 2004 make reference to the fact that all life recycles. Smith uses a combination of hard science, Native philosophy and Buddhist thought.
Artist Statement
Research led to a combination of art sources from the past such as Spanish Colonial paintings, Native American traditional art, beaded flat bags, Mexican retablos, anatomy and nature books and women artists of the 16th and 17th centuries who made vanitas paintings.
Women artists such as Giovanna Garzoni, Maria van Oosterwyck, Maria Sibylla Merian, made solid contributions to the world of science and included toads, snakes, snails and wasps mingled with tables laden with fruits and flowers. Merian drew and painted the life cycle of butterflies.
As a jumping off point, I use the reference to Mother Earth, the giver of life and make a visual portrayal in the form of a Native traditional dress. She swings in the sky with selected plants or animals attached to her dress (the planet).
Who Leads Who Follows portrays a Mother Earth figure in the sky signaling that the movements of people around the earth take turns in leadership roles and no single group leads forever.
The recent war paintings, War Horse in Babylon, Trade Canoe in Sumeria, King of the Mountain, and Fear, all address the relentless need for humans from Stone Age times to our so-called civilized times to commit warfare against other groups of humans often differing in culture or religion. My research led me to Jose Guadalupe Posada, Picasso’s Guernica as well as Ledger Book and Medieval battle scenes.
War and religion are, unfortunately, often connected. The basis of life should be respect for everything and everyone, including all of nature.