Page 97 - TheRussellCatalogue2016

126R. TOM GILLEON Poiaoil30 x 30 inches$28,000–34,000Blackfoot legend tells of Poia, the son of the maiden Feather Woman and the Morning Star god. e Morning Star god o ered the mortal Feather Woman his hand in marriage and upon accepting, Feather Woman ascended into the heavens where she lived with Morning Star’s father Sun and mother Moon and bore a son, Poia. She soon disobeyed her celestial in-laws, however, and was banished back to earth, where she died of a broken heart. Little Poia was raised as an orphan by his mother’s tribe, severed entirely from his semi-divine origins but for a large scar over his left eye: a mark of his transition between the heavens and the earth, mortal and immortal.I depicted Poia, or “Scarface,” as a worldly gure anchored in mortal time and space. His gaze is wise but uncertain, his face is lined with age, and the great Blackfoot legend—both man and myth—wears the icker of a smile. Emphasizing Pios’s humanity helps us to recognize the divinity within ourselves.R. Tom Gilleon