Navajo Spiders & Snakes Basket - Lorraine Black (#254)
$3,250.00
Artist: Lorraine Black
22 3/4" x 2 1/4" deep
Rounds: 42
Spiders and Snakes, oh my! Images of creatures such as these are rarely placed on Navajo art because they are exceedingly powerful, and most artists dare not tempt fate. To upset their volatile nature is to cause chaotic reaction. To honor them in an acceptable manner, however, can bring about great favor. Lorraine Black has been through a Blessing Way ceremony to cleanse her mind and thought. She also has enough confidence in her abilities to believe she can bring about a benevolent reaction through her tribute to these powers that be. We believe she is correct in that assumption. Amazing!
About the artist:
Inspired by dreams, Lorraine Black's skills have literally elevated basket weaving to new dimensions. Lorraine Black's infectious laugh belies the serious magic her hands conjure up when weaving a basket. Unprecedented in her ideas, Lorraine's baskets are innovative and beautiful. Many of them make good use of texture through over-stitching and the addition of objects such as flint arrowheads or horsehair.
See full biography | See all items by Lorraine Black
Related legends:
Big Snake - Navajo Mythological Creature
This mythological creature is prominent in the legend of Navaho Windway so it is fitting that the majority of naturalistic snake sandpaintings in collections are of this short, thick, often horned and feathered beast. Moreover, Big Snakes function as guardians in other types of sandpaintings. Besides their horns and feathers signifying power and speed, red spots on their heads symbolize their dangerous venom, and speckled bodies make them more terrifying?
Spider Woman
"Spider Woman instructed the Navajo women how to weave on a loom which Spider Man told them how to make. The crosspoles were made of sky and earth cords, the warp sticks of sun rays, the healds of rock crystal and sheet lightning. The batten was a sun halo, white shell made the comb. There were four spindles: one a stick of zigzag lightning with a whorl of cannel coal; one a stick of flash lightning with a whorl of turquoise; a third had a stick of sheet lightning with a whorl of abalone; a rain streamer formed the stick of the fourth, and its whorl was white shell."? More about this legend