Channunpa Wakhan - The Sacred Pipe, Lakota 40" x 30" ~ Illume Gallery West

For the Lakota, the pipe is a sacred object, integral to spiritual and cultural life. Each part of the pipe - stem, bowl, tobacco, breath, and smoke - is symbolic of the fundamental relationships among plants, animals, humans, elements, and spiritual beings. The elaborate pipe ceremony includes prayers to the four directions, to mother earth and father sky, and ultimately to the Great Spirit. As the honored pipe keeper, this older man holds up a Catlinite pipe adorned with eagle feathers. He wears an eagle feather headdress, and his buckskin shirt is adorned with beadwork, natural pigments, horsehair and ermines. This noble portrait is about belief in the essence of life itself. 

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Provenance: Exhibited at Quest for the West at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis, Indiana in September 2019.

Painted in oils on Belgian linen mounted on panel.
Custom hand crafted black frame with gold liner.

Painting size: 40" x 30" (102 cm x 76 cm)
Framed size: 50.5" x 40.5" (128 cm x 103 cm)

On exhibition at Illume Gallery West, 130 E Broadway Street, Philipsburg MT, 59858
(435) 313-5008 www.illumegallerywest.com