Wiigwaas

Birds

Birds are messengers and appear often in Morrisseau's art. Birds rendered on sheets of wiigwaas often signify strength and healing.

Norval Morrisseau, Owl, 1969.
 

Saul Williams discusses Owl, 1969.

Norval Morrisseau, Small bird on Pine Bark, c. 1970.
 

While Morrisseau mostly used wiigwaas as a medium for some of his paintings, he also experimented with other tree bark. This painting is on pine bark.
 

Norval Morrisseau painted this scroll during the filming of the National Film Board of Canada documentary, "The Paradox of Norval Morrisseau" in 1973.

My grandfather showed me how to do interpretations of the shaman beliefs on birchbark…So all my paintings and drawing is really a continuation of the shaman’s scrolls.

Norval Morrisseau, The Art of Norval Morrisseau, 1979, p. 45

This painting represents a jiisaakan (shaking tent) ceremony painted in red outlines and detailed with black. Morrisseau paints, in black, a shaman figure who conducts the ceremony. Using red lines, Morrisseau conveys the energy and power of this important ceremony. On the left side of this scroll is Mikkinuk, the sacred turtle that is often associated with jiisaakan in stories and in Morrisseau's art. Using black energy or communication lines, and two split circle bundles, Mikkinuk is interconnected with the ceremony in this scroll.
 

Norval Morrisseau, Birch Bark Painting, 1973.
 

Norval Morrisseau, Bird and dragonfly, 1968.
 

This work was originally bought from Morrisseau by an elementary school teacher while he was giving painting demonstrations at schools with fellow artist Carl Ray in northwestern Ontario in 1968.

It is an unusual work–more of a sketch done in a realist style.

Red and black energy lines give life to the bird and dragonfly.
 

In this work, Morrisseau uses the white side of birchbark as the medium for a painting of a mother and three young loons.

Norval Morrisseau, Untitled (Loons), 1969.
 

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