ID#:
1985.0002.000021
Description:
Spirit Dance 1, La Conner, 1952
Linocut on paper
Gift of Dr. Ulrich & Stella Fritzsche, 1985.2.21
To creat this print, Helmi recalled her experience attending ceremonies at the Swinomish Smokhouse in La Conner. In a letter dated January 22, 1953, the artist described different tribal dances and concluded:
They sing their songs all night, for the Indians do their Spirit dances only after all the white people leave. I got some good pencil sketches, which I will do in tempera.
From: Dr. Ulrich Fritzsche, Helmi Dagmar Juvonen: Her Life and Work: A Chronicle, 2001, p.50.
The artist captures the intense energy of this ritual through a flurry of abstract lines, which represent the dancer's summoning of his guardian spirit. This spirit, which would have originally appeared to a young man during a vision quest, taught him the dances and songs performed here. The creature in the left corner of the composition may symbolize the animal particular to this participant.
Helmi moved easily from abstraction to representation, as seen in the print below, which shows a Lummi dancer in his spirit dance regalia.
Linocut on paper
Gift of Dr. Ulrich & Stella Fritzsche, 1985.2.21
To creat this print, Helmi recalled her experience attending ceremonies at the Swinomish Smokhouse in La Conner. In a letter dated January 22, 1953, the artist described different tribal dances and concluded:
They sing their songs all night, for the Indians do their Spirit dances only after all the white people leave. I got some good pencil sketches, which I will do in tempera.
From: Dr. Ulrich Fritzsche, Helmi Dagmar Juvonen: Her Life and Work: A Chronicle, 2001, p.50.
The artist captures the intense energy of this ritual through a flurry of abstract lines, which represent the dancer's summoning of his guardian spirit. This spirit, which would have originally appeared to a young man during a vision quest, taught him the dances and songs performed here. The creature in the left corner of the composition may symbolize the animal particular to this participant.
Helmi moved easily from abstraction to representation, as seen in the print below, which shows a Lummi dancer in his spirit dance regalia.
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