paintings (or diptychs) which combined abstraction and representational landscape painting. For example, in the diptych Night (1991), the left panel is dominated by an oval and circle form floating across a blue gradient background. The right panel depicts a stony landscape with the craggy remnants of a cliff in monochromatic blues, greys and bright white. Deep crater-like gouges mark the sur- face as meteors would mark the earth. WalkingStick embraced the diptych for-


mat because it allowed her to combine her love of landscape traditions with her interest in addressing more complex and abstract ideas. The artist’s intention was not for the


22 AMERICAN INDIAN FALL 2015


viewer to appreciate each panel separately but to read them together as one concept or as a multi-layered idea. She has at times explained this division as representing two kinds of memory, one momentary and specific, the other timeless and nonspecific, in order to create a deeper and more com- plete wholeness. Her interest in exploring broad metaphysical themes is evident in the painting Night which includes copper in the abstract shape, a material that references an elemental connection to the environment. For WalkingStick it is also about “turning paint, mere earth and oil, into a message, one that speaks to us in a visual language.”


Driven by her interest in universal themes,


WalkingStick began to look more closely at the relationship between Native people and the land. Her consideration of terrestrial beauty and the sublime led her to investigate the deep connections and resonance of historical events in particular locations, seeking deep knowledge through careful contemplation. Her paintings began to combine landscape with the designs of the Native people who inhabited or are connected to those places. For the Wallowa Mountains in Oregon, for example, she used Nez Perce parfleche designs as inspiration. As artist Robert Houle (Saul- teaux) has aptly stated, “her landscapes are a


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