Bird and Serpent Cycle with Man

Year completed: 1970's
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Size (inches): 40 x 32
Size (cm): 100 x 80

Status: Available for Purchase

Observations: An early visual composition involving the medicine snake, circling and incorporating humanity, the world of animals, and at the top, power lines reaching out to the split circles representing the yin-yang balance of opposites in the universe. The painting requires deciphering in its complexity; the colours have become muted again, which adds to the solemnity of the subject. At the very centre we see Norval's familiar, the thunderbird, enclosing the human figure, and in turn enclosed by the medicine snake, which becomes part of the thunderbird. The 'x-ray' technique has moved from literal depiction of body parts into pure symbol.