The moon inspired stories all across the world, different cultures explained its nightly presence and its waning and regrowing luminance in different ways. Many saw a face in the glowing sphere, from a man to a rabbit. The Chippewa people see a woman, the beautiful Lone Bird, looking over her people from days past.

There’s more than one version to this story, the text I used is taken from Indian Legends of Canada by Ella Elizabeth Clark, who collected and published numerous First Nations stories form North America. This text specifically was written by archaeologist Ephraim Squier in 1848, recording the words of chief George Copway, who was Ojibwe (*the name Chippewa, that appears in the story, is of a smaller group within the Ojibwe, but is sometimes used interchangeably). I’ve had this book since I was a kid, and when I decided I wanted a moon related story this month (autumn an’ all), this one came to mind.

The story of Lone Bird includes several very familiar folktale elements, like the testing of suitors, the beloved daughter and a personification of the moon. But at the same time, it manages to pretty much turn it all on its head. It’s so rare to find a story that not only acknowledges that a woman may not want to wed, but also accepts it, even supports her choice. Lone Bird’s father, Dawn of Day follows his daughter’s wishes, and while Lone Bird does become fearful of living alone, she doesn’t regret her choice. Even the Good Spirit accepts Lone Bird’s choice and sweeps her to the moon.

The story of Lone Bird includes several very familiar folktale elements, like the testing of suitors, the beloved daughter and a personification of the moon. But at the same time, it manages to pretty much turn it all on its head. It’s so rare to find a story that not only acknowledges that a woman may not want to wed, but also accepts it and supports her choice. Lone Bird’s father, Dawn of Day follows his daughter’s wishes, and while Lone Bird does become fearful of living alone, she doesn’t regret her choice or gets punished for it. Even the Good Spirit accepts her wishes, nontraditional as they are, and sweeps her to the moon, where she can have the eternal company of the celestial luminary and of her people.

The story is full of interesting details and scenes, but I decided to focus on the full moon, watching over fire-lit storytelling. The moon was made with layers of collage paper, one of my favorite techniques, you probably noticed by now ;).

I used bits and pieces of it to create texture and then added a layer with the painted face. This creates great texture that the paints can catch on (you can see some of the silver gleam at the left top). I added poly-fill as cloud-hair to give more texture and movement to the work.

The background was done in deep blues with a touch of purple. I used a gel plate to create several layers for interest and detail.

I used a stencil to add constellations (do they make you think of storytelling or is it only me? ), then added some free painted dots for stars. I used a white paint pen and added silvery-white dots on some for extra magical-shine. At the bottom I painted a few bonfires, imagining their light as tiny from Lone Bird’s high perspective. I used my smallest brushes with acrylic paints and then used some distress crayon magic to texture and shade the ground and add glow to the fires. I love how the crayons work with gel plate backgrounds, they really complement each other well.

I hope you liked this story as much as I do, and enjoyed seeing the process. The next Story & Art will be on the last Friday of December, but I have several other things planed for before :)

Till next time, keep safe and smile at the moon,

xx

Naama