Loki the trickster raccoon   1998 
Acrylic on canvas, leather and brass rings   92 x 62”

   This is a painting about  early exploitation of the Americas by Europeans.  Specifically, Christopher Columbus, who thought he’d found a new path to India.  He had made numerous trips to the New World, mostly to the West Indies, (mistakenly named that by Columbus himself), and each injection of European culture made things worse and worse for the natives of the area.  This is also a painting about getting things wrong.
   The circus, freak show poster style is used to represent that exploitation.  “Loki” is the trickster, devilish figure of Norse
mythology.  In most Native American tribal mythology, that figure is represented by coyote; however, one small east coast tribe, the Abnaki, believed raccoon was the trickster.  And so here, the exception is presented as the rule.
   This raccoon has six arms, like the Hindu deity Shiva, representing India, which Columbus believed he had found.  In these arms are: a ship in a bottle (Santa Maria) and a compass with the directions all mixed up, both representing Columbus; a magic fire and a deck of playing cards with an American Indian caricature on the front, representing trickster qualities; and a thorned branch held behind the raccoon’s back, representing unpleasant surprises and and an unidealized reality.