The imagery in this work is derived  from a rock art site just north of Santa Barbara which is full of what appears to references to the experience of death. The centipede  is a sign of death according to Chumash legend and the striped figure appears to be that of a woman prepared for burial. The  Chumash viewed death in a positive way; the beginning of a new and wonderful journey into another world. We can only speculate that the paintings were perhaps the result of a ceremony that was performed to assist this particular soul in making the journey to the place known as  similaqsa ...land of the dead across the sea.

Her Journey to Similaqsa
from The Harrington Papers Series

14”x18”
Mixed Media Collage on Art Board
2006
In the collection of Judith Skinner

The Harrington Papers Series works incorporate printed text from some of the Chumash Oral Narratives that were collected by John Peabody Harrington. The text functions as a puzzle of sorts. It appears to be piled in random layers and only part of the story is revealed.

A note on the text: the ? is a phonetic rendition of a glottal stop sound that is not found in the English language. For more information visit Inezeno Chumash Language Tutorial