I have just finished for my Journey Oracle Art,
the making a new style of drum:
a hand drum for the spirit wind.
I am exploring how to play song in breath and sound in wind
as I learn to experience this new spirit companion.
The drumhead of goatskin is thin and patterned
like wind ripples on water.
I see creatures looking out at me,
even before I ask them to be in a painting.
The drumhead is sewn onto a 10" yellow cedar frame with stone beads.
The joining of skin and wood is reinforced with pearl hide glue
and trimmed with doeskin.
The doeskin braid encircles a surface of sound
before twining itself around
the antler handle from a Cortes Island deer.
My favorite embellishment are three micaceous clay beads
enhanced with gypsy caravan bells. This clay comes
from Felipe Ortega and is all the more precious
knowing he passed away in 2018.
But what is a spirit wind? And how does one drum for it?
Or in it?
I do not think, on reflection, that in the spirit wind
is an easy place to stand.
