Yarn Painting – Border of red diamonds

Yarn Painting – Border of red diamonds

Maximino Hernández de la Cruz

Huichol

24” x 24”

The Huichol indigenous group remains one of the most intact primitive cultures in the Western Hemisphere. Their art, which began centuries ago, was originally tributes to the gods and now has become spectacular art, all derived from peyote visions, dreams, and ancient spiritual and mythological traditions. The artist presses one strand of yarn at a time onto a board covered with a mixture of beeswax and resin.

This painting by Maximino Hernández de la Cruz is a petition for rain and for an abundant harvest.

The diamonds that form the border are “god’s eyes,” part of the annual hummingbird ceremony that takes children to spiritual sites. We also see rain, peyote, rainbow corn, deer, shaman’s wands, a sacred gourd bowl with water, datura blossoms, and sacred arrows – all a petition for an abundant harvest.