Cosmic Raven and the Pleiades – 1991
On the Pacific North Coast, Raven is the central hero-trickster and regent of the cosmos, the metaphorical as well as the mythical reason for the way things are. He is not a religious figure, but like a religious figure reigns at the heart of every process, both macrocosmic and microcosmic. His main gift is that of transformation, of multiple identities. In this serigraph print he is spun into the nucleus of all-forming atom with its pinwheel of electrons which pass around a few of his alternate faces. Likewise, he is suggested in the phases of the moon. Through and beyond him one sees his fully lined shape against the farthest night sky, against a constellation of the Pleiades. It could have been any constellation or galactic view, but in certain esoteric tracts the Pleiades are said to be home of a proto-original race of other beings, in fact, our ancestors. Such speculation would appeal to Raven, indeed he would have had a hand in it… inventing, or discovering, or implanting mankind for the pleasure of his enhanced manipulations… the one in whom all mysteries subsume, or originate.
This hand-produced seven-color serigraph is limited to 195 impressions with 20 artists’ proofs. It has been printed on 1000% cotton rag paper of archival quality. The artist, Barry Herem of Seattle, Washington, and the printer, James Hunziker of Vashon Island, Washington, produced this work during the winter of 1991.
-Barry Herem