The Week of Masks ~ That Was The Week That Was

This week has been a week of firsts. It's the first week that we haven't followed a particular artist throughout the week. It's the first week that we've looked at masks. And it's the first week to have a post showing all of the images of the week. Below are three tables I created after finding the HTML coding instructions for making tables with images on Blogspot.

Amy started the week with two images of Eagle Woman. The second Eagle Woman mask is the one in the Portland Art Museum. You can catch her at the museum or on Flickr with the tags of mask and Portland Art Museum.


Next up was Phillip John Charette's Raku Amikuk mask that you can find in the Artic area of the museum. That mask was followed by a post with an image of Charette holding a Nepcetat mask from the collection. I couldn't help myself that day I had to include the skateboard challenge mask in the post with Nepcetat.


The week ended with the Wolf Forehead Mask and an Inuit mask of a seal. Along the way there were a few videos that included Native American flute music. As they say, "That was the week that was."

Nepcetat and Skateboards ~ Phillip John Charette

Yesterday I posted Phillip John Charette's Raku Amikuk mask, one of the Portland Art Museum's fine Native American masks. In searching for another mask for this week's Mask theme here at Fifty Two Pieces, I came across this image of Charette. He is holding an outstanding example of the most spiritually powerful of all Yup'ik masks, the Nepcetat. The advantage to this image is that you can tell that the mask is quite large because of the scale indicated by Charette and Bill Mercer to his right. Mercer used to be the Curator of Native American Art.

And since I'm running with Charette, I'll leave you with this mask that Charette created as a result of a challenge by some skateboarders in his neighborhood. The story goes something like this... one of the locals gave him a broken skateboard and challenged him by saying "I'll bet you can't make a mask out of this." Another skateboard and more parts arrived and this mask is the result.

Phillip John Charette ~ Raku Amikuk Mask

Phillip John Charette's Raku Amikuk mask is on permanent display in the Native American Arctic Room Collection of the Portland Art Museum. Charette says that the mask sculpture "teaches us to be aware of our surrounding and to tread lightly when we are in unfamiliar territory. This mask is good for anyone who does much travel in unfamiliar or dangerous territory."

At a size of six by five feet the mask is quite large. It's main body, ears, hands, and labrets are hand sculpted and carved. It has been Raku Fired with custom glazes made by artist. Charette also made the Dichroic glass beads that are located on the forehead. Those beads represent spirits that influence this being. There's a great deal going on in this mask. Take a look at the teeth, the outer feathers and labret bones. They are hand sculpted porcelain. The red oak frame is bent using a traditional method and attached to the mask with rawhide. Charette used horse hair fired porcelain to create the outer feathers and are meant to represent chaos in traditional spirtual beliefs. Instead of traditional Owl feathers Charette used dark turkey feathers to "represent spirits in the universe this being can see." The back of mask is painted with spiritual symbols.

Phillip John Charette's Native American name is "Aarnaquq", which in the Yup'ik language means "The One Who Is Dangerous".

In addition to masks, Charette also makes flutes. Here he is performing "Raven Finds the Meal".