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Works

Twelve Moons

2016
pastel over photograph
15.75″ x 15.75″ / 40 cm x 40 cm each

Although many Native American tribes gave the full moon their own names, the best known full moon names come from the Algonquin tribes who lived in the New England area and west of Lake Superior. Since the Algonquin tribes had perhaps the greatest influence on the early European settlers in the Americas who adopted these moon names, I chose to use their names as inspiration. Throughout the world, it was common among people of earlier eras to give each full moon a name in order to keep track of the seasons and cycles of nature on which we were, and still are, so dependent. Each name represents the entire lunar month in which the full moon occurs. The Algonquin names for the full moons are found in today’s farm almanacs and are part of our navigation through the cycles of nature.