Tool Maker: ʻAlalā Under a Blood Red Moon, Sculpture by Elizabeth Miller.
Elizabeth Miller came across Raven [known as ‘Alala on Hawai’i Island] while living in the Pacific NW for 30 years and learning from Native artists and carvers in Western Washington State and Canada. Over centuries they created stories about Raven – the character of great spiritual power that flies into the Unknown [“Great Mystery”] and by its trickery and mischievousness, brings back something that transforms life on Earth [i.e. puts the sun, moon, stars in the sky, salmon in the waters, people on the land].
When she moved to Volcano in 2004 and learned that the most endangered bird in the U.S. is the “Corvus Hawaiiensis”, she began to focus on making art in different media about this very intelligent ‘Alala. In the process of making the work, stories about how ‘Alala created and evolved life on this island started to emerge.
The media used in the “Tool-maker ‘Alala” sculpture is epoxy resin cast into a steel form. Elizabeth pours in the resin in layers, each time adding such items as: the ‘Alala I made by hand-tooling 36 gauge aluminum; a 1901 map of the Big Island that she printed on hand-made Japanese paper and distressed; globs of dried paint, various fibers and burnt paper ashes; and native Hawaiian koa tree seeds she collected. The base is wood, which she covered with hand-tooled and inked aluminum.
You can learn more about Elizabeth and her artistic process here.
