![]() Fonseca resituates the culture hero into contemporary settings, such as San Francisco's Mission District. ![]() The subject of these works is Coyote, the trickster and transformer. ![]() Because of its powerful appeal, he incorporated some of its images into the similarly powerful and appealing creation story Henry Azbill told him."Īnother level of transformation is evident in the Coyote series, which Fonseca began in 1979 (and which, after a few years' hiatus, he has started again). Regarding the 1991 work, Darryl Wilson has pointed out that Fonseca "was particularly struck by ancient rock art from the Coso Range in the high desert country near Owens Lake. Fonseca does not replicate his past imagery but looks for new ways of connecting to tradition. The basic imagery of this painting recalls petroglyphic symbols, and although less figurative than the 1979 work, still seeks to give visual form to myth. This myth continues to inspire Fonseca, as his 1991 The Maidu Creation Story shows. The spiral design echoes the cyclical rhythm of the storytelling in connection with the seasonal celebrations. The continuing pencil and ink drawings are linked together as they rotate in a clockwise movement around the central axis of Helinmaiden, whose importance is expressed by his central placement. The central focal point is Helinmaiden, the Maidu Big Man, Great Man, or God, as he appears on the raft with Turtle. Margaret Archuleta has noted that the work is a pictorially complex sequence set in a spiral motif. This piece visually embodies the underpinnings of Maidu culture. Further, the creation myth of his people, as recounted by his uncle, Henry Azbill, became the source of a major 1977 work, Creation Story. He was influenced by basketry designs, dance regalia, and by his participation as a traditional dancer. In his close to twenty-year career as an exhibiting artist, Harry Fonseca's work has gone through a number of transformations, but the one constant has been his openness to new influences and sources of inspiration.įonseca's earliest pieces drew from his Maidu heritage. He studied for a time at Sacramento City College and with Frank LaPena at Cal State University at Sacramento, but was reluctant to become an academic stylist, so he decided not to continue formal art education in order to pursue his own vision. Fonseca was born in Sacramento, California in 1946, and is of Nisenan Maidu, Hawaiian, and Portugese heritage.
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