Sunday, February 28, 2010

Moa Skull Watercolor


Moa Skull


12" x 8"
140 lbs. Arches watercolor paper wrapped frame


A moa was a large flightless bird indigenous to New Zealand that is now extinct. The markings on the skull are a very loose representation of the facial tattoos of the Maori, also indigenous to New Zealand. I purposely kept the skull "tattoos" inexact because, as I understand it, to copy a Maori's tattoo is like stealing their identity. My only purpose in representing them here was to tie the bird to the people it once lived among.

2 comments:

  1. This is DEEP! An homage of the land and the culture, a memorial of things lost and never to be retrieved.... moving Starr... really great stuff.

    More of this Moa style!

    ReplyDelete

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