Author: Sierra Iverson

How The Rainbow Was Made is a creation story from the Ojibwe Nation, a group of Indigenous peoples that occupy the northern midwest and northern plains of the United States, and the southern portions of Canada. 

While I cannot find the most reliable source material for the myth (it’s mostly online forums or blog postings where I’ve found it discussed) the gist of the story remains the same. The story starts off with Nanabozho, a shapeshifting spirit that is prominent in Ojibwe storytelling, looking out the window of his house by a waterfall and being bored by the fact all of the flowers were white. He gathered up paints, went into the meadow, and began painting all of the flowers. However, two bluebirds were playing, zipping through the skies around Nanabozho. The birds brushed through Nanabozho’s paint pots repeatedly. The paint on their wings dripped into the sky, and through the mist of the waterfall turned into the first rainbow. Nanahozho was pleasantly surprised, and ensured that the rainbow would float permanently above the waterfall. 

The image I made for this week includes the core elements of the story with the two blue birds flying by a waterfall and a rainbow. I thought it might be a little too hard to depict the waterfall itself, so I added a splatter of blue/white to mimic mist. I do not wish to represent the Ojibwe peoples in an incorrect or insensitive way through this artwork/blog post, so if anything is inaccurate please let me know in the comments!

This short Nigerian folktale explains, quite obviously by its title, why the sun and the moon live in the sky. The story was officially published in 1910 in Folk Stories from Southern Nigeria, West Africa, by the British colonial official, Elphinstone Dayrell. However, as we know from the Brothers Grimm and other fairytale publications, the oral traditions of the story are actually much older.

In this tale, the sun, moon, and water are personified. The sun and moon are married, and are friends with water. They all lived on earth together. However, water could never visit the house of the sun and moon because their home was not big enough. The sun promised to build a large compound where water would be able to visit. So, when water came, the house was filled with water, forcing the sun and the moon to the rooftop, and then into the sky where they have remained ever since. 

I decided to create a piece that focuses on the personifications of the sun and the moon characters of this folktale being forced into the sky. Therefore, their bodies are perched in the heavens high above the ocean. 

The story of Amaterasu and the Cave can be traced all the way to the oldest known records of Japan’s history, in the Kojiki (680 AD), which is an early Japanese chronicle of myths, legends, hymns, genealogies, oral traditions. 

Amaterasu and her brother, Susano, were both divine beings in Japanese mythology. When Susano accidentally kills a weaver with a practical joke, as he was a miscievious god, Amaterasu hides because of her guilt. Using magic, she sealed herself into a cave with a Heavenly Rock. Now, Amaterasu was the goddess of the sun, and without the sun goddess the world fell into darkness. The rest of the gods called a meeting, and tried to find ways to draw her out of the cave. Their solution: a party, and gifts. They crafted a beautiful mirror and a string of beads for her. Next, they uprooted an evergreen tree and decorated it with the beads and hung the mirror in its center. Ameno-uzume, goddess of the arts, danced on a stage. When Amaterasu got curious, she opened the cave door, and another god pulled her out of the cave by her wrist, and shut the Heavenly Rock behind her with a magical boundary so she could not hide again. The sun returned with her now out into the world once more. 

My illustration focuses on the evergreen tree decorated with the beads, with a reflection of the Goddess Amaterasu inside the mirror hanging from the center of the tree.

Here is the link to the story I referenced while creating the art piece and written material of this post: https://naokoyogitakiguchi.medium.com/when-the-sun-goddess-hid-in-the-cave-of-heaven-a-medicine-story-from-japanese-creation-myths-30b166125c32

Due to the atrocities occurring in Ukraine, I have decided this week to feature the nymphs, Vila, of Slavic folklore.

The Vila (also known as Vile) of Slavic folklore are depicted as very beautiful women with long flowing blonde hair and light colored robes. They live in the forests, in nature, and sometimes fountains. They are known to be vengeful creatures on those who cross them, specifically luring men to their deaths with their beauty. However, they can also be aids to heroes in battle, offering them cavalry and weapons. Village people would leave flowers and drinks outside of the caves they were said to dwell as peaceful offerings. They are similar to the women of the woods who would accompany Diana in Roman mythology, and Artemis in Greek mythology. Because of their vengeful nature and relationships with warriors, they are also similar to the Valkyries of Norse mythology; winged female beings that would aid soldiers in battle and take their souls to the underworld. 

Given that Ukraine’s national flower is a sunflower, I thought that depicting this woodland nymph in a field of sunflowers would be fitting. I made her dress and ribbon of her hair blue, due to the secondary color of the Ukrainian flag. I also depicted her with a bow and several magical arrows because of the Vila’s connection with war. I kept the idea of long blonde hair as well. Because of their feared beauty, I kept her facing away from the viewer. 

In the early 2nd century CE, Plutarch wrote a complete ancient account of the Story of Isis and Osiris, and several other Egyptian religious beliefs. However, the oldest known depiction of Osiris dates to about 2300 BCE. Because of his status as a god of death and the underworld, his worship was widespread across all of Egypt, and even spread to other parts of the Mediterranean. 

In Egyptian Mythology, the god Osiris came to Egypt to rule as its King and brough isis, his wife and goddess, with him. He was wise, and kind, allowing humans to flourish. However, his brother Set (Seth, spelling varies) was jealous, and set out on a plan to kill him and take his place. Set was able to trap Osiris in a chest as a form of competition at a party, then threw him in a river to never be found again. Isis, his wife, went to the river and searched until she found the chest. However, Osiris was already dead. Distraught, she went to get the necessary religious supplies to pass his spirit on to the afterlife. Set was enraged at this, and cut Osiris up into fourteen pieces so that he could never come back in the afterlife as one piece. Despite this, Isis was able to heal him with her magical, godly powers and wrapped him as a mummy. This allowed Osiris to come back briefly, however he was unable to stay on Earth. This is how he became King of the Dead.  

Here is a longer summary and translation of the story. It will download a PDF file.

My image depicts Isis using her magical powers to heal Osiris back into one piece. I used the classical pose of the mummy, or a pharaoh, with arms crossed over the chest for Osirus. I tried to keep their iconography similar to the hieroglyphics which describe them. The border is inspired by hieroglyphic symbols as well, but does not have any real meaning. I wanted to keep the pieces of this series (Fine Art Fables) similar to each other visually in order to have a body of work that is all cohesive. Because of this, I used more desaturated colors for the piece, as well as the repeating border motif to make it look similar to my previous post about Snow White.