GOTIJ from Thom Courcelle and the Great NorthWest!

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

Holiday greetings on  the envelope from Thom, with a magnificent drawing of a Makah Wolf Mask, late 19th c.

and inside more fantastic mask drawings from the art of the NorthWest...Washington State, USA.

Mask of the sun and others on the tree!

Also a drawing of the  Tsimshian head dress!

Mask of the Hawk dancer!

What amazing drawings and fascinating Indian art from the area up north in the USA!

I shall treasure these drawings, Thom, as i am very interested in world folk lore and art!

And from the other side, the North East,

Thom sent me great postcards from his old home-state of beautiful Vermont!

(I have visited Vermont, once upon a time in the summer of 1974! Lovely!)

Thank you for ALL! (And will blog Rudolf, too!)

[Katerina Nikoltsou (MomKat)]

Yes, they are fantastic drawings by Thom! And I so appreciate this art. Many, many, many years ago, I was an arts and crafts counselor at a sumer camp in Illinois, and we had two Native Americans on our staff...they helped me greatly to understand folk lore and art. Amazing designs you have here, Thom! Thanks so much, they are very special!

[PIRO]

Those sketches are awesome Thom, Congrat......

[Thom Courcelle]

Holy be-jeepers, Katerina, I think your blog and pictures have made those sketches really "pop!"  They might look better here than they ever did live in person!  I'm so glad I sent them to the right person--who has an affinity for some of the native art and folklore around the world.  I'll tell you, coming from New England, I had a hard time understanding and appreciating the [U.S.] northwest tribal art for a long time.  But I was intent to try to understand it better, so I got some books, and tried to learn some of the stories, and explored some of the many contemporary northwest native artisans and how historical motifs and stories influences their work.  Studying it by creating these sketches helps, too.  Now I have a much greater appreciation for it--art has the ability to teach us so much history and so much of the human experience.

Cheers to you!