TWO ROW TIMES
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WEDN DNES ESDAY, ES DAY, SE SEPTEM TEMB BER 18, 2013
SECTION: ARTS & CULTURE ARTIST PROFILE:
What’s Trending? by Dylan Powell
Leith Mahkewa Kaneratonta “when the buds are coming out” by Nahnda Garlow
#Voyager1 Enters the Final Frontier Some folks may remember when the Voyager 1 satellite launched in 1977 to explore the solar system. This week it was confirmed by NASA that Voyager 1 left our solar system around mid August 2012, becoming the first man made object to ever leave our solar
system and enter interstellar space. Should the satellite come in contact with alien life in its new uncharted mission it is equipped with gold audio-visual discs containing information about life on Earth - including greetings from then U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
Judge Rules ÈDarwinÈ the Ikea Monkey To Stay at Sanctuary Home
This week a Superior Court Judge ruled that “Darwin,” the Japanese Snow Macaque who made headlines last December when as he ran loose in an Ikea parking lot, is to stay at the Storybook Farm Primate Sanctuary and not be returned to his owner Yasmin Nakhuda. Darwin had been purchased illegally and has been in the care of Storybook
Farm Primate Sanctuary since the OSPCA rescued him from that parking lot. Many Onkwehon:we folks will remember the story as media focus shifted from #IdleNoMore demonstrations to covering this story – something which organizers and activists were unimpressed by.
Salvage of the Costa Concordia Cruise Ship Begins The MS Costa Concordia slammed into a reef on January 13, 2012. It has sat off the coast of Giglio Island in Italy ever since. The wreck took the lives of 32 people. Five ship staff have been convicted of manslaughter and the ship’s Captain is currently on trial. Salvage efforts underway right now are an attempt to right the ship and remove it from the area – where locals feel it has been an eye sore since the tragic wreck. The effort will take an estimated
6,000 tons of force to try and peel the ship from the reef. The process, known as “parbuckling,” is planned to take 17 hours and will cost $300 million dollars – making it the most expensive salvage effort ever. If successful, the ship will be righted by print time. When completed, the ship will be towed to port and cut up for scrap. The ship itself weighs 114,500 tons - making it twice the size of The Titanic.
Leith Mahkwea - Kaneratonta is an Oneida-Hopi Beadwork Artist from Kahnawake, QC “I didn’t even think I would get in!” exclaimed Mahkewa. The artist submitted an application to show her skills at the 2013 Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market in Arizona. The festival brings over 700 top quality Indigenous artists from all nations together with over 20,000 visitors eager to purchase exclusive, one of a kind works. Her piece was not only accepted, but went on to take First Place in her division, and then Best in Class overall in Diverse Art Forms. The award winning piece is a beaded bag, titled “Raotonnets - His Spirit.” The bag carries the story of a boy beginning his journey into manhood. Her vision is of a young man carrying this bag as he walks into manhood, learning to become a strong provider and protector, hunting with his elders, and carrying in it medicines for offerings of thanks. In creating the piece, the artist went through some essential growth in her creative process. “Everything I’ve made has been for somebody, this was the first thing I made that was for nobody.” While that process was freeing, it also came with its own set of complications. “It had no purpose at first. It was just something I was making to be judged. There was no soul to the bag, and then it came.” Mahkewa says this was her breakthrough piece as an artist, bringing a strong artistic maturity, “The art is taking you where it wants you to go, rather than the piece telling you where you have to go.”
This is not her only work of art. Leith’s beadwork is in high demand throughout the nation. “For me its all about somebody who is using it. I want to see somebody using it. I don’t want to see my work sitting in a box. That is the greatest compliment to me. Whether they are gifted or bought, that is what gives those pieces life. Its good to find things that are in perfect condition but if it shows the time, if you can see the persons footprint that is what is good to me.” Her work is available to view, and for purchase, on her Facebook page Leith Mahkewa. Email address: leithmakewa@ gmail.com