Hopi Clown

In Hopi culture they do not believe in good and evil, they believe in balance and unbalance. Kachina spirits represent balance and clowns represent unbalance. In this painting, two Kachinas are keeping a clown balanced upon the world symbol below him. They carry prayer corn rattles and whips in their hands to accomplish the task. There are guardian snakes on each side of the world and rain clouds above the clown. Keeping the clown balanced brings harmony, which guarantees the rain needed for the corn crops. The snakes guarantee that the mice will be kept out of the fields. 

The kachina have symbols on their clothing representing three clans, the crane, gila lizard and the bear. They wear turtle shell rattles on their legs. The clown has different colored socks representing lack of symmetry or balance. This piece was painted on sisal matting on the Hopi reservation in Oraibi Arizona. It was stolen from an art gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1989. If ever you see this piece, please contact me (papaproductions@hotmail.com) or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, it would be much appreciated.