Karma Grotelueschen - Mineral Point, Wisconsin and Warrenville, Illinois USA
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Legend of the First Flute
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Karma Grotelueschen
Legend of the First Flute
Pursuing an elk, a young hunter was lead beyond lands he knew and became lost. He camped the night near a stream before trying to find his way back home, and heard all the sounds of the forest, the trees and birds and insects, and also, a strange beautiful sound that he did not know. When he fell asleep, he dreamed that a bird came to him and offered to show him the way home.
When he awoke, there was a woodpecker who flew off to a nearby tree. The young hunter followed, and each time he got close, the bird flew to another tree. Soon the musical sound began again. The bird stopped and began to drum on a branch, and the hunter realized the musical sound was coming from the wind as it passed over the holes in the branch. So he broke off the branch, and then recognized that he was at the edge of the land he knew.
On arriving home, he was disappointed that no matter how he held the branch in the wind, or blew on it, it would not make the musical sounds. That night in another dream, the woodpecker again came to him and turned into a man. He showed the young hunter how to hollow out a branch and make holes spaced just so to make the musical sounds, and how to cover the holes with his fingers while blowing into the end to make various notes. Back in woodpecker form, before he flew back into the forest, he reminded the young hunter to always pay attention to the details along his path so that he could find his way back and to use the flute to remember that message.
Karma Grotelueschen
Mineral Point, Wisconsin and Warrenville, IL USAPaper Dimension: 7.5 x 10
Image Dimension: 7x9
Block: linoleum
Pigment or Ink: Daniel Smith water-soluble oil black print, hand painted with water mixable oil paint.
Paper: Sumi-E
Edition: 100