Pieces Glued Together
“The Cost of Freedom.”
16”X27” Colored Pencil
©2/2002 M.Krapek
“You’ll find the Cost of Freedom
Buried in the ground.
Mother Earth will swallow you,
Lay your body down.” -C. S. N. Y.
The Indians have a legend for old found pottery. They say that if a discarded utensil is not broken, then it must be, to free the spirit of the clay. Then it sings forth what it remembers for the last time; the whispers of the corn rustling in the fields, the patter of summer rain, even the thoughts of its maker. The pottery is an earthen vessel, much like the body, holding the spirit like water. So at the end of its use the vessel is broken, returning clay to the earth, returning water to the sea, returning spirit to the sky. The fractal spiral matrix of this drawing is a metaphor for this return. The potsherd images dance to recombine into a myriad of shapes and subjects.
The Indians knew the difference between ‘Freedom’ and the ‘Illusion of Freedom.’
“If Freedom isn’t free,” They argued again and again with the treaty givers, “ Then it isn’t Freedom!”
Life ends, only life remains.
The Spiral of Life TOWERS over all who
embrace it within their brief moment in eternity!
In 2004, I awarded in trade the use of the image of “The Cost of Freedom” to Juan Cruz, for it to be used as the cover for his compact disc “Broken Wings.”
The rendering on the right is an image I drew of Cruz playing his Broken Wings flute,
titled “Blackbird” ©2008. He is truly, The Flute Shaman.
