The cycle of life is celebrated by the cowgirl with full moons on her chaps and stars on her scarf, as she follows the path of the bears cyclical rebirth. Different cultures and myths form the tapestry of this painting, all referring to the Big Dipper—sometimes seen as a bear—and its reappearance in the night sky. The panels in the background are drawn from Micmac tradition, where the bear or Big Dipper was chased through the sky by seven hungry birds. It is the robin who finally vanquishes the bear, its breast and the leaf of the nearby maple stained by the bears blood. The reappearance of the Big Dipper, like the emergence of the bear from hibernation, was, to many cultures, proof of the cycle of life.
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Donna Howell Sickles
