The Brave

After creating a few pieces of art that featured Native American faces set on piece of wood, I decided that I wanted to create a piece that showcased more of the replications of Native American artifacts that I design and make. I chose to create “The Brave”, and used leather, furs, and a variety of materials to really depict a Nativa American soldier from the past. I built a breast plate made of wooden and bone beads, and adorned his shirt with genuine buffalo teeth and seed beads in various patterns. The top of the shirt features gold colored metal with genuine white opal, mother of pearl and black onyx stones, that give the soldier a style that I would associate with a Mayan tribe, or possibly Aztec. He wears a necklace make of bone hair pipe beads and a bone arrowhead. I had the warrior wear a coyote face on the top of his head, and filled the coyote eye sockets with genuine turquoise. The coyote face also has two coyote tails that hang down off of each side, and he is wearing a fur hide over his shirt for additional warmth. I decided to give The Brave a spear, made of a branch from a tree from my back yard. The spear tip is chiseled from bone, and the spear head is covered in blood from a cut on my hand that was the result of making the spear. I was about to clean it off, but decided using my own blood would give it a more realistic look. The wood is wrapped with leather, and has feathers hanging from it that are attached to bullet shells. I also sliced antlers into large buttons to decorate the spear, and used a genuine malachite stone at the top of the spear. The project took several hours to complete. I started designing it in October of 2024 and didn’t finish until March of 2025. It was the most complex project I have ever taken on, because I had to design the warrior, and then create a war shirt, pants, breast plate, weapons, and all of the items that I usually make on their own, and then incorporate them into the artwork. I also made a shield, but opted to omit it because it took up so much room that you could not see all of the details behind it. I still have the shield, and plan to use it on my next large scale Native American inspired project.

DIMENSIONS: 24" x 6" x 1"

YEAR: 2025

PRICE: $5699