Aaron Paquette Journal

The Trickster King
5" x 7"
Acrylic and Gold Leaf
on Paper
2007

This is the first time I've ever tried scanning a piece (rather than taking a photo) and the result really surprised me. I'm quite happy with it.

This piece continues my near obsession with a character I call the "Red Raven" based on a Native American myth about how the Raven Stole the Sun. It's my imagining of how the raven felt when the Sun burnt his beautiful white feathers.

In the legend, Raven was once all white, and was the most spectacular of the animals. One day, he sees a child playing with a shiny golden ball (it is the Sun and the child is the grandson of the Old Man -the Creator- who gave it to him to calm his crying. Raven couldn't resist and swept in and stole the bright object and flew off into the sky.

At this point in the world's history, there was only night, with no moon, no sun, just the eternal stars. Previously Raven had nabbed the moon from this same place, and from the same child, and dropped it in the sky.

This time, however, Raven pays for his theft and is scorched to a crisp, all his gorgeous plumage turning midnight black. He drops the Sun in pain and now we have night and day.

Here is where I step in as an artist.

Across cultures, the Raven is a profound character of wisdom, cunning, foolishness, and spirtual portents. I decided to use these ideas to construct a pyschological concept of the Raven who stole the sun, and depicted him in the stages in between his white (spiritual) existence and black (earthly) existence.

He is at the moment in between, hovering between two planes, bridging the gap of earth and sky, physical and spiritual, seen and unseen.

He is the Trickster King.