The Onrush of Time

About the Work

From the Artist

At the time I made this triptych print, I was living in Ithaca, NY. The many waterfalls near Ithaca came to represent the onrush of our lives. These undammed cascades rush on—constantly changing and never changing. Like our lives. My husband of 30 years had died only two months prior to my visit to Brandywine [Workshop and Archives, Philadelphia] so that this sense of our unstoppable, onrushing lives was very much in my thoughts. The colors, the dense water on one side, the rushing water in the middle, and the very active drawing of the waterfall itself all add up to my visual description of the brevity and swiftness of life.
_{—From Brandywine Workshop and Archives records}

I initially painted landscape in the mid-1980s. My question then was, what does landscape visually imply? What does the earth convey to us metaphorically, and how can I use this visual trope to express my personal take on our late 20th-century experience? I continue to explore these questions, but their meanings have seemed to change as I change.

One of the constants in my artwork is the emphasis on touch, which is sometimes expressed through the material itself, and other times through the image that suggests the physical feel of a body or a place. The memory of touch, that kinesthetic memory of how touch feels is a part of our mind’s imaging of physical activity. Touch is suppressed in our western culture to our great loss, for it is a basic human need.

Another constant is the filter of memory which simplifies and focuses content. My landscapes are based on site sketches and photos, and the figures from imagination, so these are neither a depiction of a specific place nor an activity, but a suggestion of how a place and an activity would feel. They describe a psychological state.

My paintings take a broad view of what constitutes Native American Art. My wish has been to express our Native and non-Native shared identity. We humans of all races are more alike than different, and it is this shared heritage, as well as my personal heritage I wish to express. I want all people to hold onto their cultures—they are precious—but I also want to encourage a mutual recognition of shared being. My goal has always been to paint about who I am as a 20th/21st-century artist, and also as a Native American. My thoughts on our native history filled my work for many years. Today, I deal with feelings and thoughts common to all. I would hope my work encourage the viewer to see our shared humanity in all of its gritty, frightening, awkward, sexy, funny and beautiful commonality.
_{—Adapted and excerpted from http://www.kaywalkingstick.com/statement/index_new.htm, accessed 7-28-2021}

Landscape is frequently used as a metaphor by Native American contemporary artists to express a variety of psychological and emotional conditions. Kay WalkingStick, a Cherokee and Winnebago artist, created The Onrush of Time in 1990. The offset lithograph, limited to 50 copies, is a continuation of the visual ideas explored in her paintings. WalkingStick's reverence for nature and the presence of spiritual energy is reflected in the vast uninhabited land. Her partitioning approach to printmaking is related to her abstract landscape paintings in diptych format.
_{—Adapted from "Fresh, Human and Personal: Signature of Brandywine Workshop," Three Decades of American Printmaking: The Brandywine Workshop Collection (Manchester, VT: Hudson Hills Press, 2004)}