Rain (C.S. 1854), 1990, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, oil, wax, silver spoons, and nails on door; ink on paper, framed; and engraved metal plate on wood, three parts: 80 × 30 in.; 12 × 12 in.; and 12 × 12 in., Heard Museum, Phoenix; purchased with funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Goldsmith Foundation, Fabricated by Neal Ambrose-Smith, © Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Photograph by Craig Smith
Rain (C.S., 1854)
Narrator: Smith called this work Rain (C.S., 1854). G. Peter Jemison is a member of the Seneca Nation heron clan.
G. Peter Jemison: As you move around the painting, you would be struck by this light being reflected from the spoons. And I like that idea, because it's difficult to capture, really, what rain looks like If you try to paint it.
Narrator: The “C.S.” of the painting’s subtitle stands for Chief Seattle, who was a Suquamish and Duwamish chief during the middle of the nineteenth century.
G. Peter Jemison: Chief Seattle, of course, is famous for making an early statement about the necessity to live in harmony with the natural world, and not to be in the process of destroying it. Perhaps Jaune's commentary here is related to what is it, that is, now not only in the soil, but what is coming from the atmosphere. Because of the kind of air pollution that we now live with.
Narrator: Smith made this painting after traveling around the northeastern United States with Jemison, and encountering the effects of acid rain on forests in upstate New York.