Run Rabbit Run Huichol Beadwork Nierika Painting Mexican Folk Art Handmade

Run Rabbit Run Huichol Beadwork Nierika Painting Mexican Folk Art HandmadeShaped like a blossom with five wide petals, this votive 'painting' depicts white rabbits that chase each other in a counterclockwise direction. The long legged creatures leap lithely amid colorful Huichol icons. 'The Nierika is a mirror, but a very special mirror, where two opposites meet creatively,' Kupihuate explains. 'So the one is reflected into each other, transforming one into the other, and at the same time creating something that

Shaped like a blossom with five wide petals, this votive 'painting' depicts white rabbits that chase each other in a counterclockwise direction. The long-legged creatures leap lithely amid colorful Huichol icons.

'The Nierika is a mirror, but a very special mirror, where two opposites meet creatively,' Kupihuate explains. 'So the one is reflected into each other, transforming one into the other, and at the same time creating something that synchronously synthesizes the essence of both.

'For example, the cactus of wise memory, the peyote, or hikuri and the cereal that currently nourishes all of humanity, the corn or iku. The creator of this artistic offering and its beholder who, upon acknowledging the message of its symbolism, will awaken their genetic memory, thus sharing their common millennial roots.

'This nierika in particular is the meeting of our star — the sun — in the center and the moon, the mirror that reflects the solar energy as a diamond, the vital movement on our planet Earth, which is symbolized by the rabbit that, in its running, makes the temporality of earthly existence.

'Inside the rabbit is represented the universal symbol of the eternal energy that animates it. The arrows are our dreams, our songs transforming our desires into realities, a transformation symbolized by the butterflies that — by distributing the seeds of our ancestors stored in the flowers — permanently feed back the earthly energy that nurtures our existence.

'The diamond figures represent the cosmos, the harmonic order that each one of us becomes when we transform ourselves in autonomous organisms in harmony with our entire earthly environment.'

'This nierika was inspired by the lyrics of a song by Roger Waters named 'Breathe.'

Run, rabbit run...
For long you live and high you fly
But only if you ride the tide
And balanced on the biggest wave
You race towards an early grave....

The intricate images are formed with tiny seed beads, patiently placed one at a time with a needle on a huanacaxtle wood backing. Beeswax is used instead of glue. Because his name in the Huichol language means 'obsidian butterfly,' the artisan signs his work with the symbol of a butterfly.

• materials: Beadwork on huanacaxtle wood
• Signed by the artist
• Hand-crafted item -- color, size and/or motif may vary slightly

Keep out of the sun;Keep out of heat