The tipi was raised at noon on Friday, August 15, 1997 in the Tipi Village at the Canada Summer Games site, Brandon, Manitoba. A pipe ceremony was conducted by elders Mary and Solomon Hall of Sioux Valley, Manitoba and a feast was provided by the students. At the conclusion of the Summer Games it was set up on the campus of Brandon University to welcome all to a new year.
The painted sun on the eastern door cover symbolically welcomes the sun into and out of the tipi during it's daily journey. The cover is made with the intention to invite not only the sun, but everyone into the tipi. The red hands radiating from the sun are the hands of those who painted this tipi. The painted hand imprint is a most ancient image recorded by humans. It is a clear message of human presence and all that humanity means. These hands are reaching out like the rays of the sun to greet all with warmth in the 'Welcome Lodge'.
Dimensions
158 X 122 cm
Size Overall
same as image
Medium
acrylic
Notes
Designed and painted by the students of the Experiments in Traditional Art Forms class of 1997.
Condition
Canvas is heavily creased from storage. Severe cracks in paint throughout. Water stain in area TM, as well as a brown stain in area RM. There is a 66 cm vertical gash down the center of the image, but has been sewn up.
Various cracks all over surface which appear to be pressure cracks from where the paint couldn't stretch, and cracked instead. Canvas in also loose. Frame has multiple small cracks and chips in the gild.
Mild cockling and creasing of image. Paper has fallen down from the mat on the left side, and as a result is showing the backing board in the TR corner.
Surface is all together dirty. Numerous smudges and other surface accretions and is especially bad in the top horizontal register, which has multiple large smudges. Canvas is loose in the TL corner due to storage (another painting was leaning on it). T
Residue of tape in area CB of glass. Frame has small abrasion marks on top arm.
Primary Support
paper
Secondary Support
mat, plexiglass, backing board; frame- wood
Inscriptions
Note attached to back: Cecil E. James came to Canada in 1914 from Manchester, England. He started studies in art at the University of Saskatchewan in 1928, and is now operating an art gallery in Saskatoon. He has painted Canadian scenes from Newfoundland to Vancouver Island, but most of his work is of the Canadian Prairies. One could safely say that his paintings are in private collections in almost every country of the world. To name a few principals possessing a James painting: The Archbishop of Canterbury; His Excellency, Governor-General Roland Michener; John Diefenbaker, former Prime Minister of Canada; The Canadian Embassy in Berlin; Mr. H.W. Sturdy, British Government representative; Saskatchewan Wheat Pool; Saskatchewan House, London; Dairy Pool; Colonel Sanders of Kentucky; Pioneer Grain Co.; The Hon. Jean Lesage; Saskatchewan Power Corporation; Saskatchewan Arts Board.
