12 Inch Deer Hide Serpent Mound Drum Hand Painted

Paying homage to one of the great influences in my life, Serpent Mound. I grew up around the Scioto Mounds, but at a very young age I was afforded the honor and privelage to step foot and walk in this sacred site.
Serpent Mound is the largest serpent effigy in the world, made up of three parts, it extends over 1,376 feet in length, varying from 9" to more than 3' in height. The mound stands with a width varying between 20 and 25 feet based on the section. The mound winds back and forth for more than eight hundred feet, with its tail coiling in seven areas throughout the mound. Evidence suggests the mound was constructed between 3 and 4 thousand years ago, but credit for its work is divided and debated by scholars between the Adena and Fort Ancient Cultures.
Visiting this place as a child sparked a lifelong fascination and respect not only for the mound builders and my peoples history but human history altogether. Their tools of the time, reasons for building, incredible precision and astronomical alignments, not to mention that Serpent Mound itself can only be truly seen and appreciated when viewed from above, and they weren't building on this scale for the birds flying over.

I've done this likeness in a green oil-based paint on a 12" Whitetail Deer skin hand drum, and will be making available to share with the public at http://Brightspirit.art this afternoon.