Karen SixKiller

Hand-built ceramic owl fired in one piece, welded steel stand, bead woven trompe-l'œil cigarettes on wooden core, hand sewn and beaded suede "tobacco", individually artist created and sculpted bronze flowers (using bronze clay, fired in reduction). The Screech owl is a portend of death in Cherokee stories and is clutching a cured commercially produced tobacco leaf in one claw and a group of 'Cancer Sticks' in the other. The owl hovers over a dazzling wild tobacco plant in the posture of the death strike. 'Callin' You Home' thus has multiple meanings: 1. Using tobacco cigarettes and in modern forms will kill you, with home being your grave or heaven or wherever your belief system sends you. 2. The owl and wild tobacco beckons you home to the original ideals and medicinal purpose of tobacco, reminds you of your roots and gives you a way back to them.

Glass seed beads size 15/13, wooden core, ceramic ashtrays. Winner of Blue Ribbon SWAIA (Santa Fe Indian Market) 2023 Representational Sculpture. Eight Peyote stitch woven beadwork w/ skull & crossbones design over wood form, hand built ceramic ashtrays. Set of eight trompe-l'œil beaded cigarettes with skull and crossbones design each in a matching ceramic ashtray display base in the colors: 1. Light Orange, 2. Dark Orange, 3. Yellow, 4. Lime Green, 5. Kelly Green, 6. Gold, 7. Metallic Rose, 8. Metallic Green. Created to provide some truth in advertising, these beaded ‘Cancer Sticks’ remind everyone how sacred tobacco has been corrupted into little 15 minute doses of death.

Ceramic cone 6 fired in reduction with stains and glazes. Fired in one piece. Currently at Spider Gallery, Tahlequah OK (https://artscenter.cherokee.org/spider-gallery/) Thrown and altered bell skirt, hand sculpted figure, stoneware ceramic. Hand formed copper chain for gorget. In Cherokee stories the origin of the corn plant is a corn woman "Selu." She sacrificed her life so that corn plants would feed everyone and not just her own family.

Size 7B Ralph Lauren suede booties w/ glass seed bead eagle feather on outside edge of each boot and Ultrasuede fringe along heel. Original, never worn.

Completed 2022. Currently at Spider Gallery, Tahlequah OK https://artscenter.cherokee.org/spider-gallery/. Bronze spider, steel ring & pyramid, crystal orb. Bronze spider is sculpted directly using bronze "clay", welded steel web, ring, pyramid base. (Additional information on artist website https://www.karensixkiller.com/ember-metal-sculpture). This realistic bronze spider peers from a steel web. A red crystal sphere rests in the pot on her back, representing the legendary fire she brought to the mainland in the Cherokee traditional stories. The sculpture is designed to allow light through the red crystal orb from multiple angles and the back as in a set gem, adding interest and pop to the sculpture from all viewing angles. Modeled loosely after the Phidippus johnsoni jumping spider; varieties can be found in North America from sea-level to tree line. Original concept piece the 10' "Grandma Spider" sculpture permanently installed in Cherokee Nation capital of Tahlequah was bid from.

Ceramic, glass beads, silver plated wire. Hand-built ceramic diseased lungs ashtray with pouting lips sculpted on top of larynx, , peyote stitch & freehand bead weaving cigarettes and stubs with ash, silver plated wire to represent smoke of lit cigarette. (See artist website https://www.karensixkiller.com/new-page-74 ). Inspired by childhood memories of extremely large decorative ashtrays used by the artist's relatives, 'Gasp' is shaped and colored like diseased necrotic lungs. The lips at the top of the larynx are evocative of the horrific T.V. commercials showing people smoking through the tracheostomy hole cut in their trachea to allow them to continue breathing after removing cancerous growths. Children were often expected to empty the voluminous ashtrays, allowing for the most impressionable among us to notice the odd beauty the burnt stubs, butts and ash make. A sampling of cigarette butts and ash are also beaded and posed to show this. Again, the inherent sacredness of tobacco is revealed in its enduring beauty, even in the form of waste ash and butts.

Glass beads, suede, fabric. These heart follow the colors of the source images fairly closely, working with slight variations in color or bead finish to give the illusion of curvature and three dimensionality. Pictured L-R #1, #3, #2. Details of each on KarenSixkiller.com https://www.karensixkiller.com/new-page-3

Welded steel base, ring and web. Hand sculpted bronze spider, faceted crystal bead as ember. Three 23" H x 6" W made in 2023 - Available at Spider Gallery, Tahlequah OK. Three 24" H x 6" W made in 2024 - Available from artist. https://www.karensixkiller.com/metal Proportionate desk-top version of the monumental 10' "Grandma Spider" sculpture permanently installed on the Cultural Pathway in Tahlequah, OK. A bronze spider peers down from a 7 spoke web, carrying the first ember in a pot on her back. Seven spokes for the 7 Cherokee clans form her symbolic spider web. She is balanced on the point of a tall thin 3 sided pyramid symbolizing the tree she retrieved that first ember from to bring warmth and light to the people.

2024 - Six figures individually sculpted. Hand sculpted figure on hand thrown skirt/bell. Cone 6 Oxidation fired w/ stains and red underglaze. Exact dimensions for each figure and details available on artist website (https://www.karensixkiller.com/mmiw-series). These female figures stand in solidarity with those who are remain missing, faceless, nameless due largely to the continued objectification of indigenous people and the modern sex slave trade. With a red handprint on her face, each figure stands defiantly with a hand on one hip and an eagle feather fan in the other.

Wheel thrown lidded jar, hand built sculptural elements. Glazed ^6 and food safe. Currently at Spider Gallery, Tahlequah OK (https://artscenter.cherokee.org/spider-gallery/). The Corn Goddess named 'Selu' in Cherokee oral tradition forms this bowl by opening her corn body wrapped in her gown of corn husks, symbolizing her eternal sacrifice to feed the people from her own essence. She is faceless as stipulated in many Native American traditions and so that the viewer may project their own face or that of a loved one onto her form.

Suede, glass beads size 13/11/8, cultured pearls, false teeth, artist sculpted porcelain teeth, plastic phone case, googly eye, ceramic/wire/wool hand armature. (Outside pictured) Beaded Peyote stitch around porcelain teeth, camera eye, gunshot/closure magnet, freestyle beaded embroidery mouth. (Inside not pictured here, please see at website https://www.karensixkiller.com/echo-chamber) credit cards, bird, whipstitch beaded edges. Beaded suede smartphone case held in white suede glove armature. Mouth drools, “false wisdom,” on the right-hand side. A googly eye watches you through the camera lens while a twittering bird clasp poops a chatty ghost below an anus/gunshot wound on the left-hand side. Inside two porcelain “wisdom teeth” hang from a tiny noose where the phone should be. Beaded credit cards and driver’s license on the left inside cover.

Glass seed beads size 13/11/6, glass millefiori beads, artist created ceramic signature bead, suede backing. Main beaded pendant loom woven. Bead embroidered and peyote stitch back panel, foundation strands made of strung and plaited beads. Commercial silver-plated clasp and cone findings. (https://www.karensixkiller.com/new-page-74). Main pendant panel resembling the classic yellow “American Spirit” cigarette packaging but with a westerner wearing a feather war bonnet and smoking a cigarette whose smoke spells out “Un American”. Beaded edging and a full pack of 20 “lit cigarette” fringe. Bead embroidered and peyote stitch back panel resembling cancerous lung tissue with glass millefiori cankers and artist created ceramic signature bead. Created to parody and point out the irony of the “American Spirit” cigarette company using Native American iconography while simultaneously perverting the sacredness and healing qualities of tobacco in a way completely counter to the values of the Native cultures they are capitalizing on.

Cast bronze #3 & #4 available (4 cast currently of limited edition 50). Character from Cherokee traditional stories. (https://www.karensixkiller.com/metal) Peeking around this gem-like form is the face of a humble water beetle, inviting the visitor to explore the angles and facets of his body and the shape he perches on. The mud he brings is represented as a gem-like faceted form, reflecting the sacred preciousness of soil as the substrate of life.

Original - Porcelain clay, wooden storage box/display stand/playing board, tournament standard vinyl playing surface. Thirty-two Individually hand sculpted, stained, glazed porcelain ceramic playing pieces. Limited Edition hand painted travel sets also available. (https://www.karensixkiller.com/chess-set) Sculpted porcelain chess set opposes historical and modern characters. Native American children killed in BIE boarding schools are pawns opposite modern children who died in school shootings. A red jingle dressed MMIW queen is opposite slave mammy. TV Christian evangelists oppose traditional bishops, automatic machine gun toting Proud Boys oppose KKK cloaked knights. And of course, a modern US president opposes the historical president Andrew Jackson. (Full resolution photo of set owned by First Nations Development Institute through Jan 31st 2026 https://www.firstnations.org/artist/karen-sixkiller/.)

Cone 6 oxidation ceramic with stains, glaze and underglaze. Hand-built on a slab backing pierced for wall hanging. Fired in one piece.