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RainbowHawk (1923-2012) painted the Four Shields of Remembrance in the mid 1980s and first showed this body of work at The Forbes Gallery in Tower Square, New York.   Following are RainbowHawk’s words printed in the Forbes event brochure.

“The artist is always creating an image of the self.  This image becomes a window for the viewer to see into the world and depending upon the vision of the artist determines the depth of the potential experience for the viewer.

In the ancient teachings, the importance of the artist was to bring the power of healing (making whole) through image, symbol, color and design, weaving balance into the fabric of the life of the people and expressing the prayer of appreciation for the beauty of Mother Life and her daughters:  Earth, Air, Fire and Water.

The great artists of all times and places have always accepted the responsibility of their vision and through their creations sought to expand that consciousness and offer it to their fellow humans.

Because of this consciousness, great art moves beyond the confines of the moment’s culture and speaks to the universal themes of the universal experience; the dignity of the self, the beauty of the mother earth, the dance of opposites—birth and death, light and dark, joy and sorrow, night and day, and so on….

I am an elder.  That does not mean I’m old and it does not mean I know everything.  It does mean that I accept the responsibility in my life to learn and to grow, to respect the sacred self.  It also means that I am aware of the human condition of ignorance (deliberate ignoring) and that I have chosen to battle that condition in this lifetime.  My work, my art, is a part of my response.  I offer these windows to the world and my fellow humans.”

“The painter, RainbowHawk, draws on the experience of more than sixty years; the knowledge of symbols in the different ages and places of human history; years with teachers in the arts—including Picasso; long training in the exploration and discipline of the self, including those of the east and those indigenous to the American continents. These are the elements that constitute the vigorous and original expression of the artist’s love of Mother Earth.  Through symbols, brilliant color and form, RainbowHawk speaks about the dance of past and future in the present time—the drama of the human experience in the ever-changing challenge of life.”