Kay WalkingStick, April Contemplating May, 1972

Kay WalkingStick: April Contemplating May is a, is a picture of two women in a space defined by color. And they are in color. Not white girls. 

As I said, I was trying to create space, primarily through color. And certainly the placement of the feet pulls you back into a space, a kind of space. And then having the big blue painting behind her head pushes you a little bit further back. 

And it’s in a space with a painting in the back called Pieces of Sky.

When you look at the painting, the sky changes from these bright lovely blues to these sort of gray, smoggy, sooty, whites, and blues.

This also has, for me at least, a suggestion of the importance of, taking care of our environment. That this is our country, this beautiful place is ours to treasure and to take care of. 

I think I was very happy at this point. I think I had a nice life, and I did have these questions going on in my mind about the American Indian Movement, and the feminist movement, and the so-called sexual revolution.

I was certainly raised with the idea that I was a Cherokee. Stand up straight, Kay, you’re a Cherokee. But I hadn’t really been involved in it, intellectually. So, that was playing a part too. 

And that, inchworm green, I love. I just love [laughs] that color. And it's spring, which is, of course, because it's April contemplating May.