Judith Lowry

The Obedient Wives

In an effort to share and preserve Indigenous oral stories, artist Judith Lowry (Maidu/Achomawi/Pit River Tribe) depicts a Maidu narrative. In the aftermath of a battle between a weasel and an elder rat, the rat’s three blind owl wives set him ablaze, mistaking him for dinner. The weasel and a raccoon watch from a rock that floats above the clouds. The drama of the scene is underscored by the glowing fire, which illuminates the owls from below. Lowry contrasts the red and blue hues to emphasize the movement of the owls’ wings and feathers. Fellow Maidu artists as well as the epic allegories of Italian Renaissance painters Sandro Botticelli and Fra Angelico act as inspirations to Lowry’s paintings. The combination of Native oral history with fifteenth-century European visual traditions speaks to her multi-cultural heritage and extensive travel around the world as the child of a US army veteran.