Two Halves of a Whole- Yin Yang and Iroquois Myths

My final for my studio art class, 36" x 48", black and white charcoal, conte crayon, and colored pencil on toned paper.

The assignment was to combine two creation myths into one piece; I chose an Iroquois Creation Myth and Yin Yang. In the Iroquois myth, a woman spirit gives birth to two sons and sends them to Earth. They are conflicting beings; one is fire, one is water, one is day, one is night, etc. I related this back to Yin Yang; in Yin Yang theory, everything is made up of two contrasting yet harmonious forces. Yin is passive, dark, cold, "nighttime," water, ice, and female, while Yang is fiery, aggressive, male, "daytime," etc. Too much of either will set things out of balance, and one can only exist in the presence of the other.

Unfortunately some of the detail and quality was lost in the process of uploading this. But there you have it! I rather enjoyed this piece and I'm happy with how it turned out.

Close-up 1: [link]
Close-up 2: [link]