All interconnected

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In the 1990s, Norval Morrisseau, "Copper Thunderbird," created some of his most powerful paintings.

The Kinsman Robinson Gallery's preview of 50 of his acrylics on canvas, from 1989 to 1997, is a testament to Morrisseau's awe-inspiring artistic output in his later years.

Canada's best-known Aboriginal visual artist - and one of Canada's best-known painters - had the name "Copper Thunderbird" given to him by his grandfather, a sixth-generation shaman, who raised him. The thunderbird figures prominently in his magical paintings of Ojibwa shamanic themes; it's the central, all-encompassing figure in the 1995 painting "Astral Thunderbird" at the Kinsman Robinson exhibit.

In the sixties, Morrisseau created a whole new way of representing the world of Ojibwa legend, of illustrating traditional spirituality and storytelling. His expressive paintings are dominated by intertwined human and animal figures, sometimes cleverly fitting together like pieces of a universal puzzle - strong, colorful concentric circles, dynamic black "energy lines," all telling the story of a people and of the earth. His "x-ray technique" (which shows the interior and exterior of a figure, visually and symbolically connecting the inside to the outside) illustrates the inter-connectedness of all things. Thunderbird, beaver, salmon, bear, man, woman, child, sun, moon, Ojibwa story tree, turtle - all are part of life's great cycle. We are all "Ancestral Children in the World of the Ojibway Story Tree,"

"Over the years, Morrisseau has become a great painter, a superb colorist with masterful compositions that tell a story, not just a great visual storyteller," said John Newman of the Kinsman Robinson Gallery. "The turning point for Morrisseau was his trip to Paris in 1989." That year France celebrated its French Revolution Bicentennial, and Morrisseau was the only Canadian invited to exhibit in the "Magicians of the Earth" show at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. It wasn't the exhibition that had the profound effect, but discovering that the Picassos, van Goghs and works by other great European masters in the local museums were too "grey." Morrisseau vowed, on his return to Canada, to paint "some real color." He has kept his promise.

It's quite unusual for one individual to be responsible for an art movement, said Newman, but Morrisseau has done just that. He single-handedly developed a unique style, with its own images and artistic "vocabulary" - the so-called Woodland School - that has had followers for three generations, among them such well-known Aboriginal artists as Daphne Odjig, who was already established when Morrisseau entered the scene.

Born in 1931 at the Sandy Lake reserve, Morrisseau has received many honors throughout his career: He was appointed Grand Shaman of the Ojibwa in 1986; awarded the eagle feather at the Assembly of First Nations in 1995; presented with the Order of Canada in 1978. One of his many commissions was the mural for the Indians of Canada Pavilion at Expo '67.

These days, Morrisseau does little painting, except for some very small pieces. If his frail Parkinsons-compromised health allows, he'll be there at the Kinsman Robinson opening November 7. And then the Copper Thunderbird will rise again.