steady now, steady now

Harry Fonseca 1979, “Coyote, When Coyote Leaves the Res”

Acrylic on canvas

Harry Fonseca began his art career using imagery from his Native American Maidu heritage in his art. His Coyote Series of paintings started in 1979. These works use the coyote as the trickster of Maidu ancestral stories, depicted in nontraditional clothing and settings. In this painting Coyote is dressed in black leather and other aspects of queer-dress experienced by the artist in San Francisco, expressing Fonseca's personal narrative as a gay Native American living off-reservation.

Jester's Head Brooch

c. 1897-1898

by René Lalique

Necklace

c. 1943

gold, pāua (abalone shell)

unknown maker, New Zealand