16x24 acrylic on canvas board
A soul portrait of a Fairy Creek land defender. I first met Rainbow Eyes at Caycuse Camp, the night before enforcement came. She had hiked in for three hours through the pouring rain and attached her neck to a gate with a bike lock the next morning. She was sweet, energetic and fearless. She also was familiar with my painting, the Vision Train and knew my painting teachers. Clearly someone I wanted to know and photograph.
That was her first arrest and sadly, I wasn’t present at the blockades to photograph her 4 other arrests. She’s now under house arrest and faces serious criminal charges if she goes back to the blockades. I asked her what her best memory of the blockades was and she said it was knowing to the core that the system was wrong to arrest her. “Knowing I was being taken with hundreds of others who believed in standing up for old growth with and for Elder Bill Jones of the Pacheedaht”.