ORONO, Maine — There is a story among the Penobscot people in Maine that tells of a time long ago, when a giant frog wouldn’t allow them to use any of the water along which they had settled.
As the people began dying of thirst, they turned to their spirit chief, Gluskabe, who demanded the frog turn over the water to his people.
Gluskabe eventually had to kill the giant frog to release what became the Penobscot River from its mouth.
Penobscot artist Christiana Becker has taken that story and others she heard growing up and is using them as inspiration for a series of carved woodblock prints she created as part of a printmaking class at the University of Maine.
Becker, 24, is an art major at the university, where prints such as “Water Famine” not only depict her artistic interpretation of the river creation story but also serves as a statement on the modern environmental threats facing the Penobscot River.
Becker told The Maine Journal that, through the piece, she expresses the river has been highly polluted with Mercury and PCBs ever since the Penobscot people lost control over the waterway. Her work embodies the disquieting feeling of being disconnected legally from something that holds a large spiritual connection between her people and the tribal land.
Becker said that in the piece, the frog represents a dam obstructing the natural productivity and health of the river, transforming a legend into a metaphorical reality.
“I like to put the [written] stories of my people with my art so people can read about them,” Becker said sitting down for a recent interview in Orono. “I want people to understand the meaning behind the art.”
Penobscot hero Gluskabe figures prominently in several of Becker’s prints, including the large woodcut “Gluskabe Bags All the Game Animals” depicting his ill-advised attempts to capture all the game animals for himself.
“His grandmother, Woodchuck, was not happy and scolded Gluskabe,” Becker said. “When he realized he was keeping all the animals from the people who relied on them, he released them.”
Becker begins each print by preparing a piece of soft Shina wood, which she first seals before carving her images into it. Once her design is complete, she applies ink to the wood and presses paper onto it. Each color on a print requires its own carved woodblock, she said.
“This has become my favorite medium for my art,” Becker said. “Through the prints, I can put my own artistic interpretation to the [Penobscot] stories, but I also try to remain true to the legends.”
She also wants to remain true to her Penobscot culture and bring attention to outside forces impacting it.
The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s safe eating guidelines recommends consuming no more than one to two fish meals per month of fish taken from the Penobscot River because of unsafe levels of PCBs, dioxin and other chemicals.
“The [Penobscot] River is part of my family,” she said. “But with the current [polluted] situation in the river, I know there are members of my community who can no longer use the river for sustenance or use it for ceremonies that a part of our culture.”
Becker wants to do more research into the health of the river in addition to statistics document missing and murdered indigenous women to use her art to effectively highlight those issues.
She also wants to incorporate more traditional Penobscot materials into her printmaking, such as porcupine quills and deer hides.
For now, she’ll finish up her undergraduate work at UMaine this coming year and graduate with degrees in studio art, teacher education and the necessary coursework to pursue a graduate degree in occupational therapy.
Becker has not yet sold any of her pieces, but they have been shown at galleries around the state and in the university’s Wyeth Center. Her piece “First Mother/First Corn” is on display in the campus’ Memorial Union third floor.
