Mitchell E. Robles

Ceremonial War Shirt Series

(click on thumbnails for enlargement & details)

The Ceremonial War Shirt paintings are three-dimensional.

Inspired by the aesthetic and spiritual power of the traditional ceremonial shirts worn by Lakota and other Plains warriors of the 18th and 19th centuries, Robles interprets these powerful symbols of tribal honor and power with rich texture of layered canvas and heavy impasto to evoke the feeling of buckskin.

Robles decorates the ceremonial war shirts with fringe, porcupine quills, horse hair, beading, and feathers. Pictographs from many Native American sites throughout the United States are also embedded in the shirts as a statement of the artist’s wish for unity and connectedness among all tribes, and all nations.