Message of Love

by James Ayers

Edition Size: 95

Lakota Tribe

More About Message Of Love
Message of Love depicts a Lakota warrior as he plays a traditional wooden flute. I intended to contrast the image of a powerful warrior with this gentle musical instrument.
Attractive to women
In my research, I have read that men who played the flute were considered by the Plains peoples to have “elk medicine,” as the elk make similar, high-pitched whistling sounds in their mating call.
Someone adept at playing the flute was able to tap into that “medicine.” Thus, the player of the flute was considered attractive to the opposite sex since the sound of the flute had powers to lure women. This warrior takes full advantage of his status by wearing colors and adornment. In the vernacular of today, he was on top of his game: he looked attractive to women while also playing a hypnotic, alluring song which had power to draw the females closer.