First Corn

by Kim Obrzut

Size: 19x9.5x7
Medium: Bronze
Edition Size: 75

Corn is the heart of the Hopi diet and has provided the Hopi with life for nearly a millennium. The connection between the people and the corn is pervasive and deeply sacred. Corn and women are powerful Hopi symbols of creation and life, not one can exist without the other. During the first ceremony of a babies life, he or she will be taken to greet the sun on the twentieth day and will be given a name with their first ear of corn, which is the naming corn. This is the First of the four corns that they will receive in life. The Hopi are dry farmers in the high desert, depending mainly on less than nine inches of rainfall and runoff to water their crops. From less than ideal environmental conditions and planting in sandy soil, the Hopi have managed not only to survive, but to thrive in the rugged climate of the Southwest. With little more than hard work, prayer, faith and deep humility, the Hopi people sustain the corn and the corn sustains Hopi culture.