Mountain Air Batik: Bear Love Hoodie!!!!!!!

I'm going to do my best to tell the story true and complete...
I was born in Portland, Oregon...a while back...and grew up going to
the coast with my Mom, we would go walking down Cannon Beach and
go to Haystack Rock...it was our thing to do in the spring and summer.
In the fall and winter my Grandfather would take me to Mt Hood, and we
would ski and hike around all over, play in the snow...I enjoyed the
seasons and the diversity of this Great State.
Fast forward a few years...and I was living in Hood River helping a friend
getting her bead store opened and I met Brian and Mateo
who were making batik wall hangings for her shop..and they were really
nice! Again we fast forward a year or two and I met Jason Beerbear and
we became friends right off the bat and we moved into a house in
Portland and started having a ton of fun together...he started telling me
about this hoodie he's having made for himself and how sick it's going to
be, and how he's coming up with the design and why...it's going to be
the sickest thing ever!!!
Well, it was finally done and boy howdy it was badass! I'd never seen
anything like it! The detail and color! wow! Yeah Brian and Mateo took it
to another level...and 'ol Beerbear was proudly wearing it and bragging
about there was no finer or better hoodie ever made! Sooo....I asked
the Mt Air boys if they had any hoodies that would be big enough for me
left in stock, because they were selling fast! everyone wanted one! Yes
they said, come on over and let's talk about what you want.
Well, talking to Mateo about my thoughts on the design, what I wanted
and what he thought he could do, we came up with a hoodie design that
captured my life growing up and things I cherish! I was so excited and
couldn't wait to see what magic would be created...but...the Mt Air Batik
boys were busy, really busy and things were going to have to wait for a
bit...and so over the next year every once in awhile Mateo, would call,
ask a question, tell me he was still working on it, not to worry it was
going to be worth waiting for!
It was almost 2 years and some good times talking about my thoughts
and ideas and theirs as well, and then I started hearing people say
"Have you seen the hoodie yet?" "Not yet" says I ... "OH DUDE!"...
Then I got the call... "Why don't you come over, and get your hoodie!"
OH MY...really?! How do you describe something that's such beautiful
art and the dream come to life?
Well here ya go...the front is Summertime at the beach with a full Moon
beaming down on Haystack Rock and the Ocean and everything is a-
glow, (Mateo asked me when my Son was born at some point during the
process) in sky next to the full Moon he put my Sons astrological sign in
the stars! On the left arm is Winter, with a full Moon shining down on a
pine tree covered in snow with Mt's in the background and my dog Jacks
name carved in the tree trunk. The right arm is Fall, with the aspen
leaves turning the awesome reds and golds and my first dog Finn's name
carved in the tree trunk and the eye of the tree is the connection that
will always be. The Back...is Springtime, with Mt Hood being lit up by a
fiery sun spreading it's warmth across the sky and melting the snow and
causing the streams and rivers to flow and the grass is green and at the
bottom you see the Bear...who's looking at his reflection in the water
and thinking about...Then we come to the hood... and this is where
Mateo becomes a master of his art!!! I'm known in our circle as
"Papabear"...my son is "Mancub"...we have a family of Bears that share
Love and Respect and a Passion for Music...it's a very powerful thing!
Mateo created a Native American Medicine Shield featuring a Bear paw
with feathers framing the shield on the right side of the hood and on the
left side is the Native American Wheel of Life or Medicine Wheel, The
Medicine Wheel is a powerful metaphor for the totality of life. All aspects
of creation and consciousness, inclusive of the mineral, plant, animal,
human and spirit realms, are contained within the center and eight
directions of the medicine wheel. They overlap and interweave to form
the whole. It is in the center of the medicine wheel that we find the void,
black hole, sacred zero, the chaos at the source of creation, containing
all possibilities. Each of the elements - air, fire, water, and earth - is
guided and molded by the sacred life force energy contained within the
void. It is the source of chi, which is the driving force for all sacred
sexuality. Through sacred sexuality, all forms of all things within the
mineral, plant, animal and human kingdoms, have been and continue to
be created. Life could not exist without the sexual life-force energy of
the void, which is the catalyst for all the powers that are found within
the 360 degrees of the medicine wheel.
Hanging from the wheel are two more feathers that overlap a Bear
ankh...the feather work is amazing, it looks like he pasted them there!
The Piece of wearable Art is not only mind blowing but breathtaking as
well...needless to say I get compliments wherever I wear it and offers to
buy it off my back...fyi...it's not for sale!
Thanks to Brian and Mateo for their dedication and passion and
commitment to making the best wearable Batik art!
James Papabear