Frank Day, Gutting a Lion

Growing up in Berry Creek, California, Frank Day (1902-1976) learned the ways of his people from his father, Twoboe (Billy) and other Maidu elders. Twoboe was one of the last traditional leaders of the Bald Rock Konkow Maidu who passed on knowledge of Maidu history and mythology, language, song and traditions to his son. Most of this inherited knowledge came from a time before the encroachment of settlers to Maidu homelands at a time when Maidu songs and stories, history and technology and beliefs were securely passed down from generation to generation. Having received his education at Greenville Indian School in Plumas County and later at Bacone College in Muskogee, Day was widely known as an untrained Native artist. Day’s main concern was the disappearance of his tribe’s worldview due to the lack of documentation.

A gifted storyteller and teacher, Day translated the Maidu perception of the world into colorful narrative images. Painting over 200 canvases in the last two decades of his life, he integrated legend, oral tradition, and myth into authoritative compositions. His symbolic and imaginative paintings were created from memory rather than observation. While his paintings contained contemporary elegance and perceptive structure, the rich textile and raw poignant color invoked spiritual essence of cultural tradition. Day, an important historian and prolific California Native artist, used his knowledge to not only capture his heritage through expressions of Maidu history and tradition in his work, but he also inspired younger California Indian visual artists. Day’s legacy did not end with his death in 1976, but his self-expression continued to influence three contemporary Maidu artists: Dalbert Castro, Harry Fonseca, and Judith Lowry. Frank Day traveled the world, showing his work at various museums including: The Museum of the Native American in New York City, The Oakland Museum, Oakland, California, The Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, The Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California, Long Beach Museum of Art, and many others.