Created as part of the Native Mural Wall for the 2020 Eureka Street Art Festival
Carl Avery’s mural Ten Days is centered on a pileated woodpecker who carries special regalia in its feet as it soars across the mural. Avery made this mural using spray paint and he was the only spray paint artist at the 2020 Eureka Street Art Festival. He is a member of the Yurok tribe wanted to create a piece that pays tribute to the pileated woodpecker as it is “very important to (his) culture”. The pileated woodpecker’s scarlet head symbolizes the blood of life and these sacred red feathers are used when making ceremonial clothes. Woodpecker regalia is an important part of the Jump Dance, which the Yurok tribe, as well as other tribes of Northern California, perform to put the world back in balance. The title Ten Days reflects the timing of the Jump Dance, as well as the White Deerskin Dance that precedes it.
Behind the woodpecker is a blue background with an Indigenous geometric pattern often referred to as the friendship design because it is continuous and never breaks. The design is thematically fitting for the Native Mural Project. On the Native Mural Wall Ten Days is connected to three murals painted by Native artists. Together, the four works create one large mural sharing and celebrating Indigenous cultures.
