It is told by some, that the universe was created when one of the Great Gods had a quarrel with one of the Lesser Gods. This Lesser God was a strong woman, stubborn and intelligent, who could change her face from the essence of calm into utter anger in a blink, and was just as quick to return to calm. While her fits of temper were sometimes unpredictable in strength or cause, for the most part they were productive, and the other Gods, both Greater and Lesser, tolerated her anger for that reason.

One day Ikari Nami (which was the name of the Lesser God) and the Greater Goddess Amaui (who was also the mother of Ikari) had a large fight about Ikari’s chosen mate - as mother’s are apt to question the choices their daughters make when it comes to a mate. Ikari took offense at her mother’s insistent questioning, and try as she might, she could not convince her mother to cease her nagging. As the argument continued, Ikari’s face grew dark, but as her mother’s anger had also been roused, she did not see the clouds passing before her daughter’s face, and she pressed harder. Ikari Nami could no longer hold her temper, and it ripped from her in such force that the single star which had always lit the realm of the Gods exploded with her fury. But as its myriad of small stars scattered, and their lights flew in many directions, so did Ikari’s anger. She looked up to see new worlds forming in the wake of her outburst, and saw that all of the Gods were staring at their new sky with awe. As they discovered the mortal lives which the Creator was forming on these new worlds, they praised Ikari Nami’s name, and made her one of the Greater Gods.

In my sculpture, I have created a focus for the energy of Ikari Nami. She is a tall, very slender black woman, whose body decorations resemble those of African sculptures. Her hair is worn atop her head like a five pronged crown to reinforce her power as a deity. Her face and the base of the statuette are painted white to create a link between the world of the spirits and our world (which is embodied in the wood from which she is carved). On her face is also painted a cross which runs vertically through the center of her face and horizontally across her cheekbones. This references the crossroads of the spirit and earthly realms, suggesting that the power object resides in both places at once. The three dots on each cheek balance her in pattern and repetition, and also represent the dispersal of the stars (metaphors for anger) in her Creation story. The metal bands around her throat and ankles indirectly represent the anger to be focused into her (metal is usually wrought with fire, fire is associated with anger) but it also, along with her crown like hair style, references her power. The wood itself is Purpleheart, which is toxic to the body, just as the build up of anger is toxic to the soul, but the purple shade of the wood can also be interpreted as yet another reference to the spiritual (purple being a calming color and also the color of the Crown Chakra -- the one which links each individual to the universe).

Ikari Nami as a power object is to be used within a household as a focal point for all anger and hostile energy. By directing an individual’s anger into Ikari, he or she will quickly feel the release of that anger, which the power object will then disperse into more useful and constructive efforts. I made her to be cross - cultural, a black woman carved by a white woman and given an Asian name (Ikari Nami is Japanese for "anger wave"), so that her relevance can be felt by all, and her powers can be used by anyone.