Blue Ridge Mountain Bear Man near The Blue Ridge Parkway and More Blue RIdge Discovery Center News!

My Artwork

Blue Ridge Meadow  Original Oil Painting has been Sold

Prints on Paper or Canvas Available at    KENDALL KESSLER ART

The great Charlottesville patron that recently bought Blue Ridge Meadow emailed me to tell me it is stunningly beautiful!  Now that is what an artist that sells paintings online wants to hear!

 Road to the Blue Ridge    Original 18"x24"  pastel painting   $862

Prints on Paper or Canvas Available at    KENDALL KESSLER ART

Wish I were on that road right now!

Here is another fascinating legend about the Cherokee Native Americans and the Black Bear!

The Bear Man

A Hunter shot one arrow after the next into a black bear and chased after it until the bear finally took the arrows out and told the man he couldn't be killed and asked the hunter to come live with him.

This bear was a medicine bear and could talk and read people's thoughts.  

The hunter was worried the bear would hurt him but the bear told him he wouldn't hurt him and there would be plenty to eat.

They came to a hole in the side of the mountain that widened as they entered.  It was not the bear's home.  It was a meeting place for bear councils.  The other bears were alarmed at the presence of the hunter but the medicine bear told them it was only a stranger come to see them and he should be left alone.

The bear took the hunter to his home and rubbed his stomach and then his paws were full of chestnuts.  He did this many times for different kinds of food and both he and the hunter had plenty to eat.  The hunter stayed with him and his hair grew so long he was beginning to look like a bear.

One day the bear told him it was the day hunters would kill him. He told the hunter to put leaves over his remains after the kill.  The hunters entered the hole, killed the bear, and then realized the hairy creature was a hunter that has been missing for some time.  They  left with big chunks of bear meat and the hunter.  

Before they left the hunter put leaves over the remains of the bear and as they were leaving the bear reappeared, shook off the leaves, and disappeared into the forest.

The hunter told the tribe to let him be by himself for seven days so he could shake off the bear nature and become a man again but his wife was so determined to see him that she went into him and took him home.  He never became like a man again.

Legend has it that if he had been allowed to be alone and fast for seven days he would not have kept the bear nature.

Life with The Bird and Word Man - Clyde Kessler

The next Blue Ridge Discovery Center Happening is this Friday! 

BRDC at Independence Farmers Market

Fri, June 6, 9:30am – 12:30pm

Calendar	BRDC Web Calendar
Created by	scott@blueridgediscoverycenter.org
Description

Blue Ridge Mountain Bear Chase near The Blue Ridge Parkway and The Writing on the Wall...

My Artwork

Field of Flowers  Original Oil Painting has been Sold

Prints on Paper or Canvas Available at  KENDALL KESSLER ART

Natural Rhythm   Original 30"x40"  Oil Painting   $2425

Prints on Paper or Canvas Available at   KENDALL KESSLER ART

I really do have flowers on the brain right now!

Today I found a wonderful Cherokee bear story about Autumn!

The Great Bear

A great black bear ,Nyah- gwaheh was terrorizing a village.  Children stayed out of the woods for fear of this animal. Four hunters set out to track down and kill Nyah- gwaheh.  The bear was said to possess magical powers and could cause its tracks to disappear.   The hunters had a magical dog that could see tracks days after they had vanished.

The four hunters were great hunters but one of them was fat and lazy.  He always wanted to take breaks.  On one break he reached into his pouch for a snack and found squirmy things in it which was a magical sign that the bear knew it was being hunted.

The bear ran and ran up the mountain to escape the hunters.  It was so huge that it was easy to track.  The forest was being torn up as it passed.  As the bear tired it stopped in its tracks to kill the annoying dog and one of the hunters succeeded in driving an arrow through it.

They cut the bear up and roasted it when one hunter noticed strange sparks in the darkness far below his feet.  They were no longer on the mountain but up in the air!  The powerful magic of the bear had led them to the world of the sky!

The dog started barking at the pile of bones and they came alive and the hunters chased the bear across the sky.

Legend has it that each autumn the hunters chase the bear across the sky and when it is killed the blood drips from the sky onto the trees.  The fat from the fire causes the grass to turn white.

I got this great story from the online publication, Cherokee Myths and Legends of The Black Bear

Life with The Word and Bird Man - Clyde Kessler

Sometimes my husband and I joke about how we got together.  It is rather unusual that a girl from McLean VA marries a naturalist poet from a town that is so small it could be on Hee Haws Salute the Small Town section of the show.

The latest quip is  I didn't hold a poem to your head.  You could have said no.

My response is I didn't see the puns on the wall.

Just kidding around!  I am very glad I married my mountain man!   He is the only one for me!