(serpent or Mishipizhiw), ca. 1968
Acrylic on paper
101.6 x 106.5 cm
Evelyn Shushack Collection

E. Shushack Collection
Fred and Evelyn Shushack arrived in the Red Lake area in 1966 when Fred was hired by the Red Lake School Board.  They lived in Cochenour and Evelyn remembers Morrisseau coming to her door six or more times to use the phone for a cab or to talk to Fred who found him interesting and admired his art.  Fred Shushack and Morrisseau may have met at the School Board office when Norval dropped in with art to sell.

This is the “serpent” or “Mishipizhiw” (water spirit) painting which Fred bought from Sharon Barnes in 1968 or 1969.  This large piece, in muted browns and greens, shows a fierce creature turning to grab its own tail with sharp teeth.  The “Mishipizhiw” can be translated as “the Great Lynx” although often is compared to a serpent.  It represents a demi-god of the water, feared and revered.  This painting hung in the School Board Office until Fred left that job in 1981.

The two pieces - “loon family” and “ loons and fish” form a pair which Fred Shushack asked Morrisseau to paint, in 1969 or 1970.  The colours are muted greens, blue and brown (suggested by the purchaser).  There are lines of power reaching out from the backs of the “loon family” and lines of communication connecting them with a very small solid circle at the halfway point.

(loons and fish), ca. 1969
Acrylic on paper
81.28 x 127 cm
Evelyn Shushack Collection

The loons and fish also show a line of power between each of them, and lines of communication flowing between fish and loon and between other loons, with prominent divided circles on each major connection.  These two pieces hung in the Shushack recreation room when they moved to a new home on Lakeview  Drive, until the family moved to British Columbia in 1981 and they were hung in that house.  There is a small hole in the mouth of the fish.  Fred inserted a fishing lure there with a line running to a fishing rod mounted on the wall nearby.  A sportsman’s touch!

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