In this painting, you see a man drumming sacred songs. To the Ojibwe,
the sound of the drum symbolizes the heartbeat of Mother Earth. The
symbols that appear to be floating in the sky are symbols from the
sacred rock paintings on Mazinaw Lake, in Eastern Ontario. The rock
paintings are painted on the side of a cliff-face that rises up from
the edge of the water.

The viewpoint that David chose to depict is a viewpoint from inside
the cliff looking out, as if the rockface was made of glass and
the images were painted onto the glass. The reason that he close this
unique viewpoint is because of a story he once heard. The story was
about the little people. The ones who roam the forests and whose
dwellings are inside solid rock. It is said that these little people
are spirits, and therefore have the magical ability to travel through
anything. According to legend, when the little people are inside the
rock, they can look out the face of the rock as if it were made of
glass.

When native people visit places like this, they leave an offering of
tobacco for the spirits who live there.

For this painting, David chose to limit himself to a palette of yellow,
red, black and white; The Sacred colours of the Ojibwe Medicine Wheel.