Spare, strange, and wonderfully spectral, Bird Spirits captures the imaginative freedom of Napachie's earliest works. Its appeal lies partly in the fantastical quality of the image: two dark and decidedly otherworldly figures emerging against a densely rolled field of rich blue. The saturated background gives the sheet a deep, velvety atmosphere that heightens the sense of apparition.

Like many of Napachie's early drawings and prints, the subject moves beyond direct observation and into the realm of remembered belief, oral tradition, and inherited imagination. Spirits, transformations, and supernatural beings recur throughout this period.

FA