After her years of studies at both the University of Alberta and Columbia University, Jane Ash Poitras was made familiar with Abstract Art and its various iterations of artistic experimentation. The bold and unexpected text that we see here in Power Shaman, “SHAMANIZE THE 90’s,” reveals also a sensitivity to the neo-Dada movements and early Pop Art. The text, a veritable call to arms, is an act of cultural reclamation that is as profound as it is punchy. The focal point of the painting is a seated shaman, loosely assembled from gestural, highly expressive brushwork, and depicted with two great, hollowed eyes that suggest that he is perhaps wearing a mask. Vivid chromatic punctuations and collaged twigs emanate from the central figure with an electric vitality.