Green/Red "loop" top small BASKET, Kenny Keezer, son of Clara Keezer

Description

This small round ash basket with loops of braided tidal sweetgrass at the top is by Kenny Keezer, Passamaquoddy.  The ash is natural (near white), and dyed green and red.  The braided tidal sweetgrass loops are of tight neat braids.  There is plain tidal sweetgrass wrapping the rim of the basket.
Kenny Keezer is the youngest son of much honored Clara Neptune Keezer (1930-2016), Passamaquoddy basket maker who was a winner of a NEA 2002 Heritage Fellowship award for her basketry work.  Kenny learned basketry from his mother and incorporates many of her signature styles into his work.
The basket is 2.5" in diameter and 2.5" tall to basket rim with loops rising 1/4" above the rim.
Among many honors, Clara Neptune Keezer was given the NEA Heritage Fellowship award. -  According to the NEA website, this award is "the country's highest honor in the folk and traditional art" -... and includes all folk arts and crafts including but not limited to - music, dance, performance art and traditional crafts and arts.
This basket is made of brown ash splints, the traditional material of Maine and Eastern Canadian Wabanaki basketmakers and also incorporates plain tidal sweetgrass to wrap the rim of the basket and used for the braided loops.    Tidal sweet grass grows on tidal marshes within view of the Keezer home in the most Northeastern corner of this country... The land and people of the dawn- The Passamaquoddy reserve near Eastport Maine where the dawn hits this country first. The grass here has been picked, dried, combed and braided by Kenny.
Last photo is of Kenny (in orange shirt), his brother Rocky and mother, Clara..... photo taken on a visit to their home about 5 years prior to Clara's passing