During Jen Hall’s Visual & Critical Studies class, I became interested in the concept of transcultural aesthetics – the melding of Indigenous and Euro-Western aesthetics in my work. Below is an excerpt of my statement, developed during the latter part of the semester:
“My art is trans-cultural; its themes and processes are situated between my Indigenous and non-Indigenous heritages. The materials I use, the concepts I explore, the themes that drive my art practice are situated in both worlds; I look for ways to meld the two together into a whole structure. Through my dual growing up experience, I learned both Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of seeing and making, and these elements are fused together in everything I make.”
Print Making
I was able to take the Graduate Print Portfolio class, this past semester, as my elective. I had very little instruction on print prior to this class and have been wanting to explore print as a medium for several years. The class did not disappoint.
Along with the exploration of multiples, I also spent a lot of time exploring multi-layering, transparency, embossment and debossment, and fabric printing. The fabric was then cut, pieced, and quilted to further explore embossing through quilting. I find quilting interesting in that it creates a whole from many smaller pieces. Quilts are also a type of blanket, usually created by women in a domestic situation and I’m interested in pursuing this direction.
23 Pairs of Shovel Shaped Incisors
I’ve been thinking specifically about the visibility and invisibility of the Indigenous body, both in my own identity as a white passing person, and on a macro level within the population of the United Stated. One of my Indigenous features is my shovel shaped incisors. The shoveling is not visible from the front so it really hits on the visible/invisible concept.
For this work in progress, I made a mold of my front teeth, got my dentist to send me x-rays of my front teeth roots, and then carved up a set from which I created a mold and cast 23 pairs, calling back to the 23 pairs of chromosomes that humans have. I’m currently thinking through how I want to move forward with this so that I can hit both the idea of chromesomes and the idea of the elk tooth dress, which is a Northern Plains dress worn by women on which are sewn the front teeth of elk; the teeth indicate the prowess of the hunter as well as the “wealth” of the family. The dresses are worn only by women so there is also an identity aspect.
Resin, life size.
Resin and acrylic paint, life size.
Resin and acrylic paint, life size.
Painting Practice
Not much has happened in my painting practice other than experimenting with analogous color palettes based on some of the printing I did this semester. Landscape has always been an important part of my painting practice so I concentrated on that in these works.
Acrylic on canvas, 11×14 inches.
Acrylic on canvas, 11×14 inches.
Acrylic on canvas, 11×14 inches.
Acrylic on canvas, 11×14 inches.
Bead Work
I am continuing with this series. Previous pieces can be seen here.
This particular series shows a specific melding of Indigenous (beads, pattern, process) and non-Indigenous (contour “drawing”, realism).
Canvas, Pelon, glass beads, and thread. 9.5×8.5 inches
This summer was full of experimentation and considering materiality and meaning in my work.
The main goal was to finish workshopping installation ideas for what I’ve been calling my Boundaries project. Each of these pieces was created by ripping up a facsimile map of Montana, circa 1881, and collaging it onto canvas in the shapes of each reservation in the state. Each piece was then lashed to a whitewashed wood frame with strips created from the treaties that established that reservation, mimicking hide stretching frames. When I first envisioned this project, the idea was to install it in a circle on ground/floor but when I did that, I wasn’t satisfied with the way that the viewer looked down on the work. So this summer has been spent workshopping a more elevated install idea and then making that happen. .
Studio IV: The Boundaries Project
Studio IV: Responding to the Marceau-Ponty Reading
When reading this assignment, I was struck by the idea of looking at the world in ways other than with our eyes. In many ways, as artists, we “see” the world through our hands or bodies.
Print Workshop A
The print workshop, this summer, was very productive for me. In thinking about the invisibility of Indigenous bodies and how certain printing methods leave traces of shapes in the form of embossing, I began to think about what this said for the shape that made the embossment and what embossment as an artifact might mean in my practice. I was also interested in exploring symbolism and how multiples of a symbol could work in harmony with itself or in tandem with another symbol to impart a message.
VIBGYOR: Color for Studio
In this workshop, I was finally able to experiment with making pigment from moss harvested in Montana in 2019. This is a type of moss that was used by the Bitterroot Salish and Qlispe’ to make pigment and to stain articles of clothing, skin, hides, and other items.
Felting/Weaving In the Expanded Field
Weaving was another technique that I’ve wanted to integrate into my practice for awhile. In this workshop, I used more facsimile maps of Montana, circa 1881, to weave various items. I also used a Salish weaving technique with one of the experiments.
Other Media
I spent a lot of time working on workshop projects but did get a bit of time to paint. I also worked on other items as time permitted.
Painting
I’ve been experiencing some frustration with my painting practice lately. Specifically, I’ve been looking for ways to create work that doesn’t fall into cliche’ or stereotype when using distinctly Indigenous symbology. After looking through Fritz Scholder’s work (again) and reading what he had to say on the subject, I started to consider how the use of symbology and multiples worked in my print practice and pulled some of that into my painting work. I also started to consider what I think paint (as a medium) does best, what parts of my practice are based in my indigenous identity, what parts are based in my non-indigenous identity, and what it is that I want to say with paint.
The Long Walk
I’m still continuing to work on this sculpture as time permits. For more on this work, please click here.
My work explores my identity and experiences as a mixed blood person, fusing Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of seeing and making in order to navigate the space between.
Born and raised in Northwestern Montana, I grew up on the Flathead Indian Reservation. My father was Qlispe’, Seli’š, and Ksanka (Upper Kalispel, Bitterroot Salish, and Kootenai) and my mother was the daughter of non-Indigenous settlers who moved to the reservation in the 1920s when it was opened for white settlement. I grew up with access to these two different worlds and to their histories and traditions.
My work creates “stories” that investigate concepts of erasure, kinship, belonging, transition, transformation, reclamation, and ambiguity. My work also celebrates the resilience and survivance of Indigenous people, giving voice to that part of me that has survived and thrived. I consider myself and my work as a bridge between Indigenous and non-Indigenous cultures, between Western European art and Indigenous art, and between the past and the future.
Current Projects and Works-In-Progress
Boundaries Project: The Impact of Loss of Place Place and identity are inextricably linked for Indigenous people. These “hides”, made from ripped up and reassembled facsimile maps of Montana circa 1881, are stretched and lashed to whitewashed wood frames with the official treaty language used by the US government to create each reservation located in the State. Indian peoples were ripped from their larger territory and confined to the much smaller reservation which was not enough territory to sustain their way of life. They often did not understand the full language of the treaties they signed and were expected to change from hunters to farmers almost over night, This work directly refers to this process by referencing the skin of an animal which has been removed and then stretched out to tan so that it can be changed and used for a different purpose.
The blood red painted faces of Indian people, splattered on the “hides” takes advantage of the human brain’s propensity to see faces – which, once seen, can’t be unseen – pushing against the purposeful amnesia regarding the US history of its treatment of Indian peoples and the idea that Indian people are invisible or “extinct”. The “hides” and “blood” are stand-ins for Indian bodies, referring to US government policy on blood quantum – dictating who is and isn’t “Indian” in order to allot reservation resources.
Plans for the Future I’m currently workshopping installation ideas. I wasn’t happy that the viewer is looking down on these so I am currently thinking through a different install approach. The drawing represents the current idea that I’m working at the moment.
These pieces have always been representative of the Indigenous body so I decided to really lean into that (the drawing). One of the reasons these have faces is to humanize the people to whom the trauma of removal happened. Elevating the pieces to eye level in a way that suggests a human body supports that representation. This taller install would also take up more space and would confront the viewer in ways the floor install just doesn’t.
Beaded Portraits: Counting Coup on Curtis As a medium, beads are a symbol of resilience, survivance, and thriving for Indigenous people. Post First Contact, Indigenous peoples readily adopted European glass beads as an art form and took the medium to artistic heights not attained in Europe at the time – taking control of a European medium and making it their own.
The legacy of Edward S. Curtis is a problematic one. So many of his photos don’t note the name of the subject. The photo title is the name he gave them, stripping a part of their Indigenous identity and renaming them in a non-Indigenous way. The Curtis photo “Flathead female type”, which is the basis for one of these pieces, was especially painful to me. This was a Bitterroot Salish woman photographed by Curtis who used only her image for his own purposes. She might be an ancestor, she might not. I don’t know because her name was lost.
In these beaded portraits, the whole impetus is about “renaming” the subject from Edward S. Curtis’ dehumanizing titles to something more Indigenous. This is done most directly with the title of the work – Sunwoman. But the beads, their dimensionality, and their colors also function as a kind of language which renames and reclaims these people. Beads and color, especially in the way I have used them, mark this subject as “Indigenous”. The material “names” the subject and “identifies” the subject. This woman has become more than just a nameless person in a flat, black and white photo taken by a non-Indigenous person for Colonial/Capitalist reasons bankrolled by a 19th century robber baron (JP Morgan).
Plans for the Future I have just recently finished the second portrait and have prepared the ground for the third one, based on a photo entitled “Nespelem Maiden” which has all sorts of problematic connotations that I’d like to address (the fetishizing use of the word “maiden”). These portraits, at this size, take about 55 to 60 hours – it’s a slow medium to work in. So I am not anticipating getting this latest portrait finished until well into Fall semester.
Curtis’ original photo – “Flathead Female Type”
Painting: Indigenous/Non-Indigenous Fusion. Continuing a trajectory that I started last Fall semester, I am exploring ways of using pigments, color, subject matter, method (reductive and additive), and symbiology in my painting practice. I recently attended the Native Pigments Revealed symposium a few weeks ago and have come away with a renewed interest in exploring the pre-Contact Indigenous painting traditions of Qlispe’ and Seli’š people. The idea that earth pigments – rock, plants, etc. – tie a work to a certain place because the materials have been gathered from that place is really appealing to me. Much of my painted work contains visual references, overt and covert, to landscape. I’d like to push this further.
Plans for the Future The images below represent what I’m experimenting with right now. The left most painting was done right after the Native Pigments Revealed symposium and represents the direction I’d like to go with foraged pigments. Finding pigments in the landscape, making them into paint. And then painting with them. This field of enquiry will very likely extend through Summer, through Fall semester, and into Spring semester.
Print I started thinking about the use of print in my practice when I started working with the facsimile 1881 Montana map and the treaties that established the reservations in the state. These were printed works on paper – in some cases, mass produced in order to disseminate information. I’m interested in this communication method when thinking about the purposeful amnesia of the general American public with regards to Indigenous people and history. I’ve also branched out to thinking about print and symbols, especially the use of multiples, to create meaning and to tie that into my current work. I’m still investigating this tangent by creating my own blocks for printing/stamping and thinking about the symbols I want to weave into images. I really like the idea of using one symbol to build a portrait or picture of a subject in a Pointillist manner.
Plans for the Future Along with continuing these lines of thought, I am taking a Print workshop this Summer and the Graduate Print Portfolio elective this Fall. It will be interesting to see what comes out of this focused time.
Initial experiment to prove concept
Built up proof-of-concept using buffalo stamp and alizarin crimson on paper, 17×14 inches
I wasn’t crazy about how the High Flow behaved when inking this tiny block/stamp.
Drawing
A regular part of my practice includes almost daily concept sketching but I have recently gone back to creating drawings as “finished” work. Like my painting practice, this is another area where I am exploring style and symbolism to create specific messages.
graphite on paper, 9 inches diameter.
Sketch: “If you don’t hear from me, call the police”, graphite on paper, 4.5 inches diameter.
Sketch, graphite on paper, 4.5 inches diameter
Sketch, graphite on paper, 4.5 inches diameter.
Sketch: “Community”, graphite on paper, 4.5 inches diameter.
Experimentation: Quilling with Paper
There is a European tradition of “quilling” with curls of paper which looks nothing like Indigenous quilling with porcupine quills. I’ve been experimenting with quilling paper in the Indigenous quilling tradition. These are tests, using treaty text, to see how much of the wording can be read and how I can manipulate the text. This is an offshoot of the Boundaries project lashings which are vinyl encased strips of treaty text. It has a very quill-like materiality to it so I wondered how it would behave when quilled onto a surface.
Proof of concept; working in the round.
Experimenting with formatting to get as much text on the front of the work as possible.
And, As Always, Long Walk… I still continue to work on this very large bead sculpture. Currently, all foam cores have been cast and I am in the process of skinning each bead with hydrocal, sanding them, and then painting them. It takes time for the clear, top coat to cure so I’ll be working on these, this summer, in between all the other projects and school work.
The 130th anniversary of the removal of the Bitterroot Salish from the Bitteroot valley is October 15th, 2021. I am hoping to finish this by then but may not make that deadline.
For a more in-depth discussion of this project, please go here.
continue to work towards ways of making that more fully integrated my chosen mediums with whatever message I might be expressing.
research into painting traditions of the Bitterroot Salish and, ancillary that, the painting traditions of Northwest Coast, Plateau, and Plains tribes as these were points of contact for trade with the Bitterroot Salish.
continue to work my way through oral histories of the Bitterroot people, some of which goes into depth on the type of pigments available, how to harvest them, what their significance was, and how they were used.
I would like to more fully pull “traditional” aspects of NA painting into my contemporary practice.
working to better write about my work.
Long-term goals:
Consider and explore concepts of monumentalism, memory, and sacredness through various narrative methods as well as building on what I have discovered from Fall semester.
Reflections on process, new thinking, etc.
The Medium Is The Message vs. The Medium Supports The Message.
I wasn’t satisfied with the original aphorism so I changed it. I disliked that the original statement centered the medium over the message. For my work, the message is as important (if not more so) than the medium. The changed aphorism better resonates with me as I consider what it is that my mediums might say, what it is that I want my work to say, and how best I can tie those two aspects of my practice together.
Editing to create a clear, strong message in the work.
I realized, this semester, that I am prone to muddying things up by trying to push too many messages into my work. So I’ve been purposely focusing on the one message I want a piece to communicate and then working to stay focused on that.
Artistic References
I took the opportunity to attend a number of Visiting Artist talks. The two which stood out most for me were Nicholas Galanin and Curtis Talwst Santiago. The way in which they both approached identity through their work and the way in which Nicholas Galanin talked about his thinking and process were really informative. Both artists gave me ideas for how to rethink or think differently about my art practice and the way in which materials and focused message work in tandem to create a solid piece.
Remaking The Thing I Don’t Like Into Something I Do Like.
During one meeting with my mentor, I told a story from when I was a little girl. Beads were scarce in the area so I had to come up with different ways of obtaining them. There was a dime store in my home town that sold “Indian bead work” to tourists. This bead work wasn’t locally made; it was probably made in China or somewhere else overseas. The pieces were generic but colorful and cheap. So I would buy a few of them at a time, take them home, painstakingly pull them apart, sort the beads by color, and then use them to make something I did like. I realized that a lot of what I am doing right now speaks to this urge to take something I don’t like (history, historical amnesia, identity, loss of culture, loss of territory) and make it into something I do like. Most of what I am focused on currently is speaking directly to pushing against the purposeful amnesia of Indigenous history in this country. And I am focused on remaking with the beaded portrait of the Flathead woman from Curtis’ photograph. I’m also considering delving more deeply into Indigenous Futurism where I take apart the history I don’t like and re-imagine it in a way that I do like.
Current Studio Outcomes, Experiments, Explorations, Concerns.
I am mostly satisfied with my studio work this semester. I didn’t get as much completed physically as I would have liked but I did a lot of conceptual thinking, writing, and reading. All of which takes time. I did find it difficult to balance a more writing/reading studio focus with the Artists Writing class. My plan had been to do a writing focused studio mentorship next Spring as well but I’m rethinking that.
Continuing work from last Fall was mostly focused on the Boundaries Project, Beaded Portraits, and The Long Walk. New and experimental work was comprised of The Blood Quantum project, Treaty Quillwork experiments, and some new thoughts on drawing as an endpoint.
Historical/Contemporary Research Undertaken This Semester.
I began delving more deeply into family history, family stories, etc. as a way to “speak” with and “listen” to my ancestors.
I continued to read through published oral histories of my tribe to look for references to colors and pigments.
I’ll be attending a local NW Coast Indigenous pigment symposium at the end of May.
Annotated Bibliography/List of Readings
I’m still continuing to add to the annotated bibliography when time permits. I’m currently searching for readings that talk about non-Colonized Art Theory.
I’ve kept a list and copies of articles that my mentor asked me to read or, in some cases, re-read. These include Barthes (Rhetoric of the Image), bell hooks (The Oppositional Gaze), Alleva (Reception), Donnelly (Indigenous Futures), and Winterson (Art Objects).
Current Studio Work:
The Boundaries Project (WIP). Materials: wood, paper, canvas, maps, iron nails. Iron oxide acrylic paint. Dimensions variable.
This sculpture/installation project started last Fall. The initial idea was to rip up facsimiles of a Montana map, circa 1881, reassemble the pieces into Montana reservation shapes, and then splatter blood colored paint on the shapes to form faces. I felt that, right from the start, this initial idea was fairly solid. I liked what it said about ripping up a huge territory and reassembling it into a small space that didn’t make sense. I liked that the viewer clued into these being maps but that, on closer inspection, the maps made no sense. I liked the physicality of ripping something up as I felt that spoke to the entire process of establishing and then forcing Indigenous people onto reservations. I also liked the idea of splatters in Iron oxide which is an ancient pigment used globally by humans for thousands of years. I took this idea still further to take advantage of how the human brain looks for faces which spoke to the invisibility of Indigenous people in America. Once the viewer saw the face in the blood, they would not be able to un-see it.
Where this project became tricky was when I moved on to thinking through how I wanted to frame these pieces. I went through several iterations, added items and then removed those items, and so forth. Finally, after a conversation with my mentor this semester, I did some free writing to explore what it was that I was trying to say with these and came to realize that the reassembled pieces looked like hides – the idea that a hide is a stand-in for the body and that it is a way of identifying a being also came to the fore. Once I had that idea on board, I was able to move forward and think about how hides were obtained and prepared which led to this framing concept of hide stretcher frames. The reassembled pieces became hides that stood for the previous life of Indigenous people which were now removed and being processed on white washed wood frames. The language of the various treaties was used to make lashings which bound and stretched these pieces to that frame.
Blood Quantum Project (WIP). Materials: Ink on paper, dimensions variable. Done in an analogous palette of reds (Iron oxides, vermilion, etc.)
So much of modern Indigenous American identity is dictated by blood quantum – what percentage of Indian blood, listed on the Certified Degree of Indian Blood (CDIB), a person can show that they have. It leads to a very colonial way of thinking about Indigenous belonging, Indigenous culture, who is “enough” and who isn’t enough to claim Indigeneity. This system was imposed on Indian people by the Federal government as a way to measure “Indian-ness” through a construct of race. Eventually, through this policy, the government planned that Indians would breed themselves out of existence and the federal government would no longer have to uphold legal duties and treaty obligations. The damage that this system does to Indian identity is immeasurable. Indians are the only minority in the US that are required to prove their minority status. It’s a kind of slow genocide that was begun in the 1800s and continues to this day. Blood quantum was a very important part of many of my ancestors’ identity. These portraits of people I am closely related to speaks to how these fractions, based on different relationships, ancestry, and government control were an embedded part of their identity. Just as it is for me.
This project is done by taking a stamp which has the blood quantum amount of the person and then using Pointilism to create the portrait. The current incarnation is a bit unsatisfying. In thinking about how blood quantum is a form of erasure, I think the portraits are too defined. The next iteration will be much less defined; almost as if the person is dissolving.
Secondary to this thought is that the portrait of the woman emerging from the herd of buffalo feels like a different direction than these blood quantum portraits and should be its own distinct project. In that portrait, the woman is made of buffalo and that is a kind of celebratory idea. So rather than using my ancestors for the blood quantum portraits, which I’ve been having some issues with, I will use them for portraits similar to the red buffalo woman.
Blood Quantum Images:
Chck-Acka-Pee/Philomene Dupuis
Detail of Chick-Acka-Pee
Edmond Dupuis, grandfather
Detail of Edmond
Initial experiment to prove concept
Built up proof-of-concept using buffalo stamp and alizarin crimson on paper, 17×14 inches
I wasn’t crazy about how the High Flow behaved when inking this tiny block/stamp.
I really liked this one. Tube Golden acrylic and Akua transparent base. The base keeps the acrylic from drying too quickly but I can still retain transparency. The red-brown figures are 1?2 mix of acrylic paint to base. Which tacked up better than any of the other experiments.
High Flow acrylic and Akua transparent base. Not flawless but certainly better handling and better tack than the Speedball. Figures. Akua is twice as expensive as Speedball.
Tube Golden acrylic and speedball extender base. I didn’t like how this behaved at all. It started drying rapidly and wouldn’t tack up.
High flow transparent acrylic paint and Speedball extender/base, also transparent. I liked this the least. The ink wouldn’t tack up so I ended up with ink blobs.
I have a love/hate relationship with Edward S. Curtis’ work. On the one hand, the photos of indigenous people are precious in that they are a historical record of Indigenous Americans. On the other, most are so stage managed and created from a non-Indigenous point of view. In many ways, Curtis’ work was meant to show that Indigenous people were a vanishing culture and that they were less sophisticated, less educated, and less civilized than non-Indigenous Americans. For this beaded portrait, I decided to reclaim the humanity and Indigeneity of this person – who is listed in Curtis’ portfolio simply as “Flathead Female Type”. The title dehumanizes this woman by naming her as more of a specimen, a curiosity, than a human being. I wanted to remake her portrait in a way that humanized her and in a way which was more Indigenous so that she wouldn’t continue to only be known only by that title. There are several portraits with this kind of titling in Curtis’ work. I’m planning on doing a few more of these beaded portraits of them as well.
Beaded Portrait Images:
Work In Progress: portrait from Edward S. Curtis photo of “Flathead Female Type”
Sketch of finished piece
Curtis’ original photo – “Flathead Female Type”
Work In Progress: Untitled, 11/0 glass beads, thread, canvas and Pellon. 8.5 inches diameter.
Beading done using single needle and two-bead applique stitch method.
The Long Walk (WIP). Materials: cast foam, hydrocal, acrylic paitng, and paracord. When this sculpture is finished, it will be 37 feet long x 24 inches wide x 3 inches thick. Each bead is 3.5 inches diameter x 2 inches thick.
I continue to work on this very large sculpture. As of this week, 1690 cores have been cast, 500 cores have been skinned, and 300 beads have been painted. I’m currently in the skinning phase – adding a layer of reinforced hydrocal to each cast foam core so that the surface is smooth and paintable. My goal to finish this piece is October 15th of this year – the 130th anniversary of the removal of the Bitterroot Salish from the Bitterroot valley. It’s a fairly simple piece with a nicely focused message. The medium of giant beads elevates the piece into the realm of sculpture; which avoids the art world penchant for labeling Indigenous work as “craft”. The size also acts as a monument to the Salish while at the same time reclaiming gallery floor space and forcing the viewer to confront it and move around it. It will be installed at the King Street Station in Seattle, hanging from the rafters, flowing down the wall, and out into the gallery space. The dashes represent footsteps on the red road. There are a few aspects I am still working my way through but conceptually, I am very satisfied with it.
Long Walk Images:
Side View
Clear Coated Beads Curing
Drawing: Hands/As An Endpoint
Drawing has always been a means to an end for me. Mid summer, last year, I began to look at my drawings and consider how they functioned as stand-alone work. I really liked they way they operated and began to consider how I could work that into painting. The reductive painting experiments I did last Fall were a direct result of this line of thinking. This semester, I started to consider drawing as a finished work. All of the compositions are circular – this is a response to thinking about how Time is viewed by many Indigenous peoples as a less linear concept than it is for modern Western European and American culture. I also focused on just hands as a means to think about how message can be conveyed through simple gesture by both the subject and the medium of graphite.
graphite on paper, 9 inches diameter.
Sketch: “If you don’t hear from me, call the police”, graphite on paper, 4.5 inches diameter.
Sketch, graphite on paper, 4.5 inches diameter
Sketch, graphite on paper, 4.5 inches diameter.
Sketch: “Community”, graphite on paper, 4.5 inches diameter.
Drawing: Ancestors Studies
I started these drawings as a prelude to the Blood Quantum project. Many of the photos I’ve been able to obtain of my ancestors have been very old and grainy. Some were taking in the late 1800s so the amount of information available was limited. I’ve been working on creating portraits of several individuals as a way to enlarge them without losing details. In the course of doing these drawings, I found it interesting to see facial characteristics that have been passed down through subsequent generations. As an example, when doing the portrait of my great grandmother, it almost felt like I was doing a self portrait.
Agnes Dupuis, great grandmother
Chick-acka-pee/Philomene, great-great grandmother
Cah-le-mos, great-great-great grandmother
Painting
Not a lot of painting happened this semester. When I did paint, I was engaged in color exercises, concept ideas, and a different method of reductive painting which mirrors my drawings. Or, I just painted for the fun of it.
Reductive experiment; in oil instead of wiping paint off, I scraped it off with the tip of a palette knife. Oil on canvas, 30×24 inches.
Color work experiment in oil
Plein Aire in acrylic
Traditional Quillwork with Treaties
When I started creating the lashing for the Boundaries project, there was a lot of vinyl cuttoffs. Materially, they reminded me of porcupine quills so I experimented with them to do some traditional quillwork. This led to some thoughts on how I might manage composing the treaty words so that the text was mostly readable while being quilled. I’m very undecided about this aspect. Since quillwork is something of beauty, I feel that using treaty words may not work. Instead, I may look for other words that are more about survivance and use those instead.
Proof of concept; working in the round.
Experimenting with formatting to get as much text on the front of the work as possible.
This semester was one of experimentation and research. Before I began the MFA-BLR program, my practice was engaged in an exploration of the idea of monumentalism as well as the concept of memory. I was also engaged in a search for my own visual language to express sacredness. This focus hasn’t changed all that much but I am currently focusing on various ways to create work that narrates these concepts to the viewer.
During the June review, Paul Briggs mentioned the aphorism “the medium is the message” which caught my attention and I began to review my work with this statement in mind. Initially, I accepted the statement at face value but have since come to question its broadness. I think a more accurate statement would be that art work “functions” best when “the medium amplifies the message”. But even this rewording doesn’t quite get to the heart of what I think is missing. Regardless, I began to closely consider the various mediums I use and what their contribution to the messages inherent in my work might be with the idea that I might be able to further tighten the relationship.
Obstruction and Experimentation
Also, during this semester, I specifically began to work towards more tightly aligning my drawing with my painting. My drawings have always been in service towards working out concept, composition, and value with the idea that, once I was satisfied, I would move forward into painting, But they contain a certain quality to them that is really inviting and very satisfying creatively. However, I’ve not been completely successful when taking these images into painting as I often lost the openness and “fresh” quality of the drawing when doing so. After a conversation with my mentor, Preston Wadley, and a conversation with Sharon Dunn, I set up an obstruction to work towards a more open paint style. The obstructions were two-fold and simple; I would use a reductive technique to create my paintings but I could only work on the painting for an hour. This served two purposes; first, it made me rely less on painting in detail and more on allowing the viewer to create detail themselves. Second, it made me approach the painting process in the same way that I approached my drawing process; toning the canvas and then wiping away paint to create the composition. In my drawing, I often tone the paper with several layers of hatch marks before using an eraser to mass in the subject highlights. This is followed by more graphite hatching to define the shadows.
The reductive painting technique held a number of surprises. I’ve been incredibly satisfied with what I’ve produced so far and am moving towards working in additive techniques that don’t overwhelm the reductive layer but, instead, support it without closing it down.
This technique also allows me to take full advantage of layering to create complex narrative. Instead of nailing the painting down completely in the beginning layers, I am able to leave the painting open and allow it to move in whatever way that it wants.
Mentored Goals – Cumulative Narrative
Early in the semester, my mentor suggested I focus on cumulative narrative as well as complex narrative. My work has always been narrative in scope but is often focused on a single subject and, when grouped, my work suggests a linear kind of narrative.
Digital grouping of various concept sketches, arranged to explore relationships between them and to think about the accumulative aspect of sketches done over the past six months to a year.
Mentored Goals – Alternate Media
Aside from my painting and drawing, I’ve engaged in a renewed interest in small bead work. This is partially in service to my exploration of monumentalism and partially due to my continued push against the exclusion of “craft” from the fine art world. I consider the boundary between craft and fine art to be artificial. It’s there, in my opinion, to exclude work that is most often done by women and cultures outside of the Western world. I’ve begun to consider my bead work with the dual idea that, as a medium, it has an inherent message and that it pushes against this boundary.
Study Plan Goals
Lastly, I began and continue to work on an annotated bibliography. I started this document primarily to more deeply research Native American paints, pigments, and painting techniques and have morphed it into including articles on survivance and Native American beading techniques. I am currently doing a lot of research on Native American Ledger Art. The bibliography can be viewed here.
Drawing Highlights
At the beginning of the semester, I was engaged with drawing nearly every day and using it to work through concepts. Highlights of this exercise are shown below. To see other concept drawings, click here.
How the West Was Won, graphite on paper, 8×5 inches
White Mask, graphite on paper, 8×5 inches
Complex narrative; Urban Wildlife, graphite on paper, 8×5 inches
An exercise in recreating a photo of my great-aunt from memory., graphite on paper, 8×5 inches
Sketch for “This is Not An American Indian”, graphite on paper, 8×5 inches
Graphite on paper, 8×5 inches
Reductive Exercises
Prior to this semester, my painting was centered on the Indirect method. However, I’ve found that this method can close up really fast. As a way to loosen up my work, I started painting in a reductive method. I created about a dozen of these studies before moving on to using the technique to create specific narratives. These are some highlights of that process. To see the entire selection, click here.
Deer Skull, Kitsap Peninsula, oil on canvas, 16×20 inches. Ground of white gesso, reductive layer of burnt umber and terre verte in oil, additive layer of various colors in oil (mainly in the background).
Essence of Raven, oil and acrylic on canvas, 24×18 inches. 1 hour reductive painting – ground of blues in acrylic, reductive layer of ultramarine and raw umber in oil.
Reductive painting with additive color study, oil on canvas, 8×8 inches. Ground of acrylic ultramarine, reductive layer of burnt umber in oil, additive layer of various colors in oil, another reductive layer of burnt umber and ultramarine in oil, last additive layer of various colors in oil.
Work In Progress: Western Meadow Lark, acrylic molding paste and gesso ground, reductive and additive layers in oil on wood panel, 12×12 inches.
Project-In-Progress: “Strata”
Very early in the semester I became interested in this map of Montana, dated to 1851. This date is four years prior to the Hellgate treaty which was used to eventually remove the Bitterroot Salish from their area in the Bitterroot mountains and force them to relocate north to the Flathead Reservation. I obtained an antique copy of this map and created several copies of it from which to work. In these paintings, the map is left whole but is used as the ground on which the rest of the painting is layered. All of these paintings are “in progress” as I think about how to compound meaning through the media. Eventually, I plan to do a reductive layer on them similar to the top left painting in this grouping.
Work In Progress: The Treachery of Image: This Is Not An Indian, printed facsimile of 1851 Montana map on paper, PVA, oil, and acrylic on canvas, 24×18 inches
Work In Progress: Gone But Not Forgotten, printed facsimile of 1851 Montana map on paper, PVA, oil, and acrylic on canvas, 18×24 inches
Work In Progress: Paper, PVA, and acrylic on canvas. 18×24. Some of the read areas were painted with fingers to push the idea of identity and culpability.
Work in Progress: Paper, acrylic, and oil on canvas. 18×24. Each treaty contains descriptions for the land that Indian peoples are giving up as well as the boundaries of the reservation to which they will be moved. This initial layer contains the original Indian territory boundaries superimposed over the 1851 Montana map.
Project-In-Process: “Untitled” (Borders)
This project features the same facsimile Montana map from 1851 but, in each of the paintings below, a copy has been ripped up and then reassembled into the borders of a specific reservation located in Montana. This project is concerned with considering the violence of tearing up ground, of shrinking a large territory into a very small one, the impact of that action on a population, and the reassembling of the territory into a living space.
Below are the various grounds created; like the Strata project, above, they will eventually get layers of transparent oil. I’m uncertain what the subject matter will be. Like the previous project, I plan to do a reductive layer on these and have added some Photoshop mock-ups which I am using to work my way through that process. The final image is a mock-up of a possible frame/presentation method.
Work In Progress: Flathead Reservation, paper, PVA, and acrylic paint on linen canvas. 24×20 inches.
Work In Progress: Blackfeet Reservation, paper, PVA, and acrylic paint on linen canvas. 24×20 inches
Work In Progress: Crow Reservation, paper, PVA, and acrylic paint on linen canvas. 20×24 inches
Work In Progress: Fort Peck Reservation, paper, PVA, and acrylic paint on linen canvas. 20×24 inches
Work In Progress: Fort Belknap Reservation, paper, PVA, and acrylic paint on linen canvas. 20×18 inches
Work In Progress: Northern Cheyenne Rewservation, paper, PVA, and acrylic paint on linen canvas. 20×24 inches
Work In Progress: Rocky Boy’s Reservation, paper, PVA, and acrylic paint on linen canvas. 18×20 inches
Reductive layer mock-up using Photoshop. Photo, dated to the early 1900s, of Chief Stone Child.
Reductive layer mock-up using Photoshop. Photo, dated to the early 1900s, of Chief Charlo, head chief of the Salish they were forced from the Bitterroot Valley and removed to the Flathead reservation.
Frame mock-up/possibility. This set-up mimics a hide tanning frame.
Beading
Along with the very large beaded sculpture I started prior to starting the MFA-BLR program and am still working on, I also moved back into small bead work in which I considered color relationships, ways of introducing movement, and using the medium to create narratives.
Work In Progress: Untitled, 11/0 glass beads, thread, canvas and Pellon. 8.5 inches diameter.
Beading done using single needle and two-bead applique stitch method.
Sketch showing a possible addition of other elements.
Transition & Movement No. 4, 11/0 glass beads, thread, and Pellon. 3.5 inches diameter.2 3/8 inches diameter.
Beading done using single needle and two-bead applique stitch method.
Crow Study, 11/0 glass beads, thread, canvas, and Pellon. 3×3.6 inches.
Beading done using single needle and two-bead applique stitch method.
I continue to work on this very large sculpture, between Summer and Fall new projects. Despite having conceptualized it about a year ago and starting it months before I began my MFA program, I still refer to it and think about it a great deal. Especially when considering and further researching contemporary artists (who happen to be Native American) and Gerald Vizenor’s theory of Survivance.
The point to this sculpture was always very straightforward. I took a craft – beadwork – which is stereotypically Native American and has never really been considered ‘art’ in the same sense as painting, drawing, or sculpture but as more of an ‘artifact’ in the anthropological sense. Which excludes it from the art world. By enlarging beadwork, I elevated it to the status of ‘sculpture’. Which, by definition, now makes it ‘art’. The largeness of the work is also straightforward; by taking up space, the piece will claim that space and force the viewer to navigate around it. It’s a direct call back to reservations, settler land claims, and the idea that America was ‘vacant’ before the Europeans colonized it. This is a direct reference to Gerald Viznor’s theory on Survivance – not only is it demanding to be seen, it’s also commanding the space around it.
The basics of the piece are also specifically tied to my own heritage. Each row contains thirteen beads; the Bitterroot Salish calendar was lunar, with thirteen months rather than twelve. Each row represents a year. Eventually, there will be 130 rows representing the amount of time since the Bitterroot Salish were forcibly removed from their ancestral territory and placed on a reservation approximately one hundred miles to the north. The colors of the beads are based on reading oral histories about pigments that were available and their symbolism. The dashes, created by three yellow beads, are representative of foot steps – based on the ledger art of a Bitterroot Salish man named Five Crows. Hence the title, “The Long Walk”, the journey taken out of the Bitterroot valley which continues, through time.
This is, by far, the most Native American piece I’ve done so far. I am really reluctant to have my work stereotyped in any way so I usually avoid overtly Native symbology. But the point of this piece is overtly native so I’ve pushed that.
Making these giant beads is a three-step process. I began by carving three prototypes out of foam. I then made a silicone mold of them. The mold is used to cast new beads in pourable casting foam which is lightweight. To make it durable and to smooth the surface, I coat each bead in a reinforced hydrocal shell. The beads are sanded, painted, and top coated in a durable acrylic clear coat. Once that cures, they are strung using nylon parachute cord. I also had to make my own oversized needle to return through the last row added to start each new row.
The photos show just the first section of the entire sculpture. By the time I am finished, the sculpture will be approximately thirty-seven feet long and is 28″ wide and 3″ thick. The plan has always been to hang it from the ceiling of the venue and have it drape down onto and across a significant portion of the floor. I wanted it to refer back to European cathedrals and the sacred space from the rosette through the alter and down the aisle. I have a second large sculpture planned that will be a rondel eight feet in diameter.
I continue to consider the idea of monument, mostly through size, in my work along with the search for my own visual language to express sacredness. In the following works in process, the idea of very large human heads occupying space on the landscape suggests to me an anthropomorphized view of the landscape itself.
The earth beads integrate into the land, occupying a space between human-made and natural elements. They adorn the landscape in much the same way that beads are used to adorn garments.
In the animation project, I consider the circular nature of life (which is also suggested in bead shape) through a visual language that draws on archetypes.
I think of monuments (and my current work) as a kind of love letter from the living to the dead. It’s a way to reach across time to engage with those that came before. A letter is an intimate form of communication but it’s not immediate. It’s very much constrained by time and space and, yet, it can reach across distances or across time. I am engaged in a call and response to my heritage, my own psyche, and what I imagine is the psyche of the world. This is why landscape and, in specific, the landscape of the Bitterroot and Mission mountain ranges in Western Montana are so important to me. These are the areas where I grew up and which contain the echos of place and of family, either in the form of grave sites, event sites, or living blood relations.
Questions for the Reviewers
I am looking for sacred visual language that is archetypal and de-centered. What is your read on this aspect of the work presented?
I picked up several books that were suggested during my June review. The most prominent of these were Lippard’s “From The Center”, Elkin’s “On the Strange Place of Religion in Contemporary Art”, and “Reclaiming the Spiritual in Art”. Are there any other texts that I should be aware of?
Top row, left to right: 1. Initial concept drawing, 2. Diagram of single bead. Bottom row, left to right: 3. Second concept drawing, 4. Scale model sculpture in process.
Initial earth bead concept drawing.
Earth Bead Mechanical Considerations.
Earth Beads, Size Considerations
Scale model created to work out the mechanics involved.
Top row, left to right: 1. Concept drawing, 2. Sketch on prepared canvas. Bottom row, left to right: 3. Burnt sienna toning, 4. Re-establishing the light masses.
Graphite on paper, 5×8 inches.
Giant Head Painting. Strengthening the sketch with thinned raw umber in preparation for the burnt sienna toning. 36×48 inches.
Giant Head Painting. Adding the burnt sienna tone layer and beginning the wipe out to re-establish light masses. 36×48 inches.
Giant Head Painting. Using titanium white to re-establish light masses. 36×48 inches.
Final Project for Animation Integration Elective
Stop-motion palimpsest combined with cut-outs.
Reflection
During our first week, when we were directed to create concepts for new work, Sharon made the statement, “Dream Big”. I took that to heart and allowed myself to consider concepts without the restrictions of time or money. It is interesting to me that I immediately gravitated towards land art as well as my more usual large sculpture and large-ish oil paintings.
The move towards land art is not a big surprise; I was unable to go home to the reservation, this Summer, thanks to COVID-19. In the past, I have spent at least a week there, attending Language & Culture Camp and visiting various places in the Mission and Bitterroot mountains and valleys. I think this lack underpins my interest in land art.
The other development, this summer, that was interesting but not necessarily surprising was my move from abstractive large scale sculpture to figurative large scale sculpture. I’m still analyzing why this switch happened. It may have been precipitated by the imagery of oversized human heads situated in a landscape which has been part of my conceptual image generation for this Summer session.
A third and unanticipated but interesting development happened during my Animation elective. At this point, thanks to that class, I have several concepts that I want to explore using video and/or animation techniques. Video is not a medium I usually think about when thinking conceptually.
I’m currently engaged in a body of work that is, primarily, a search for a visual language to express and memorialize what I consider “sacred”. I think of my work as ‘monuments’ to those things which I associate with identity, relationships, ancestry, and various other influences. My work also investigates transition and movement through color and composition.
Secondarily, I use my work to express the ambiguity I feel with my identity. A large part of my art deals with covert and overt Indian-ness. Through my art, I consider the concept of personal identity, the loss and invention of personal and group identity, and the often ambiguous identity of individuals and groups who occupy intersectional space inside an oppressive culture.
I am also creating work that considers and confronts the artificial line between “craft” and “art”. The word ‘craft’ has often been used to dismiss or diminish work by women and People of Color; I am engaged in looking for ways to push against this. Lastly, I am rediscovering print as a medium and am in the initial stages of relearning before moving on to creating.
Below is a curated gallery of recent work, both in progress and finished. Please click on a thumbnail to read more about the specific project.
Painting – I work mainly in oil on canvas or wood using a combination of indirect and direct painting methods. I have also worked in acrylic on both canvas and wood.
Bead Work – Current projects include a very large in-progress sculpture (center) and small bead work done in 11/0 glass beads on leather or Pellon (left and right).
Print – I just recently returned to print making. I prefer the relief printing method (lino-cut) and am working through registration techniques for multi-color work. I’d like to explore woodblock printing at some point in the near future.
Preparatory and Value Study Sketches – Drawing and sketching are a huge part of my studio practice. I work nearly everything but color out in these sketches.
