The Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art is hosting WITHIN: Louis Still Smoking & John Isaiah Pepion. WITHIN artist discussion on Oct. 26.

The event is drawn from the artists’ belief that the strength and success of Native American identity and culture is internally inherited and created inside of their communities.

As artists, Still Smoking and Pepion aim to help reclaim, reinform, and redefine what it means to a member of the Blackfeet Nation in Montana today. By looking within, they themselves and fellow indigenous communities become whole again, according to the museum.

The artists will collaborate to create a mural inside the museum with integrated individual works. The exhibition has a time-based element as the mural is temporary and reflects on the history of cultural erasure, while the combined individual free-standing works reflect continuity and resistance, according to the museum.

Together the artists investigate the varied meanings of being indigenous, with art and culture being at the core of indigenous education and identity.

“WITHIN offers the possibility of opening dynamic conversation with the public about the current state of indigenous art, education, and life in Montana. The creation of the mural at Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art, originally a public school built in 1896, is integral to the conceptualization of the installation because the visual subject matter encourages a discussion about education and cultural resilience. The artists aim to root their project in the hope and positivity of their people and culture but are also poignantly reflective about the trauma inflicted on indigenous communities resulting from the seizing of their land and the enactment of forced assimilation programs. Ultimately a complex conversation,” according to the museum.

Pepion is a Plains Indian graphic artist from the Piikani Band of the Blackfoot Confederacy based out of the Blackfeet reservation in north-central Montana, where the Rocky Mountains meet the plains. He is best known for his ledger art, which is an art tradition that developed in Plains tribes, as the buffalo hide traditionally used for painting became scarce, Plains people were forced to adapt by making artwork on ledger paper from accounting books. Pepion comes from a family of artists, and ledger art has been in his family for hundreds of years.

Still Smoking was born and raised in Browning on the Blackfeet Reservation. Still Smoking worked as a stone sculptor and educator and returned to college to focus on painting. His artwork is influenced by the Impressionists, Lucian Freud, and research on the history of the American Indian Movement.

“The exhibition and lecture series echoes the museum’s core value initiatives to provide to support justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion, in a space where all voices are heard. The museum is as a platform to provide and expand the reach of indigenous work in the arts and humanities by strengthening opportunities to provide educational outreach to the Great Falls and Montana community. The museum is hoping to build a better and more fortified relationship with local, regional, and statewide indigenous communities. We are aware that all indigenous voices and communities are different, including languages, experiences, history, and culture. It is through indigenous expertise and guidance, coupled with our own museum initiatives, research, and learning, that we aim to provide a positive space for future generations of indigenous artists and scholars to thrive in Montana,” according to the museum.

The events are free and open to the public.

• 5:30 p.m. Oct. 26: Artist Reception and Discussion for WITHIN: Louis Still-Smoking and John Isaiah Pepion. Join featured artists Still Smoking and Pepion in discussion with Nicole Maria Evans, the museum’s curator.
• 5:30 p.m. Nov. 17: Hiding in Plain Sight: Expanding the Canvas. Jennifer Woodcock-Medicine Horse will explore the history and social purposes of painted Blackfeet tipis and the transition to contemporary murals examined through Still Smoking and Pepion’s body of work. Woodcock-Medicine Horse is program director for IndigenEyes: Contemporary Native American Art of the Rocky Mountains and Plains.
• 5:30 p.m. Dec. 8: After years of being defined and designed to be something other than an indigenous people, Sean Chandler will illustrate the significance of indigenous lifeways as the foundation of indigenous education in contemporary life. He will present a brief background on the federal government’s policy to alter and control American Indian identity. Specifically, he will discuss how Aaniiih Nakoda College has been driven to counter those past assimilationist policies to define itself as an institution grounded in Aaniiih and Nakoda Lifeways for the people of the Aaniinen and Nakoda Nations. Chandler is president of Aaniiih Nakoda College located on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation.

For more information, contact Evans, curator, at nicole@the-square.org; 406-727-8255.

In more ways than one, the work of La Jolla artist Chakib Bouhdary is like a mosaic. In practice, he takes his material, cuts it into shapes and puts it back together to create something new. Personally, the effort to create the pieces represents the coming together of his upbringing, past careers and his life in La Jolla to tell a story.

Bouhdary was selected to be one of four artists in the upcoming Art San Diego Local Talent program, which chooses local artists with studios at the Arts District in Point Loma’s Liberty Station to have a booth at the show.

Art San Diego will be held Friday through Sunday, Nov. 3-5, at the San Diego Convention Center downtown.

As part of the program, Bouhdary taught art classes at San Diego’s Monarch School (which serves students affected by homelessness), and the resulting pieces will be on display and available for purchase with a suggested donation to the school.

“It’s very exciting to be a part of this, it’s really a privilege,” Bouhdary said, especially given that he moved to La Jolla only two years ago and recently joined the local art scene. He’s originally from Morocco and was trained in the technology industry before retiring and dedicating his time to his art.

“I liked art for a long time and did projects here and there, but when I retired, I tried to connect all the pieces of my life together through my art,” he said. “Morocco is colorful and lively; they use shape and color to create beautiful spaces. So I took advantage of my culture and blended it with newer art technology like alcohol-based paint and resin to make these pieces.”

With his move to La Jolla, Bouhdary is constantly inspired by the ocean and sunsets because they are “never the same twice; there are always new colors or clouds or flow or light,” he said. He often tries to re-create the feeling of a sunset in his work.

To make his pieces — which can be placed on everything from a canvas to a coffee table — he takes whatever material he is working with, paints it, cuts it or breaks it into pieces and reassembles them. He covers the completed pieces with a shiny sealant to “make the colors pop even more.”

“It’s very elaborate work, but beautiful when it’s finished,” he said.

(Bouhdy Art)

Bouhdary said the process “came very naturally” to students at the Monarch School because of its hands-on nature and creative aspects. But they also “broke the rules to make something that was just theirs,” he added.

Bouhdary did two sessions with the students and one with their parents so they could replicate the projects as home.

“We did 15 pieces together. I was blown away by what these kids produced in an hour and a half,” he said. “It proved to me the value of making art accessible. Art can be anything that makes you feel calm or happy.”

He also believes that art is necessary as a complement to the more technical skills children learn to be successful adults.

“When you look at something that is the right balance between design and function, like a car or a phone, that is the result of someone using the creative and the practical sides of their brain,” he said. “I think we push children toward the practical side, but I think we need to encourage the use of both sides of the brain. I feel strongly that we need to expose kids as much as possible to the beauty of art. It’s critical to the future of jobs and the future of humanity. It’s really powerful.”

Discovering the artistic talent in San Diego has been “eye-opening,” Bouhdary said, and he wants others to discover it as well.

“It’s so important to have artists in the community,” he said. “It really surprised me that we have an Arts District in Liberty Station. There are amazing local artists that show there. I would encourage people to get involved in their local art community.”

Bouhdary’s Bouhdy Art studio is at Liberty Station’s Barracks 19, 2690 Historic Decatur Road, Point Loma. To learn more about Art San Diego, visit redwoodartgroup.com/art-san-diego. ◆