TVLE, Okla.-  Mvskoke artist and Tulsa resident Carly Treece is curating an exhibit titled “Keepers of the Land” at the Sovereign Santa Fe 2023 Art Expo from Aug.18-20. The large contemporary Native art show coincides with the annual Santa Fe Indian Art Market.  

Treece spoke with Mvskoke Media about her experience curating the show during a “Live Wire” interview on Aug. 9th. Treece, who was asked to curate the show within a show by Sovereign Santa Fe and on the themes of the exhibit said; 

“This exhibit explores the rich and deep-rooted connection between Indigenous people and the lands we live upon. As the original inhabitants and caretakers of these lands, the artists offer their unique interpretations of what it means to be a keeper of the land. This exhibit incorporates the spiritual, physical and emotional connection of the land between past, present and future generations.”

Artists featured in “Keepers of the Land” include Shane Brown (Cherokee), Sam Regan (Cherokee), Brittany Postoak (Mvskoke), Haley Gallegos (Osage/Comanche), Jessie Haase (Cherokee), Dean Wyatt (Cherokee), Jaime Misenheimer (Choctaw), Chris Thompson (Seminole), Jeremy Thompson (Seminole), Walela Knight (Cherokee/Choctaw), and Lisa Rutherford (Cherokee).  

This is not Treece’s first curated show. Her co-curated exhibit, of which she was lead artist,  “WORK OF SOVEREIGNTY featuring 13 COUNTIES” was shown at the 101 Archer Gallery in Tulsa this past spring. The abstract landscape painter has upcoming work in an October exhibition, “Survived By” at Positive Spaces in Tulsa. The all Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) women and two-spirit artists show will open with a fashion show by Osage design company, Burning Wagon Designs.

It will also feature a short film about Emily Morgan, a 23-year-old Choctaw woman who was found murdered outside McAlister in 2016 to raise awareness for the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) movement. Treece will also be showing art at the Cherokee Art Market with the Southeastern Indian Artists Association in October.  

“Keepers of the Land” is one of three different exhibits included in Sovereign Santa Fe 2023.  “Collective Wisdom” curated by Billy Hensley (Chickasaw) and “Pivot” curated by Landis Bahe (Navajo), Kandis Quam (Zuni/Navajo) and Roberta Begaye (Navajo) will also show works by Indigenous artists with a range in different media. All exhibits will be shown each day from 10 a.m.-7 p.m.   

Images of featured works can be found on the exhibit’s Facebook page, Keepers of the Land Exhibit. Keep up with Treece’s work at tvlsestudios.com. She can also be reached  at carly@tvlsestudios.com.

• Shawn Fichter, Tim McGraw’s touring drummer since 2012, is a Massillon native.
• Fichter will be performing with McGraw, a country music superstar, at Neon Nights in Stark County on Saturday.
• Fichter also has performed with Trisha Yearwood and Peter Frampton.

Shawn Fichter said he doesn’t know what path his life would have taken if he hadn’t joined a songwriting friend on a trip to Nashville a few years after graduating from Washington High School in Massillon.

Accountant. Teacher. Police officer. Software engineer. Artist. Nothing came to mind when the question was posed Thursday afternoon during a break from his job as touring drummer for country music superstar Tim McGraw.

Fichter, a 1988 Washington High grad, will be performing with McGraw when he headlines the Neon Nights music festival Saturday at Clay’s Resort Jellystone Park in Stark County. Neon Nights starts on Friday with headliner Travis Tritt. Other artists during the two-day event include Rodney Atkins and Wynonna Judd.

Tickets are for sale at https://www.theneonnights.com/.

“I don’t know how to explain it, but I always felt like I never really had a choice,” said Fichter, who played in the symphonic and jazz bands at Washington High School while playing weekend gigs with rock and country bands. “It was something I was so set on. Doing music does something for me, and it’s kind of my No. 1 hobby. When I’m not working playing music, I’m usually listening to music or writing new music.

“I just can’t help it,” the 53-year-old percussionist said. “That’s just what I feel like I’m meant to do, and I’m very fortunate because I know there’s a lot of talented people. I’m just very thankful I’m able to keep playing music.”

Country music fest in StarkWhat to know about Neon Nights: Tim McGraw, Wynonna Judd coming to Clay’s Resort in Stark

Fichter has been McGraw’s touring drummer since 2012. He previously toured with Trisha Yearwood.

Fichter lives in Nashville with his wife of more than 20 years, Roberta, who is also from Massillon. They have two sons, Dylan, 21, and Michael, 19.

During the rest of the phone interview, Fichter discussed touring with McGraw, visiting his hometown, making his own music in the studio, and his love for Massillon Tiger high school football. Highlights from the conversation follow:

Returning to Ohio for concerts

Previous Ohio shows included McGraw headlining a concert at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium during the 2016 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Festival. McGraw also headlined a show at Blossom Music Center last summer.

Another home state appearance was in 2012 when McGraw and Kenny Chesney co-headlined a tour and performed at Cleveland Browns Stadium.

“It’s always great,” Fichter said. “I usually see quite a bit of family, and that really makes it great to be home and visit and do the show.”

“We’re going to take a tour bus from Nashville Friday night, and we’ll get in Saturday morning,” he said of Neon Nights. “I think my brother’s just going to pick me up, and I’ll spend the day at my mom’s house (in Massillon) and see more family. That will be fun. I’ll get the whole day to visit.”

What’s life on the road like these days?

“I’m pretty fortunate that with Tim’s schedule, he doesn’t do like a ton of dates all year-round, so part of it is probably easier than in the past. I’ve done longer tours where you stay away from home much longer, so the schedule is a little easier I guess than it used to be.

“… I like getting out and playing the shows. The traveling part is what definitely takes most of the time, and that’s the toughest part, but we have it pretty nice. I’m thankful I get a lot of time at home and can do recording sessions and do other things and work on my own music and things like that.”

Why is Tim McGraw so successful?

“He definitely has something, and for one thing he’s a really hard worker. … I can’t really speak for him, you know, but I just feel like he works hard at staying current and is constantly checking out new tunes and wanting to make great albums, and he’s really motivated to put great shows together.

“And I just think he has a really high energy live performance. I think people still love the shows and get a lot out of it.”

What is a Tim McGraw show like these days?

“Every year he’ll mix up the set list and incorporate different songs, and there’s a lot of the classic hits we do, and almost every year, we kind of do a fresh version of those, and so if you’ve seen the show three or four years ago, you’ll hear a lot of the same tunes, but you’ll hear some slight revisions to those songs to keep them fresh, and I think this year it’s probably the most packed with his biggest hits we’ve ever done in one tour, and I think that’s just been great. People seem to love hearing of course the songs they know and spanning several decades.”

Playing drums for Faith Hill and Peter Frampton

“I rarely do any other shows like bigger live shows other than Faith Hill (McGraw’s wife). She has toured on and off sometimes with Tim. Sometimes we’ve done a few shows just of hers, so it’s the same band that will play for either one of them, or both, and then back in January, I played a show with Peter Frampton, who I used to tour with in the mid-2000s … so that was a blast to get back together with him and play his music.”

“Peter is great. We’ve remained friends for a few decades, and he’s actually played on two of my albums where we wrote together and he played guitar, and he’s in his 70s, and he’s so enthusiastic about music and so creative, and he’s just incredible sounding, so I was thrilled that he would play on one of my records, and it was great to do that show with him in January.”

Making his own music

“I play sessions for a lot of different people, some country artists, some artists in rock or whatever, and then I’ve been making my own records for a while now. I think I’ve put out six albums on my own. It’s instrumental music, so it’s not the widest audience; it’s just something I really enjoy doing.

“I bring in a lot of other musicians. I play drums, and usually write the song on piano and usually I’ll play piano or keyboards, but sometimes I hire an additional piano player and a lot of my friends. There are really great musicians (in Nashville). I’ll add their guitar parts and bass.”

“… It would probably be considered instrumental rock … and it lends itself a little more towards jazz. Some of it sounds a little bit more like movie soundtrack kind of stuff. I just let each song go wherever it wants to go.”

Rooting for the Massillon Tigers and Cleveland Browns

“I love to watch football, and there’s been times in the past several years where Massillon was in the (high school) playoffs. I got on my computer and bought the game on whatever site that is where you can stream it live, and me and my family would watch. Yeah, I’m still rooting for the Browns and Massillon all the time.

“I remember watching Brian Sipe and the ‘Cardiac Kids.’ Man, that was really exciting. I’m hoping one day we get all the way to the Super Bowl. That would be amazing.”

Reach Ed at ebalint@gannett.com

On X (formerly Twitter): @ebalintREP

For the second year, Vashon Island is bringing back the Vashon Island Film Festival (Aug. 10-13), showcasing feature films, documentaries and shorts. Included in the lineup are two music docs of note: Clyde Petersen’s Even Hell Has Its Heroes, about Seattle band Earth, and Boom: A Film About the Sonics (the influential Tacoma rock band, not the basketball team!).

In Tacoma, GlassFest Northwest (Aug. 12, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.) celebrates the art form with live glassmaking demos, art-glass vendors and free admission to the Museum of Glass, where I recommend the current show She Bends: Redefining Neon Legacy (through Oct. 29).

On Bainbridge Island, the self-guided Summer Studio Tour (Aug. 11-13) showcases a wealth of local artisans — painters, jewelers, wood carvers and more — and their creative environments. 

In Seattle, the Wing Luke Museum is holding its annual Hai! Japantown celebration (Aug. 12, 1 – 5 p.m.), an all-ages block party featuring DJs, a Butoh dance demonstration, food booths, Taiko drumming and a music set by indie rocker Tomo Nakayama. 

And at Seattle Center, the Day In Day Out music festival (Aug. 12 – 13) brings a slew of bands and DJs to the Fisher Pavilion, including headliners Leon Bridges and Bon Iver and local fave Enumclaw. 

The fifth annual American Indian Cultural Art Fest was recently held on the 900 year old grounds of the Aztec Ruins National Monument. Free to tourists and locals, the art fest took place beneath the trees in the picnic area of the park where potters, weavers, and jewelry makers demonstrated their craft in 100 degree heat. You’re watching the Local News Network brought to you by Pop’s Truck and RV Center, and the Big Idea Makerspace at San Juan College. I’m Hayley Opsal. The artists work quietly at tables in the shade. Florinda Vallo is a fourth generation potter from the Acoma Pueblo. The oldest continuously inhabited community in the United States. I take this little dish here and I insert it there. And that will give me the base for the beginning of my pot, which kind of will look like this. I invert it, and this is the finished product. All I have to do is let it sun dry, where this one is still in the raw stage. You can see where I added on the layer. And once I finished doing that, I will simply get a straight edge sort of a tool that I can use to scrape off the excess clay. Making that blended part disappear.

while Florinda makes the pots, her husband, Leland Vallo, paints them with a yucca leaf and Spanish ink. He was working on a commissioned wedding base.

On all my pottery work is re-lined twice or three times. So to make sure the paint stays directly even on the pottery. So when you look at it, the whole pot is evenly painted with that color, and there’s no spaces or anything that are given away from it. So I simply, again, put my brush in, and I simply pull it towards me. Trying to keep the pottery still as possible, and I simply just pull the brush towards me.

Artists from various nations in the Southwest, including Zuni, Hopi, and Laguna, come to the fest each year to show, and tell, and to sell their unique pieces.

One of the first stages of making a bracelet that I’m making I hand carved. This is melted scrap silver into a mold that I create from tufa stone. You can do it out of sandstone or sand cast. This particular one is tufa cast, and then it lay out the designs out on it. So that one is not finished yet. When it’s finished, it’s going to look kind of like that.

Roy Kady is a weaver. from Teec Nos Pos in Arizona where he raises Navajo sheep to create his vegetable dyed yarns.

I am starting a horse cinch weaving for a horse. And if you know anything about the cinches, it’s the belt that goes around the belly bottom that holds the the saddle in place. So I’m just barely starting it. So I’m just making my rounds back and forth using just this one color, which is black. And then later, after I’ve woven about a couple of inches, then the design will start.

The American Indian Art Fest is made possible with help from the Chaco Culture Conservancy. A nonprofit organization that supports education, interpretation, and funding for the Aztec National Monument, and Chaco Cultural National Historical Park. To learn more about this and other stories, go to farmingtonlocal.news. Thank you for watching this edition of the Local News Network. I’m Hayley Opsal.

This weekend, the 2023 Yellowstone Revealed installation is bringing teepees with a contemporary twist to Madison Junction in Yellowstone National Park. The art exhibit combines Indigenous art and storytelling to raise awareness of Native connections to what is now known as Yellowstone.

Native peoples have long-lasting and continuous connections to the area – according to the park, 27 tribes have historical and contemporary ties to the land. According to the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, 49 tribes maintain current and ancestral connections to the lands of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which encompasses roughly 22 million acres in northwestern Wyoming, southwestern Montana, and eastern Idaho.

Last year, a traditional teepee village was installed at Madison Junction as part of the first Yellowstone Revealed event. According to the event’s website, the week-long programming and place-based art projects aimed to “put forward Indigenous truths and perspectives” and provide a “long-overdue opportunity to envision and co-create the future of the park.”

This year, the second Yellowstone Revealed continues in that theme with the creations of two contemporary Native artists – Ben Pease (Apsáalooke/Tsétsêhéstâhes) and Sean Chandler (Aaniiih).

Chandler’s project “WHEN WE USED TO BE.” features eleven contemporary teepees with liners decorated by paintings portraying historical events and present-day Indigenous narratives.

Pease’s “AMMACHHÍIA: JOURNEY THROUGH TIME AND CULTURE” reimagines the landscape with teepee lodges decorated with mixed media, stitching, portraits on canvas, and screen mesh. Both artists’ creations are installed in relationship and visual proximity to the traditional teepees on view at Madison Junction.

Eastern Shoshone member Ren Freeman is the Cultural Producer and Project Manager for the project, along with Artistic Producer and Mountain Time Arts (MTA) Co-Founder Mary Ellen Strom, MTA Executive Director Francesca Pine-Rodriguez (Apsáalooke/Tsitsistas), and MTA staff Victoria Cheyenne (Tsitsistas/Aymara) and Tia Doney (Rocky Boy/Fort Belknap/Gros Ventre/Cree/Assiniboine/Chippewa/Little Shell/Crow).

Partnering organizations include Mountain Time Arts and Yellowstone National Park. Mountain Time Arts is a Bozeman-based public art organization that cultivates projects and programs exploring the history, culture and environment of the Rocky Mountain West and its Sovereign Nations.

Mountain Time Arts’ Administrative and Program Assistant Victoria Cheyenne helped with the project and said the exhibit helps illustrate tribes’ ongoing relationships to the landscape through time.

 “A lot of the messaging that can be seen in the artwork is of the past, present and future presence of Indigenous peoples on this land. That’s part of our goal – to evoke dialogue and discussion and be a reminder of presence in the park” she said.

Cheyenne said artists Chandler and Pease wanted to create a more contemporary representation of Indigenous presence in the park and create an immersive experience for all visitors.

“Part of the approach of these artists was looking at this in a way of asking ‘How do we want to represent teepees as more than just the traditional teepees?’ and ‘What messages do we want to share? What do we want people to experience?’” she said.

The installation opened on August 10th with a song from actor Michael Spears, a member of the Kul Wičaša Lakota from the Lower Brulé Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. Visitors can take self-guided tours through the installation from sunrise to sunset through August 12th.