“We’re not just a part of the history books and the movies and TV — we’re actual people,” he said. “We’re still living and breathing and we’re still singing our songs and doing our dances and living this way of life every day.”

Norma Jean Locklear-Richardson is a textile artist and a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. She runs Skyworld Stitches with her daughter Stevie Lowry designing and sewing ribbon skirts and embroidered regalia. 

Ribbon skirts, rather than representing any one tribe, are an artwork shared by many tribes across the United States. They are a relatively recent tradition, emerging from ribbon traded from European settlers in the late 18th century. 

Locklear-Richardson, who has been making regalia for around 20 years,  said that in the past 10 to 15 years, ribbon skirts have become more casual wear, allowing Native American women a means of displaying their culture in their everyday wardrobe and saving the regalia for special events.

She incorporates an individual’s favorite colors, tribe colors and personal interests to create a personalized representation of their culture and identity. Detailed embroidery sits atop vibrant fabrics in between a rainbow of appliquéd satin and ric rac ribbons, each tailored to the wearer.

Locklear-Richardson taught Lowry to sew when she was 13 years old. Lowry danced in powwows, wearing regalia sewn by her mother, even before that. Now, as an adult, she makes her own. 

“I like having different outlets that I can use — being able to dance and create the things that I wear while I’m dancing,” Lowry said. “It really means more than anything.”

Though artists like Oxendine and Locklear-Richardson celebrate art forms with deep roots in history and cultural identity, some deviate from those art forms through new mediums and intersecting identities.

Christopher Kennedy’s drawings stray from the expectation of Native American traditional art. He is a self-taught contemporary artist and a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.

Though several of his past drawings highlight his Lumbee heritage, he tends to focus on more technical challenges and broad themes.

Kennedy’s social media pages show the dozens of hours he spends making hyper-realistic colored pencil drawings—mostly hands—reach seemingly off the page. Several of his drawings feature other aspects of human anatomy, like eyes and faces, but hands dominate his portfolio.

“You talk with your mouth, you look with your eyes — but you touch and feel with your hands,” he said. “I think it’s just a bigger, larger universal theme about people when I think about hands.”

Though he is drawn to themes beyond race, identity and gender, he said does not identify any less with his Native American heritage.

“Because I’m Native American, the artwork that I do is Native American,” he said.

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@dthlifestyle | lifestyle@dailytarheel.com

Some of North Vancouver’s most compelling art isn’t always found in its galleries. Sometimes it can be spotted walking the streets or, in the case of two new Indigenous artworks, on the morning commute.

Count yourself lucky and you might just find yourself parked up at a red light during rush hour traffic alongside one of Seaspan’s new electric employee shuttle buses.

The two shuttle buses feature the custom artwork of Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation) artist Ray Natraoro and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation) artist Olivia George, with each wrapped in traditional, Indigenous designs that celebrate the local waters.

Master carver Natraoro created a nautical scene that depicts a black and red killer whale set against swirling waves, chosen because the marine mammal represents “family and the unity of the sea kingdom,” he said.

“The killer whale is the protector and the one who brings balance to the sea kingdom with strong family connections. It supports knowledge sharing from one generation to the next,” he said.

The shuttle design crafted by 29-year-old George pays tribute to Chief Waut-Salk, a former chief often found at the centre of Tsleil-Waututh legends and stories. Known for drumming and singing to salmon, the scene depicts him in the centre of the Inlailwatash (Indian River) in the midst of the salmon run, surrounded by members of his Tsleil-Waututh Nation family.

“Salmon is an important sustenance to thrive throughout the winter, and Waut-Salk was a sacred protector, a keeper of knowledge, land and people,” she said. “He kept the balance with our teachings on how to treat all beings and the environment. We can strive to protect each other, the land and animals, like Chief Waut-Salk did.”

The two artists answered a call for submissions put out by Seaspan earlier this year, for two battery-electric shuttle buses that would replace the gas-powered commute buses for all North Vancouver-based Seaspan employees.

The new eco-conscious buses will shuttle staff to and from Seaspan worksites at Vancouver Drydock, Vancouver Shipyards and their head offices on Pemberton Avenue.

Natraoro, who alongside George was also chosen to create and design the visual identity for the Invictus games earlier this year, said having Indigenous design on the roads during the busiest time of the day helps educate and raise awareness of Indigenous culture.

“To create a contemporary art piece on a bus was fabulous, because it expands our art and tells stories of the people of the land, all while creating wonderful artwork for people to see,” he said. “The visibility of our people and our art in our own territory is very significant.”

Scott Boylan, transportation lead at Seaspan, said the inclusion of the two new shuttles to Seaspan’s fleet was “nothing short of revolutionary” for the marine services company.

“This represents another step forward in our sustained, continuous journey to be responsible stewards of the lands on which we call home, and what a privilege to showcase this beautiful artwork across North Vancouver every day,” he said. “We’re honoured to partner with these talented Indigenous creators and to support local artists.”

Mina Kerr-Lazenby is the North Shore News’ Indigenous and civic affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.

MKerrLazenby@nsnews.com
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HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (WMBF) – One of South Carolina’s favorite sons will be honored next month with a Hollywood Walk of Fame star.

The award-winning artist will be honored with the 2,766th star on Monday, Dec. 4 along Hollywood Boulevard, according to the Hollywood Walk of Fame website.

Rucker is receiving the star in the category of Recording.

“The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce is thrilled to honor the very talented Darius Rucker,” stated Ana Martinez, Producer of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. “I think he will be happy to know that his mentor and friend Charley Pride’s star is a few feet away from his star” added Martinez.

Along with being a recording artist, Rucker has been a lifelong philanthropist.

He co-chaired the capital campaign that generated $150 million to help build the new MUSC Shawn Jenkins Children’s Hospital in Charleston.

Rucker has also raised over $3.6 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital through his Monday After the Masters benefit golf tournament and concert that takes place in Myrtle Beach.

Other recording artists in the Hollywood Walk of Fame Class of 2024 are Toni Braxton, Def Leppard, Sammy Hagar and Gwen Stefani.

South Carolina native and actor Chadwick Boseman will posthumously receive a Hollywood Walk of Fame star as part of the Class of 2024.

Copyright 2023 WMBF. All rights reserved.

The Kluge-Ruhe stands apart from all other art collections at the University — it is the only museum outside of Australia dedicated to showcasing Indigenous Australian art. The collection encompasses a wide variety of identities under the umbrella of Indigenous Australian art, from Aboriginal to Torres Strait Islander to Tiwi Islander. The exhibit “Performing Country” displays a wide variety of mediums including body paintings, woodcut prints and canvas paintings that explore the performance of country and culture. 

Brenden O’Donnell and Emmy Monaghan, co-curators of the exhibit and graduate College students in the art department, said that they did not necessarily want to assign their own meaning to potential pieces for the exhibit, and instead hoped pieces would assert their own meanings for viewers.

O’Donnell and Monaghan ultimately decided on the theme “Performing Country,” wanting to explore this complex idea of what it means to create art for country within the constantly unfolding traditions of Aboriginal art. 

“The multiple meanings behind ‘performing’ are essential to understanding some of those conversations that are happening in the galleries,” O’Donnell said. “[When] we’re talking about performing ceremony, we’re talking about performing in terms of the physical act of making the art.” 

“Performing” is also about how the artist achieves certain visual effects as well as the performance of identity, O’Donnell said. 

The physical, tangible performance of artmaking that is so integral to many aboriginal cultures can be felt most distinctly in this exhibit’s feature of the legendary artwork of Emily Kame Kngwarreye, entitled “My Country.” 

In this painting, the physical reverberations of Kngwarreye’s brush strokes can be seen throughout the interweaving raw stripes of color down the canvas, which stretches the full length of the wall. Each pigment is pressed so hard into the canvas that there are upturned indents of the physical brush and even some left behind bristles. 

According to a nearby plaque, Kngwarreye’s art is inspired by the immensity of the desert landscapes she grew up around and her need for abstraction in the face of such a stretch of land. This along with the inspiration of medium from her role as a community elder and as a ceremonial body painter inspired Kngwarreye’s very physical and intimate artistry. In every dig of the brush or new locus of color created directly on the canvas, the inspiration to bear homage to her land and country is palpable.

In the next room of the exhibit, onlookers are welcomed into another fold of the meaning of performance with the “Pwoja Pukumani Body Paint Design” of Pedro Wonaeamirri. 

The Pukumani ceremony is central to the Tiwi culture, where community members come together to guide deceased brethren into the spirit world to ensure their reincarnation. This ritual involves the communal application of paint with a Pwoja, a type of comb, used to create intricately placed body paint designs called jilamara. 

These body paint designs of Wonaeamirri are stagnant when put to canvas, but in their original cultural context, these intricate lines and dot placements tell stories of love and kinship. Those who knew the deceased most intimately must be fully covered to the point of being unrecognizable for the fallen to move into the spirit world. 

With Pedro Wonaeamirris’s entry into this exhibition, there is a distinct sense of movement from both the physical making of the art and from its connection to community. The communal ritual of painting each other and of the days and nights of song and dance are also intended to guide the spirit forth in life, death, and celebration. 

The next layer of performance examined in the exhibit is performative identity, specifically, the identity others stereotypically place on Aboriginal people told through Tony Alberts’s “Brothers Moving Targets.” Abert commented on the inspiration for this mixed media piece of scarred pigment photography. 

“The issues I make art about, including oppression in many forms, are global,” Albert said. “Even when the source material is local, they are part of a connected global conversation.”

According to the work’s display label, the oppression he is referencing in this specific instance was the police shooting of two Aboriginal teenagers in April 2012 in Sydney, within the overall context of police brutality.

The sentiment of pain is communicated through the photo image of a male figure standing tall, head tilted up, shoulders pulled back and eyes set dead straight with a spotlight centered on his chest. The figure stands alone, proudly, against a black background with white scratches scarring the photograph’s surface as if protesting or clawing away from the forced societal identity. 

At the center of the photo, a striking red concentric circle is painted on the male figure’s chest. These circles are Aboriginal symbols of identity and resilience often meant to denote home, but when contextualized through a modern lens, they read as a target on a brown body. 

The Kluge-Ruhe will be featuring “Performing Country” until March of 2024, with the option of guided tours available to be booked on their website. 

The new acquisitions highlight the museum’s effort to expand its already significant collection of American art.

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y., Nov. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Fenimore Art Museum announced today that it has acquired eight major works of art including works by Eastman Johnson, William Merritt Chase, John Singer Sargent, Childe Hassam, Maurice Prendergast, Joshua Johnson, and Georgia O’Keeffe. Acquisition of these works was generously funded by the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust.

The acquisitions highlight the museum’s effort to expand its already significant collection of American art. This group broadens the scope to include major works created from the 1870s to about 1930, allowing the museum to tell the story of American art and culture as it evolved after the Civil War.

“We are looking forward to sharing these magnificent acquisitions with our audiences,” said Dr. Paul S. D’Ambrosio, Fenimore Art Museum President and CEO. “Moving forward, our goal is to create a renowned collection of American art that builds upon the early and mid-nineteenth-century works left to the museum by our original benefactor Stephen C. Clark. Likewise, we continue the legacy of the generous gift of the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art given to us in 1995 by the Thaws and housed in a new wing funded by Clark’s granddaughter, Jane Forbes Clark.”

The new works are currently on view through December 31 and will be on display throughout the 2024 season beginning April 1.

New acquisitions include:

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)
Portrait of Laurence Millet, 1887

Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986)
Brown and Tan Leaves, 1928

Childe Hassam (1859-1935)
Mrs. Hassam in the Garden, 1896

Childe Hassam (1859-1935)
St. Germain l’Auxerrois, 1897

Eastman Johnson (1824-1906)
The Pet Lamb, 1873

William Merritt Chase (1849-1916)
The Lady in White, 1894

Joshua Johnson (ca. 1763-ca. 1824)
Seated Girl with Strawberries, ca. 1803-1805

Maurice Brazil Prendergast (1859-1924)
Snowy Day, Boston, ca. 1907-1910

About Fenimore Art Museum 

Fenimore Art Museum, located on the shores of Otsego Lake—James Fenimore Cooper’s “Glimmerglass”—in historic Cooperstown, New York, features a wide-ranging collection of American art including folk art, important American 18th- and 19th-century landscape, genre, portrait paintings, photography, and the renowned Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art. Changing exhibitions have featured well-known artists including Keith Haring, Ansel Adams, Andrew Wyeth, M.C. Escher, and others. Museum admission is free for ages 19 and under. Visit FenimoreArt.org.

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Social Media:

Instagram: @Fenimoreartmuseum 
Twitter: @fenimoreart 
Facebook: Fenimore Art Museum

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SOURCE Fenimore Art Museum

This interview originally aired on “In the Moment” on SDPB Radio.

The Black Hills Indian Artist Market is happening on Saturday, Dec. 2 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Dahl Arts Center in Rapid City.

The event features award-winning artists, a fashion show with local designers, elder storytelling and traditional food. There will also be a showing of SDPB’s “Tatanka: A Way of Life.”

Lorri Ann Two Bulls is one of the event’s organizers and will also have a booth at the market. She brings us a preview of what to expect this Saturday.

I think these stackable candles are so fun and add something extra beyond a traditional candle. Available in a 4 Stack, 6 Stack, or 7 Stack option, you can get as many as you want and re-stack them over and over again to form different candles, or keep them in their original formation. Either way, they’ll add color and playfulness to your shelf.

While we’re talking about candles, I keep going back to this house-shaped box of matches. I love lighting matches when I go to burn a candle and having this decorative box sitting out makes it even easier. No more hiding away generic boxes from the grocery store, hardware store, or your neighborhood bodega!

Thoughts of stained glass can often conjure up visions of Tiffany-esque florals, religious motifs, or camp craft projects, but not these days. More and more glass artists are leaning towards modern designs, like this geometric panel I bought recently. I love anything geometric and when you throw in some Yves Klein/cobalt blue paired with clear textured glass, I’m all about it. Plus, I love supporting small businesses and artists and when you get to enjoy their work every day, it’s a win-win.

I recently got these earrings in the mini version (about 1″ long) and I love them so much, I really want to get the original, larger size. They’re simple yet eye catching, and they’re really great quality. The minis are ideal for everyday wear but I think the larger version is perfect for going out. If you really want to elevate the earrings further, you can add charms but I haven’t tried that yet.

Ever since I saw news of the Dhapi en Naraka art exhibition sharing works by Wally Wilfred, I was hooked. Wilfred’s colorful work combines traditional techniques with unexpected color palettes, showcasing a modern Aboriginal art experience. Wally says about the exhibition, “‘These are the bones inside the devil devil, Yolŋu and animals. These are very important to us and our homelands.’ The bones have their own songlines. When someone passes away they get the bones and they sing all day and then they bury them. That’s how they used to do it in the olden days. Then the boss one (junggayi) will make a totem stick for the grieving family. They cut a tree and paint it and decorate it with feathers. Then they dig a hole and stand up the totem sticks they painted. It stays there forever as memories for the family.” The work is beautiful and intriguing, making you want to learn more about the artist and artistic journey.

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Caroline Williamson is Editor-in-Chief of Design Milk. She has a BFA in photography from SCAD and can usually be found searching for vintage wares, doing New York Times crossword puzzles in pen, or reworking playlists on Spotify.