IN THE STUDIO // Changing Seasons with Jeremy Drayton Collier
B.L. EIKNER
REVIEW WORKS IN PROGRESS // Picasso and the Progressive Proof at OKCMOA
OLIVIA DAILEY
APPRECIATION COMMUNITY AND CREATIVE FORCE // Remembering Kyli Hammond
LAUREN SCHLEPP
PREVIEW DO NOT DANCE FOR PAY // Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds’ Honor Song at Oklahoma Contemporary
MOLLY MURPHY ADAMS
PREVIEW WORLDS WITHIN WORLDS // Candacee White’s Mapscapes at the TAC Gallery
SALLIE CARY GARDNER
Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition PHONE: 405.879.2400
1720 N Shartel Ave, Ste B, Oklahoma City, OK 73103. Web // ovac-ok.org
Executive Director // Rebecca Kinslow, rebecca@ovac-ok.org
Editor // John Selvidge, johnmselvidge@outlook.com
Art Director // Anne Richardson, speccreative@gmail.com
Art Focus is a quarterly publication of the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition dedicated to stimulating insight into and providing current information about the visual arts in Oklahoma. Mission: Growing and developing Oklahoma’s visual arts through education, promotion, connection, and funding. OVAC welcomes article submissions related to artists and art in Oklahoma. Call or email the editor for guidelines. OVAC welcomes comments. Letters addressed to Art Focus are considered for publication unless otherwise specified. Mail or email comments to the editor at the address above. Letters may be edited for clarity or space reasons. Anonymous letters won’t be published. Please include a phone number.
2024-2025 BOARD OF DIRECTORS // Douglas Sorocco, President, OKC; Jon Fisher, Vice President OKC; Matthew Anderson, Secretary, Tahlequah; Jacquelyn Knapp, Parliamentarian, Chickasha; Marjorie Atwood, Tulsa; Barbara Gabel, OKC; Farooq Karim, OKC; Kathryn Kenney, Tulsa; John Marshall, OKC; Kirsten Olds, Tulsa; Russ Teubner, Stillwater; Chris Winland, OKC
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
I want to thank everyone involved with this issue of Art Focus for their patience, as this Winter edition arrives rather late, but most of all for their support during an extremely difficult time. There’s no easy way to say it, but in the last days of 2024, after an excruciating hospital visit lasting more than a month, my mother passed away at her home in Oklahoma City. Too suddenly, my sister and I faced what still feels like an unfathomable absence.
Since then, catching up with my own life has been challenging to say the least. I wasn’t prepared for how uniquely insistent the work of mourning would be. After the short time now passed, I’m surprised at what seems like a dark gift of clarity nestled within the grief—as if being beaten down and cut to the bone offers an opportunity to remember what’s really important and get back to fundamentals, to hone one’s sense of purpose and direction more essentially. That means I’ll always hear my mother’s voice in my heart.
This winter, the political valences of mourning and memory are not lost on me, as the country begins a new chapter which I know will be a disheartening one for many. I hope we can find some heartening surprises in that realm as well. In the meantime, in this Art Focus, I’m struck by the unflinching vision of Edgar Heap of Birds and his storied career of reclaiming sovereignty and speaking truth to power (p. 18), but I’m not surprised to be touched by Lauren Schlepp’s poignant tribute to Kyli Hammond, departed friend and powerful creative force (p. 14). Candacee White’s Mapscapes navigates memory in a different way—as geography, in collages that ecstatically celebrate their materials (p. 24). An interview with painter Jeremy Collier shows how legacy can be mobilized artistically to educate (p. 6), and exploring Picasso’s linocuts as an iterative, multilayered process resonates (for me at least, predictably enough) with how cultivating memory can be understood as an act of love (p. 10).
Thank you, everyone. Let’s be kind to each other and hold the ones we love close.
JOHN SELVIDGE is an award-winning screenwriter who works for a humanitarian nonprofit organization in Oklahoma City while maintaining freelance and creative projects on the side. He was selected for OVAC’s Oklahoma Art Writing and Curatorial Fellowship in 2018.
ROBIN
CHASE
HOCK E AYE VI EDGAR HEAP OF BIRDS
HONOR SONG
On view Feb. 20, 2025
okcontemp.org | 11 NW 11th St., Oklahoma City
Oklahoma Contemporary gratefully acknowledges the Henry Luce Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Oklahoma Humanities and Visit OKC for their generous support of this exhibition.
CHANGING SEASONS // IN THE STUDIO WITH JEREMY DRAYTON COLLIER
by B.L. Eikner
When one visualizes an artist’s studio, the impressions are many: some good, some not so good. Quiet sometimes, loud and heavy during others, lonely with only one human body or filled with lots of people, even children learning the craft. Paint splattered in every corner, or lessons being taught on the universal concepts of astrology, metaphysics, spirit science, wisdom, education, and more. To everything there is a season, and the painter Jeremy Drayton Collier has moved on to a new season in his life: teaching and inspiring young children.
Collier has been an artist since he was three years old and was in “gifted and talented” programs through high school. He attended Allen University in Columbia, South Carolina, and has exhibited around the country at galleries and in solo exhibits, art contests, and special themed shows. Working primarily in acrylics and aerosol spray in the genre of character art, he draws on the emotions and vibrations of the African Diaspora and the movement of people of color in his works.
Often operating under the nickname “Awesome Jeremy,” Collier’s most recent exhibits include We’re Here at the Parla BIPOC Creative Festival in Tulsa in 2024, his solo exhibit Black Awesomeness in 2021 at Tulsa’s Greenwood Gallery, at the Tulsa Artist Coalition Gallery in 2021, and as a guest artist at the Color Me True Juneteenth 2019 Gala at Langston University Tulsa. His work Suffocation Nation won Best in Show as well as Best in Class for 2D Art and Photography in the Black Church Tradition Art Expression show at Phillips Theological Seminary in 2021 to commemorate the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, and the painting is currently on exhibit at the Rice Museum in Georgetown, South Carolina. Most recently, he is co-founder, with his wife Victoria, of Collier Academy in Tulsa.
Who was your first art teacher?
It was my mother, and my father was the music man in my life. My mother was a natural, a self-taught artist. As a youth I loved and was intrigued by superheroes like Spider
Man and would ask her to draw them for me. But then one day she said, “ You need to learn how to draw it yourself.’ She handed me back the paper and pencil, and I haven’t stopped yet.
How do you describe your work?
The basic theme and purpose of my work is to educate the people. Everything is a lesson, and I want to teach and share lessons that will move us from someone else’s standard to our own vibration. My true passion is to educate, to let people learn early that expression is freedom and that art plays a big role in life. I wanted to start with the youth, those who will be the next generation of leaders, public servants, doctors, inventors, and community activists.
Does operating the school take away time from your creativity?
Yes (laughing), but I have learned to master small opportunities. I’ll start a piece and, during a slow moment in class, share it with the students. I transform gaps in time into little creative moments—gaps like lunchtime, naptime, working on reports, and of course when the last child leaves for the day.
Where did you first see African images and how did they influence your art?
I have always had a deep fascination with ancient Egypt (Kemet), but it’s a big misconception that Africa inspires a lot of my artwork. Most of my work is inspired by Indigenous Americans, including my ancestors who were here in the Americas far before slavery.
Which of your creations is your favorite?
Ancestral Duality is my favorite because I was completely guided by my ancestors from the spiritual realm to create it. I saw them in my dreams and then brought their vision to life. This set of images has really lifted the energy in my house.
OPPOSITE // Jeremy Collier, The Tulsa Phoenix, acrylic on canvas, 24” x 36” | All images courtesy of the artist
ABOVE // Jeremy Collier, Ancestral Duality, 2024, acrylics and aerosol spray paint on two canvases, 24” x 48” each;
LEFT AND FAR LEFT // Jeremy Collier in his studio
What is your most current art exhibit?
The Electric Resurrection opened in November of 2024 in my hometown of Georgetown, South Carolina.
What do you hope the young people at your school will take from your teaching? How will it benefit them and the community? I want to teach them confidence, to love themselves and to believe in themselves. That’s exactly what the community needs. Many people are born leaders with great ideas, but they never reach their full potential because they lack self-confidence.
Jeremy Collier can be reached through his website, artsbyawesomejeremy.com , at @awesomejeremy on Instagram, on Facebook as Jeremy Drayton Collier, and by email at dr8.10animtion@gmail.com.
B. L. EIKNER has been a longtime contributor to Art Focus. She is the owner of Trabar & Associates and author of the 2024 American Legacy Book Awards Finalist How Do You Love When…? as well as Dirt and Hardwood Floors. She lives in Tulsa with her husband, the nationally recognized photographer Don Thompson. She can be reached at trabar@windstream.net.
LEFT // J eremy Collier, Pathway Blazed to Freedom, 2022, acrylics and aerosol spray paint on canvas, 24” x 36”; RIGHT // Jeremy Collier, The Black Madonna
WORKS IN PROGRESS
PICASSO’S LINOCUT PRINTS AT OKCMOA
by Olivia Dailey
The Oklahoma City Museum of Art recently hosted the exhibition Picasso and the Progressive Proof: Linocut Prints from a Private Collection. I found this show unusual because the majority of works on display were not “final,” but instead progressive prints. Only three final or near-final works of art are presented, plus the many proofs that led to the final prints. Picasso’s distinctive style is represented well in this medium, but likely for many OKCMOA visitors, this mode of creation revealed a new kind of mark-making for the artist.
The term “linocut” comes from the linoleum often used for this print type. In their simplest form, linocuts involve carving an image into linoleum or wood and pressing it onto paper. At their most complex, however, each single print is meant to be built upon, layering colors and shapes to create their eventual image. The obvious tell of the final prints is the color black, often the last color to be applied to help provide contrast and move the viewer’s eye around the entire print. Black brings the image to focus, not unlike the thin strips of metal between pieces of stained glass, as the show’s curator Richard P. Townsend observed.
Prints are inherently repeatable: they are meant to be reproduced; however, many iterations exist. In the three works presented, Picasso chose to recreate or take inspiration from existing artworks. As its title suggests, Portrait of a Young Girl after Cranach the Younger II is the most directly and obviously inspired as it is based on a work by Renaissance painter Lucas Cranach the Younger. It’s also the only print on display that uses multiple linoleum blocks to create the different shapes and layers. Its layout is a straightforward portrait, but the face has that signature Picasso look. In total, five blocks were used for this piece, which I imagine meant a tedious and frustrating workflow that motivated Picasso to innovate and streamline.
For the two other works, Picasso took one or two blocks and gradually carved away at them, using different colors
to highlight something new each time it went through the press. This method required more planning upfront but fewer moving parts. Similar to sculpture, it’s a subtractive process. For example, if he chose to carve away a nose and then repaint everything blue besides the no-longerthere nose, then the nose would remain the original color. Picasso kept versions of each progressive print on its own along with the cumulative print.
I can attest that printmaking is deceivingly complicated. This past summer, I took a woodblock relief printmaking class at the Firehouse Art Center, taught by Eric Piper of Norman’s Oscillator Press, so although I was not completely new to the concept, the idea of a “progressive print” still went over my head. Luckily, there was a short, immensely helpful video presented as part of the installation that demonstrated the many steps and the reductive process, breaking it all down to show the in-between motions that even the displayed progressive prints could not make clear on their own.
Another work, Pike II, is abstract in its composition and use of shapes but also almost monochrome. Shades of beige and browns make the progressive proofs like a fun reveal until the final inclusion of black brings it all together. A bullfight scene, it pays homage to Picasso’s Spanish heritage and Spain’s great artists, like Goya—specifically plate 28 of Goya’s Bullfighting series of prints. Bacchanal with Kid Goat and Onlooker offers a pastoral scene, a modern take on paintings from classical mythology. Instead of depicting Greece or Rome, Picasso’s Arcadia is in the south of France. Curved white lines pattern the sky, denoting wind but also possibly appearing as stars in the daylight.
For Picasso, the medium was a collaborative process, not a solitary one. Picasso worked with Hidalgo Arnéra who, with his family, ran the equivalent of a “local Kinko’s” according to Townsend in a small French town near Cannes. The
CONTINUED
OPPOSITE // Pablo Picasso, Portrait of a Young Girl after Cranach the Younger II, 1958, linocut on thin paper. Trial proof of all five blocks in their final states | JS
TOP LEFT, CENTER, and RIGHT // Pablo Picasso, Portrait of a Young Girl after Cranach the Younger II, 1958, linocuts on poster paper, three progressive prints (l. to r.): first block bistre (second state) and third block red, first block bistre (second state) and fourth block blue (second state), and first block bistre (second state), third block red and fifth block black (second state) | JS
ABOVE LEFT // Pablo Picasso, Pike II, 1959, linocut on Arches paper. First state of the secondary block | JS; ABOVE RIGHT // Pablo Picasso, Pike II, 1959, linocut on Arches paper.
Numbered 43/50 | JS
LEFT // Pablo Picasso, Bacchanal with Kid Goat and Onlooker, 1959, linocut on Arches paper.
Numbered 24/50 | JS
utilitarian aspects of this rustic print shop can be seen in a few proofs that were printed on old art exhibition posters. In some proofs, holes from the nails used to line up the print remain. An early pull of Pike II shows that Arnéra dotted the edges of the paper with different shades of ink using his finger to provide samples for Picasso. The exhibition makes clear that Arnéra was not just a technical collaborator, executing Picasso’s vision in these prints, but in many ways his creative partner. Picasso would often work at night, then send his proofs and annotations for Arnéra to work on the next day. And on and on they worked.
Picasso redefined the medium of printmaking, which had previously been seen as low brow. Even today, a print might be what you buy when you can’t afford an original, but this is hardly true in Picasso’s case. He was hardly a niche artist. “Picasso” can be a stand-in for “artistic genius”—the artsy version of calling someone an “Einstein,” usually ironically. But with that assumed universality, a lot gets overlooked. There is always more to learn about this larger-than-life figure, whether that’s reexamining him in a post-Me-Too world or discovering a new artistic facet of his own. Picasso remained prolific until he died at 91 years old. A painter, a sculptor, and much else, he worked in prints his whole career but had a particularly strong streak in his 60s when he lived in the south of France.
It’s easily evident that Picasso studied and revered the classic European artists known as the Old Masters. However, the
ghosts of his contemporaries also haunted the exhibition. The stunning Rodin statue of three male figures, The Three Shades, could be seen through the doorway of a gallery adjoining Picasso and the Progressive Proof. And the colors and shapes of the print Bacchanal recall Matisse’s cut-outs, but as curator Townsend said, “don’t tell that to Picasso.”
This exhibition was fascinating in its strides to demystify the artistic process. Oklahoma City was its second stop along a seven-city, three-year tour. For those who were not able to see the exhibition at OKCMOA, I recommend the exhibition catalog of the same name, which can be purchased on artbook.com
Picasso and the Progressive Proof: Linocut Prints from a Private Collection was shown at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art from August 24, 2024, to January 5, 2025.
OLIVIA DAILEY earned a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma. She works as a program manager for a research center in Norman and is a frequent Art Focus contributor.
ABOVE // Exhibition view showing three progressive proofs of Portrait of a Young Girl after Cranach the Younger II with a photograph of Picasso’s studio | Olivia Dailey
COMMUNITY AND CREATIVE FORCE // REMEMBERING KYLI HAMMOND
by Lauren Schlepp
Kyli Hammond, the powerhouse visionary behind the Oklahoma Women’s Journal, passed away in August of 2024. Her departure has left a void in the community that she once filled with her unique combination of authenticity, spunk, vulnerability, and an attitude best summarized as “I don’t give a damn if it’s hard—I’m going to do it anyway.”
Kyli founded the Oklahoma Women’s Journal independently in 2019 and nurtured it into a receptacle for healing and selfexpression for women across the state. As a submissionsbased publication, the magazine gave people a space to express themselves through photography, painting, and other visual art media as well as poetry and prose.
In a conservative state where unapologetically expressive and liberal publications are sometimes met with a heft of criticism, the Journal took on even greater significance because of Kyli’s accepting and understanding personality, as it spilled over into a publication deeply needed by the community. Kyli championed women using the Journal as a platform for healing and expression and made it a truly safe space for marginalized voices that gave artists opportunities to share their stories, experiences, and artistic perspectives in a raw way.
Kyli’s commitment to inclusivity and her enthusiasm was infectious and rubbed off on everyone she met. Her magnetism made everyone who met her feel like an instant friend, and this experience of sincere relationship was integral to creating an uplifting environment for women to be vulnerable and share. Healing comes with vulnerability, and Kyli was one who needed both the most. Whether you believe in divine intervention or fate, there is no doubt that Kyli was put on this earth at the right time and the right place for this purpose. You can’t separate her from the Journal because it was an extension of her heart, her struggles, and her triumphs. I think a quote attributed to Robert Henri sums up the tightrope that, like Kyli, many artists and visionaries walk in life: A work of art is the trace of a magnificent struggle.
She didn’t struggle alone. She gave a voice to everyone struggling, and we all bonded over that. We became stronger through being vulnerable together, we made spiritual connections, and the atmosphere created was something I’d never experienced before.
Kyli’s work for the Journal was, for the most part, a one-woman show, and I consider her a true Renaissance woman. She collaborated with freelance photographers, stylists, and writers from across the state and was amazing at building a network of creative and supportive people.
A sponge for knowledge and self-taught in almost every aspect, Kyli’s drive set her up for success. Her credits with the Journal include CEO, photographer, stylist, artistic director, editor, graphic designer, writer, social media manager, event planner, and advertisement sales. She was truly a jack-ofall-trades, and I think that’s how she excelled. She wanted to do it all!
While her design style evolved over the life of the publication, because she didn’t want the Journal to be confined, the execution of her specific vision never wavered. A common medium tied them all together: collage. Her style of tearing up photographs from a shoot and layering them to form a colorful, overlapping collage was a signature of her Journal covers. She also enjoyed using dried, pressed flowers as an accent, giving the pages a natural and welcoming feel. The Journal was approachable and casual in an endearing way that often contrasted with the heavy stories told within. The collage style could also be interpreted as an extension of her ability to take diverse people and topics that may seem rough around the edges and assemble them into beautiful artwork with layers of meaning.
I was lucky enough to participate in two cover photoshoots for the Oklahoma Women’s Journal. What stood out to me most was how on fire Kyli was when doing what she loved.
For the cover of volume one, a group of about 20 women met in a field off the expressway in Piedmont. The theme for this volume was the body issue. All the “models” got vulnerable in our underwear and painted our bodies with bright colors to draw attention to areas we were self-conscious about. It made us feel like we were wearing war paint as we stood on haybales and ran through wheat fields to symbolize that our bodies are as unique, diverse and beautiful as the Earth. Kyli used her camera lenses as an extension of the beauty she saw in us. Making sure everyone felt safe to express ourselves, she was the ultimate hype woman.
When I participated in the cover shoot for volume two at Martin Nature Park, the vibe was more relaxed, taking on the energy of close friends laughing and enjoying a fall evening, even though most of us had never met before. Kyli was a one-woman show—shooting, directing, and encouraging everyone. Her awesome partner Kayla was her only backup, and I’m so grateful for the Kayla’s behind-the-scenes footage of Kyli working her magic because they are my favorite memories of her. She was so insanely happy and fully immersed. You could tell there was no other place for her to be. She was meant for this.
I sent an open call for artwork to those who participated in OWJ’s last volume, which came out in December of 2023. I wanted to have one last call for submissions to honor
ABOVE // Kyli Hammond, untitled photo collage published in OWJ vol. 4: Fall 2023; RIGHT // Kyli Hammond directing a photo shoot in November 2023, for the Oklahoma Women’s Journal;
LEFT // Oklahoma Women’s Journal cover, vol. 1: Winter 2023; BELOW LEFT // Haley Calpert, A Reminder, 2024, mixed media, 8.5” x 8”
Kyli’s vision. Haley Calpert, Kimala Zenon, and I submitted art that explores grief and mourning in our own intimate ways. Kimala’s poem ties our themes together:
How do you say farewell? The books and movies make it seem so easy. After it fades to black, their sadness ends, but here, every day is the start of it all over again. The songs of grief passed down from century to century, in forms of wails and cries. From sirens in the water to birds in the sky. Saying farewell is never easy, especially when abrupt, because all that is left is memories, even if it isn’t much. We remember a light that moved into the cosmos, who inspired many lives on the new wave of tomorrow. So goodbye, dear friend, a daughter and sister. And may we meet on the other side when things have become clear.
In honoring Kyli, we celebrate not just an individual, but a vibrant tapestry of connections now woven into a community. In a world that often divides us, her legacy is one of unity, friendship, and the transformative power of creativity.
Although the Oklahoma Women’s Journal can no longer be accessed online, you can find some of its spreads and artwork, as well as more about Kyli Hammond, on the magazine’s Instagram at @oklahomawomensjournal.
LAUREN SCHLEPP is an artist and community volunteer based in Yukon who infuses her artwork with the joy she finds in creation, hoping to share that delight with her audience. She desires to have as many unique life experiences as possible, and that leads her to try any interesting opportunities, experiences, or hobbies that come her way.
DO NOT DANCE FOR PAY // HOCK E AYE VI EDGAR HEAP OF BIRDS’ HONOR SONG AT OKLAHOMA CONTEMPORARY
by Molly Murphy Adams
From late February through July, Oklahoma Contemporary hosts Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds: HONOR SONG, an expansive and ambitious retrospective of works by Oklahoma artist Edgar Heap of Birds (enrolled Cheyenne Arapaho Tribes). The exhibition introduces Oklahoma viewers to a 50-year career of art making, teaching, and activism by a leading Indigenous artist and member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. I say “introduces” because, though Heap of Birds is from Oklahoma and lives here now, much of his work has necessarily been created and exhibited in far-flung locations. HONOR SONG brings Heap of Birds’ artistic legacy home and showcases his ability to engage viewers in questioning assumptions about authority, history, and who gets to employ authority in telling our history.
The exhibition focuses primarily on bold, conceptual signage works in an array of media including works on paper, commercially manufactured signs, printed semi-functional objects such as tote bags and skateboard decks, and digital photos recording ephemeral installations and events such as digital signs and temporary billboards. Other types of work include Heap of Birds’ Neuf series in glass and painting mediums, presenting exercises in meditative repeating patterns that reveal the artist’s internal perspective and aesthetic. A view of Heap of Birds’ studio shows the many modes of work in the exhibit including glass sculpture, painting on canvas, and monotype prints.
As an artist and art historian of mixed Indigenous and settler heritage, I find Heap of Birds’ work compelling on both artistic and activist fronts. His art often reveals what I consider a brilliant editor, and I respect the strength of purpose required to distill the work down to the most essentially compelling components. An artist’s urge to relate their message through representation and the decorative can be persistent and difficult to resist, but Heap of Birds
insists that he aims to take action rather than illustrate or merely respond. His works in signage demonstrate this mastery of editing and intentionality and cross the lines between physical art, activism, poetry, and performance art—a significant achievement for prints with only a few words.
In this mode, Secrets of Life and Death crosses into poetry by creating a grid of assemblages of words or mini poems. This installation consists of 24 monoprints on paper arranged in a grid with each monoprint printed in a range of navy and turquoise inks with white text. The piece is simplicity and mass all at once. One might feel compelled to figure or tease out the meaning intended, to find a pattern or connection between the words in each individual print and the collective meaning of the whole. These signage works, in all mediums, engage viewers directly and invite them to listen, interpret, and debate. Heap of Birds thus attempts to puncture or disrupt harmful and disingenuous narratives about Indigenous history and present reality.
In Do Not Dance for Pay the urgent message is reduced to five single-syllable words. The words appear at a distance to have been painted quickly, almost in the style of vintage grocery store ads with all-caps text, apparently painted by hand, floating above a weathered surface background. The text’s casual, almost slapdash appearance is a ruse as it has been meticulously printed in an array of colors on textured backgrounds through a slow and deliberate process. The print is installed without frame or other hardware that would indicate its status as art, further conflating the pushpull between art and a throwaway public notice. Layered within these visual components is the message, “Do Not Dance For Pay”—five words laden with deep meaning to Indigenous people, who often labor to educate the wider world to the hidden history and injustice of their American CONTINUED
LEFT // Edgar Heap of Birds, Do Not Dance for Pay, 2017, monoprint, 22” x 15”; BELOW // Edgar Heap of Birds, Why is Immigration Dictated by Foreigners?, 2019-20, 24 monoprints and 24 ghost prints on paper, each panel 22” x 15”; OPPOSITE // Edgar Heap of Birds, Secrets in Life and Death, 2012, 24 monoprints on paper, 22” x 15” each
experience and how easily art and culture can tip into tokenism. The Indigenous people who joined “Wild West” shows like Buffalo Bill’s had their identity both celebrated and caricatured—an experience highly relevant to contemporary Indigenous peoples who balance activism, education, and the preservation of their values.
Heap of Birds’ work embodies the maxim “less is more” in the sense that he has distilled his message into a purified form of deeply considered but strictly abbreviated text and aesthetic qualities. His minute examinations mean that no element of these works’ physical qualities can be seen as accidental or unconsidered—an intentionality employed to great effectiveness in the signage works that mimic municipal signs. An untitled work consists of a
series of skateboard decks painted to resemble municipal signage that regulates parking, describes local history, and designates local authority. With text addressing Tulsa (with the city figured in backwards lettering) that “TODAY YOUR HOST IS MVSKOKE,” these skate decks present commitment to message and debate, to call attention to hidden or obstructed histories and issues. The signs unwrap authority, question how we engage with authority—how do we consider how we obey and prioritize signs? Signage in the western world is a kind of magic, an agreed-upon social contract dictating influence. We imbue signs with authority over our physical actions, where we are and are not allowed to be, where we walk, talk, gather, and argue. Signs influence what we remember and which memories are sanctioned, taught, and respected. By co-opting the authority of municipal signs and importing it onto the “rebellious” signifier of a skateboard, Heap of Birds both wields that power and subverts it, sullying our usually automatic deference to social authority.
HONOR SONG is a fitting title for a masterclass in intentionality that allows content to become more expansive and meaningful in the absence of narrative or decorative design. Heap of Birds strips away the unnecessary elements until we are left with a minimum of text. The clues to its interpretation are nested in its delivery.
If Do Not Dance For Pay is a call to address values and motives in our art making and connoisseurship, the corresponding print He Still Did Dance For Pay is a moving rebuttal. More than any other work in this show, this single print demanded my attention and asked the questions Indigenous artists grapple with when they either meet or defy expectations crafted externally. Do I meet their expectations and “dance for pay,” or do I refuse and risk remaining invisible and perhaps ineffective? Heap of Birds finds a third way, based on integrity and aplomb, and charts a path forward for Indigenous artists trying to map their way through the burdens of history that follow us into the present. We should all rise for the HONOR SONG and celebrate the homecoming of Edgar Heap of Birds’ work to Oklahoma Contemporary.
ABOVE // Edgar Heap of Birds, untitled, 2022, acrylic on skateboard decks. 9” x 32” x 3” each | copyright Edgar Heap of Birds and Douglas Miles; BELOW // Edgar Heap of Birds, untitled Murano glass series made for Most Serene Republics, 2007, exhibition for the 52nd Venice Biennial in collaboration with the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Murano glass, dimensions variable.
Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds: HONOR SONG can be experienced from February 20 through August 4 at Oklahoma Contemporary in Oklahoma City. To learn more, visit oklahomacontemporary.org.
MOLLY MURPHY ADAMS (Oglala descendent) was born in Montana and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Art from the University of Montana and a Master’s in Art History from Oklahoma State University. She has made Tulsa her home for nearly fifteen years while working as an exhibiting artist, art appraiser, art historian, and beadworker in her indigenous community. Murphy Adams focuses on indigenous beadwork in her many roles as researcher, teacher, and community maker.
TOP // Edgar Heap of Birds’ studio; RIGHT // Edgar Heap of Birds, South/Peru, 1992, pastel drawings on paper. 21 7/8” x 29 7/8” each, 110” x 90” overall. FORGE Project Collection
WORLDS WITHIN WORLDS // CANDACEE WHITE’S MAPSCAPES AT THE TAC GALLERY
by Sallie Cary Gardner
Multi-media artist Candacee White has a battle going on in her studio, and it’s not likely to end soon. As she attempts to broker a peaceful reconciliation between the aesthetic and the conceptual characteristics of her pieces, the results are pleasing to the eye and challenging to the mind.
White’s show Mapscapes is visible at the Tulsa Artists Coalition Gallery through the end of February. In Mapscapes, White uses materials she collected from more than eighty countries for over twenty years to build complex collages using maps and mementoes of her travels. “Usually, I start with the aesthetic because I like arranging things, then it develops its own concept,” White said.
White has a fascination with discovering foreign cultures and collecting materials that reflect their everyday life. She has incorporated Hindi, Arabic, and Burmese newspapers, gold leaf from a Belgian junk market, old maps, color swatches from local garage sales, origami paper from Japan, and Hanjji paper from Korea. She also includes modern crafting materials from several countries and maintains a cache of brilliantly shiny, sticky-backed vinyl that she sourced in Thailand. She combines these elements and arranges them with an eye towards both consistency and randomness, and then she uses ink and pencil to fill in empty spaces between collage elements, a practice that the artist likens to using imagination to fill in memory’s gaps. “They’re a mash up of chaotic memories of places and how they exist in my mind,” she explained. “It helps me make sense of a mish-mash of memories. I use it as a form of meditation.” For those who encounter her art. White’s goal is to evoke curiosity and a desire to explore. Once a piece is finished, White hopes it can allow its viewers to travel back with her to the zone of its inspiration. “I want people to feel the same delight of discovery that I felt when I had these experiences,” she said.
Her Mapscape collages range in size from 11 x 14 inches to 24 x 36 inches, and their prices can vary from anywhere between $30 for unframed pieces to $800 for larger, framed works. White has a set of rules when she creates them. First, she sets down a neutral background on heavy paper. Then she arranges her collage elements, using one element to represent each continent. She always uses at least one piece of something from her own art work, such as a print or a watercolor. After her sketches in colored pencil or gel pen that connect the collage elements, she applies a reflective surface such as gold leaf or shiny vinyl. “My art is the opposite of minimalism,” she said. Not surprisingly, White is especially partial to using designs from the Muslim tradition, because they’re so intricate and fanciful.
Many of the cutouts of maps she uses in her collages are reflective of changes in history. For example, a map of what is now South Africa features an area formerly called Rhodesia, but labeled even more distantly as “Zambisia.” “I love the artistry of maps as well as the historical aspect of them,” White said.
After an early art education at Tulsa’s Booker T. Washington High School with teachers Linda Stilley and the late Robert Hardy, White attended Oklahoma State University where she majored in English. After graduating, she traveled to Seoul, South Korea, to teach English at an international school. After four years there, she moved to Myanmar, then Hungary, Azerbaijan, Andorra, and Belgium, staying about four years in each country. Her entire time overseas White also played Ultimate Frisbee with women’s and co-ed leagues, which increased her opportunities for travel.
When she came home to Tulsa in 2021, White was overwhelmed with the volume of materials she had
collected, but they all contained special memories of her experiences, and she didn’t want to get rid of them. Though she had always painted and experimented with printmaking and ceramic art, she decided to embark on her collage journey full time. Soon, at Tulsa’s Mayfest in 2022, she was surprised and encouraged by how many pieces she sold. While abroad, White earned a master’s degree in education from the College of New Jersey thanks to its extensive non-residential program. Her advanced degree has allowed her to supplement her living as an artist with writing educational curricula from home.
Being back in Tulsa hasn’t curbed her wanderlust, however. Since she has moved back, she has traveled to Vietnam twice and also to India. Currently studying printmaking at the University of Tulsa, White is now making woodcut prints from Shina plywood she bought in Japan. Her goal is to build a portfolio extensive enough to apply for MFA programs in the U.S. while continuing to travel the world.
White says she would also like to continue her education in native crafts, such as learning weaving from Congolese artisans and printmaking in Japan. Wherever she goes, you can be sure that her memories and travels will fuel intricate artworks she will be eager to share with the world.
Mapscapes can be seen at the Tulsa Artists Coalition Gallery from February 7 through March 1. For more information, please visit tacgallery.org.
SALLIE CARY GARDNER is retired from a long career in writing and public relations. She enjoys contributing to the Oklahoma arts scene through her work with the Tulsa Artists’ Coalition Gallery and in collaboration elsewhere.
TOP // Candacee White, Creation, 2024, mixed media on paper, 22” x 26”; ABOVE // Candacee White, Blue Map, 2021, mixed media on paper, 19.5 x 27.5”; OPPOSITE // Candacee White, Demon Map 2, 2023, mixed media on paper, 11” x 17”
Photo by Berlin Green
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