10 minute read
In the Studio with Amber DuBoise-Shepherd
By Kristin Gentry
Amber DuBoise-Shepherd, Sunday Morning with Chei (Grandpa), 2020, watercolor, pen & ink, Copic markers, 21.5” x 26.5”
How does your tribal culture influence the content of your work?
Growing up, my brothers and I experienced and were immersed in our various Native cultures. I grew up in a what I consider a traditional Native household here in Oklahoma. My mother is Navajo and she grew up on the Navajo reservation. I remember participating in ceremonies on the Navajo reservations as a child. My late great-grandmother, Louise Begay, was very traditional. She created Navajo rugs. She spoke mostly Navajo and some English. I have very fond memories of her. My father is Sac & Fox and Prairie Band Potawatomi and grew up here in Oklahoma. He took my brothers and me as children to our traditional Sac & Fox feast where we were given our Indian names. My Sauk name is Mohkehmehshe, meaning “One That Suddenly Appears.” I also have a Navajo name, but as Navajo people we keep our names to ourselves. My father also learned traditional ceremonial doings from the Midewin society, which is a medicine society up near the Great Lakes area.
Can you describe your professional arts practice?
I tend to keep a busy art schedule. I try to be sure to spend time in the studio and I schedule out that time. I also try to spend time updating my website and social media throughout the week. This way I am engaging with my audience. I try to be on top of updating my paperwork for my artwork. For myself, I spend more time marketing, writing about myself, and
Amber DuBoise-Shepherd, All My Relations, Pyêchiwîthenino! (Come and Eat), 2019, watercolor, pen & ink, Copic markers, 18” x 30”
my artwork for potential shows and exhibitions. My biggest resource for potential art shows is through social media. I spend probably about 40% - 50% [of my time] working on actual artwork and the other is spent on writing and marketing. I do enjoy creating my art and it feels great when I finish a piece. I spend time taking photos and then posting them to my social media and website to share to followers.
Do you work as a full-time artist?
I used to for about 2 years until I began working at the Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art (MGMoA). Now I am the Manager of Education and Outreach at the museum. I believe many artists can be a full-time artist, but it takes a lot of work…like a lot of work. I learned a lot in the two years I was a full-time artist. I still feel like a full-time artist though! I am constantly working. I try to take breaks in between projects. Self-care is important and I am still learning on when I need to take a step back and take a break.
Your work depicts your experiences from a multi-tribal background. Are there ways you create works differently depending on which part of your cultures that you’re exemplifying?
In my artwork I am trying to create narratives based on the experiences I have had in my life. I am drawn to our ceremonial doings and I enjoy creating narratives of them with spiritual beings interacting with people. As a young child, my elders would explain the importance of our ceremonies and talk about the spirits that reside with us in the moment. I have always had a vivid imagination, so I always pictured them there in my head. I do have to make the decision on whether I want to create it using oil paints or another 2D medium I work in. It all depends on what the idea is. And, sometimes halfway through a piece I may make a big change…but no one knows but myself on which pieces I made those changes.
What mediums do you work in outside of your current paintings you exhibit?
I also have skills in Native American finger weaving, some Navajo weaving, ceramics, and sewing. I have knowledge about Navajo silver smith making because my Navajo grandparents used to create jewelry. Many of the traditional Native arts I mentioned were taught to me by my family from both sides. I learned finger weaving from a Kickapoo relative. One summer when I was young, my late Navajo greatgrandmother came to Oklahoma to visit for a summer (this was the farthest and furthest east she had ever been from the Navajo reservation). She set up [a] loom in our living room and she helped me weave my first rug. I would love to finish learning how to weave. I like ceramics and made pieces that have won awards in the past; I would love to just create ceramics for fun! I also learned sewing from my late Navajo great-grandmother & my late Potawatomi and Sac & Fox grandmother. My grandmother Adeline Ketcheshawno DuBoise taught me to sew ribbon skirts and how to create woodland applique designs on shawls. I have used my grandmother Adeline’s designs in certain art works.
Where do you see your work going in the next few years?
I would like my artwork to start venturing into more galleries across Oklahoma. In the future, I am looking forward to start showing my artwork outside of the state. I have attended Santa Fe Indian Market in 2018 and 2019, which is in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Santa Fe is one of my favorite places to visit. Since becoming the educator at the MGMoA, I have learned a lot about various art education programs and their importance. I also have become more comfortable with teaching children about the arts. In the future, I would like to participate [in] and lead educational art opportunities for children and adults that encompass Native Art.
Are there any topics you would like to discuss or to be included or thar you want Art Focus readers to know?
I work with old and new in various ways to create a bridge for viewers to see these traditions differently in a visual way. I want to invite the viewer to be a part of my world and see the traditions the way I see them in my everyday life. Our ancestors were survivors and hard workers. I also want to educate others about Native American culture and I find the best way to do so is through the arts. I want my artwork to reach out and connect with others; to let them know we may be different, but to know we are all human beings. This is what it looks like to be a Native [American] in America and in Oklahoma today. n
ABOVE: Artist Amber DuBoise-Shepherd in her home studio. RIGHT: Artist
Amber DuBoise-Shepherd at her booth at the 2018 Red Earth Festival as their first of two Emerging Artists Winners Kristin Gentry was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and is a Choctaw artist, writer, educator, and curator. She creates her work to continually perserve her traditional culture. Kristin can be found at kristingentry.com. N O W O P E N ahhatulsa.org/the-experience-imagine y e l k r A y d n A y s e t r u o c e g a m I
Pictured: Andy Arkley's Together is a collaborative interactive installation that combines sculpture, animation, music and light. feature 23
Edited by Liz Blood
Ekphrasis is an ongoing series joining verse and visual art. Here, poet Najah-Amatullah responds to Kalyn Fay Barnoski’s weaving.
Najah-Amatullah is a lifelong writer and performer. She teaches secondary English language arts in Oklahoma City and is pursuing a master’s in literature from the University of Central Oklahoma. She is working on a social media- and poetryenhanced secondary curriculum and a video podcast about teaching.
Kalyn Fay Barnoski is a Cherokee artist and musician from Tulsa. She received her BFA from Rogers State University in 2012, an MA from The University of Tulsa in 2016, and is in her final year of an MFA in Printmaking at the University of Arkansas School of Art. Her work focuses on the intersections of Cherokee/Indigenous epistemologies within her personal experiences and the experiences of broader community.
Boxes and Quilts
to warm the body to warm the heart so the mind is able to flex into multiple consciousnesses to cover the bed before the hearth to unfold a home anywhere
we’ve never weaved together the green of our Native prairie grass with the green of our Southern cotton fields
never threaded the blue of a Pacific Island sky to the hue of an African canopy
never sewn Aztec maize around Arab gold coins to patch the hole of the ocean
never braided an orange sunrise to a violet sunset
There has always been enough thread.
square crates for holding hearts captive for containing scrolls that would contaminate voice boxes transporting what had been out of the way of what would be
unable to see through cardboard that what would be only boxed in what might be what might be
a quilt to join holy bodies to align like minds to bond a team that works to protect the rest of those who protect the rest
Kalyn Fay Barnoski, hope, a life., 2020, woven broadsheets (broadsheet 1: A system in which Black bodies, Brown bodies, any Person of Color is vilified and murdered is inherently wrong evil.; broadsheet 2: KEEP HOPE ALIVE!), acrylic, waterbased spray paint, 48” x 40”
At The University of Tulsa’s School of Art, Design and Art History, students thrive as individuals. Our aim is to help them discover and express their unique goals, talents and visions.
A triple major in English, creative writing, and graphic design, TU senior, Emma Palmer likes to keep busy with extracurricular at school. “I love TU’s size. There are so many opportunities that wouldn’t be available to me at a larger institution.”
Her love for both the visual arts and writing led to an interest in comics and their creation. Thanks to the University’s ties to the Tulsa Artist Fellowship, Palmer has been able to work with cartoonists who not only make a living in the field, but are successful names in their own right.
Another highlight in Palmer’s time at TU was working with poster artist Luba Lukova, who had a workshop with a class of Palmer’s. The student’s finished posters were displayed in a mini gallery to the side of Lukova’s work at the Zarrow Center for Art and Education.
Palmer is thankful for her time at TU and hopes to attend graduate school after her Senior year, something that she didn’t know was in reach before her schooling, “Being a part of the Tulsa art community has gifted me with connections and knowledge. It showed me a world I didn’t know existed, and how that world is achievable.”
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For more information, visit http://www.utulsa.edu/art or call 918.631.2739 • TU is an EEO/AA institution •
SEPT 4 - OCT 16 Concept//Focus projects are still on view by appointment at Harvester Arts in Wichita, KS for a second showing.
More info: concept-ok.org & harvesterarts.org
OCT 5 - NOV 13
24 Works on Paper heads to The Wigwam Gallery in Altus for its second stop in the 18-month tour.
More info: 24works.org
O V A C ' S G R A N T S F O R A R T I S T S DEADLINE: OCT 15
Get funding for your next project! Need help with your application? Sign up for Office Hours with OVAC's Hayley Olson on October 7th.
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EMERGING CURATOR - NOV 5 SPOTLIGHT ARTISTS - NOV 19
Applications are open for both Emerging Curator and Spotlight Artists! Apply to be a part of next year's Momentum!
More info: momentumoklahoma.org
