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STAR WALLOWING BULL
OJIBWE-ARAPAHO
NORTH DAKOTA, USA
PAINTER
VISITING ARTIST, 2001
Participation in the
Native Arts Program
gave me the
confidence to pursue
art-making as my
primary means of
earning an income.
This helped me to
build my self-esteem
so much that artmaking
became my
means of staying
sober and working
toward building a
meaningful life; without
that boost,I don't
think I would be
where I am today.
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I like to express my thoughts about my
people’s history and politics through art.
My work is not just about my people, but
includes other tribes in this country:
BLACK, WHITE, BROWN, and RED. I think
that by dealing with these historical and
political issues in my art, I can help people
understand how other people feel.
With my work today, I like to look at
historical pictures and draw from them.
I like to read about history, and then an
idea will come to me for a drawing. That’s a
major source for my work. I don’t want to
make the pictures realistic, but to
make them different than what they are–
to abstract them.