About 40 students from the Hermiston alternative school arrived at Crow’s Shadow for close to two hours of monotype printmaking. After a crash course from Master Printer Frank Janzen, the students grabbed a Plexiglas plate and rolled them up with black ink.
The students then employed various subtractive techniques to come up with an image that they took to the press to print.
It was a crowded event, with working stations set up in both the studio and gallery, but the students and teachers did an excellent job of helping each other and sharing the space.
Thanks to all of the students and teachers for coming out.
After a near 10-year absence, we were fortunate last year to reintroduce traditional Native American art workshops to the Crow’s Shadow program schedule. With the help of some outstanding local instructors and the granting from several charitable foundations, we have managed to host classes on creating adult moccasins, beaded baby moccasins, wing dresses and gloves.
We’ve also begun a nine-month series of workshops that is giving close to 40 tribal members the opportunity to build three horse regalia items in time for the 2010 Pendleton Round-Up centennial celebration this September.
One workshop participant was kind enough to share some of the reasons why she is excited to see the traditional workshops return.
Janine Bearchum said she first began taking advantage of opportunities to learn traditional arts many years ago, and first learned how to sew through a workshop setting.
During the 1990s, Janine took several Crow’s Shadow workshops, such as basket weaving and box making, and eventually was invited to teach a workshop herself.
“All of them have been just so easy to understand,” Janine said, adding that the skills acquired allowed her to continue creating art at home. “Even if I put it away for a while I can come back to it and pick it up again.”
With a kitchen facility and ample table space for drawing and cutting patterns, Crow’s Shadow can be a more comfortable and practical setting for working on art projects than, say, the living room floor.
“I have small kids, so working at home is hard for me,” Janine said. “(At Crow’s Shadow) you get all the input from other people on the designs that they’re doing.”
More importantly, however, traditional arts workshops create vital opportunities to pass on cultural traditions, many of which were nearly lost during the “boarding school era” when Native peoples were discouraged from and punished for speaking their indigenous languages and practicing their traditional customs.
“So much stuff is already being lost,” Janine said. “So we’re in the age now when people are more willing to share.”
Janine said her own mother was among the many women who grew up unable to learn the cultural practices from the previous generations. Whereas Janine’s grandmother used to make gloves, the skill was never passed down to her mother.
“My mom has a pattern that she got but didn’t know how to use,” Janine said. After taking part in a recent glove-making class from instructor Kathryn Quaempts Burke, she said, “I can take that back to mom and help her learn.”
Even better, perhaps, Janine looks forward to keeping the traditional arts a part of her family’s future.
“I have my own kids now and to know that I can pass that on is an amazing gift,” Janine said.
We look forward to providing more workshops in the coming months and years. Please check our Web site for details on upcoming opportunities.
The Maryhill Museum of Art will be showing the work of six students from Nixyaawii Community School for the opening of their 2010 tourist season. The exhibition will be on display from March 15 through May 31.
“I think it’s wonderful,” Brian Purnell, Nixyaawii art instructor, said. “We have two art shows every year (at Crow’s Shadow) ... but this is the first time someone has noticed the prints and asked them to travel to a new venue.”
Specifically, the exhibition will feature self-portrait relief prints made in the Crow’s Shadow Press studio as a part of Purnell’s ongoing printmaking course. Students spent several weeks honing their drawing skills before translating them to the printmaking process, with the help of Master Printer Frank Janzen.
“What I did was teach the basics of self-portraiture,” Purnell said. “We used mirrors and practiced for about a month.”
Each of the students are receiving a special invitation to travel to the museum for a special reception.
“They get to be luminaries for the day,” Purnell said. “I think for everybody it’s very affirming.”
The Maryhill Museum of Art is located near Goldendale, Wash., along the Columbia River gorge. Their telephone number is (509) 773-3733.
Make sure to visit the beautiful art museum this spring and check out the students’ work.
If you’re in the Pendleton area and have an opportunity to visit the new tribal governance center, be sure to check out some of the great artwork decorating the building interior.
In addition to original mosaic and stone design by Joey Lavadour and glass work (an incredible tribute to Celilo Falls) by Wenix Red Elk, the new building also features an extensive collection of Crow’s Shadow prints by the following artists: James Lavadour, Rick Bartow, George Flett, Kay WalkingStick, Ramon Murillo and Susan Sheoships.
The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation made a generous $15,000 contribution to Crow’s Shadow in 2009, a large portion of which went into the purchase of artwork.
Tribal employees did an excellent job of framing and hanging the prints throughout the building’s hallways, conference rooms and office spaces.
Much thanks to the CTUIR government for their support of Crow’s Shadow and our collaborating artists!
We were fortunate to host a small glove-making workshop this weekend with local instructor Kathryn Quaempts Burke.
Five participants had the opportunity to learn techniques to make an original pair of patterned gloves.
We’re thankful to Ms. Burke and each of the participants.
For more pictures, visit our facebook page.
Open studio hours for participants of the horse regalia workshop will be canceled tomorrow evening, (Tuesday) Feb. 9, due to nearby funeral services and out of respect for the family and friends affected.
Open studio hours will resume the following week, from 5-7 p.m. on Feb. 16. Thank you.
Images from “The Life of Stones,” a monotype series by artist Don Gray, have been added here to our prints section.
Each print in the series illustrates an intriguing blend of abstract and representationalist approaches to depicting the qualities of stones.
These standalone prints are 22 ¼” x 23 ½” in paper size (larger than the individual panels in the vertical diptych series) and retail for $500 each.
To order, or for more information, call us at (541) 276-3954.
A group of 10 individuals had the opportunity last weekend to participate in our first offered wing dress workshop since 2000.
Instructors Lonnie Alexander and Michelle Burke helped each of the participants learn how to create both an under dress and ceremonial wing dress.
We give the inter-generational award to the local Sheoships family. Grandmother, daughter, daughter-in-law and granddaughter each participated in the event to collaborate on a family dress. So we thank them and everyone else for taking part.
As with our other recent workshops, we received a tremendous amount of interest and unfortunately filled our 10-person capacity with several more people who wanted to sign up but were unable.
Therefore, we do hope to offer another wing dress workshop in the fall. Be sure to keep checking our workshop schedule.
For more photos of the event, please go to our facebook page.
Are there any particular traditional Native American art workshops you would like to see offered at Crow’s Shadow? If so, send your ideas to fespe@crowsshadow.org.
We’ve added a series of nine Vanessa Enos monotypes to the prints section of our Web site. Vanessa based each monotype on a previous magazine collage and hand printed the entire series on her own under the advisement of Frank Janzen. The prints retail at $475 each.
Also, be sure to take a few minutes and watch this video profile. Vanessa Enos talks about Crow’s Shadow, coffee and her first attempts at lithographic printmaking.
If you weren’t able to make the opening reception, you still have time to check out the exhibition featuring work by Nixyaawii Community School art students. The selected pieces, which include linocut prints, drawings, oil paintings and plaster scultpures, will be on display in the Crow’s Shadow gallery through Feb. 19.
In the mean time, feel free to check out more pictures of the show on our facebook page. For a list of student artists and a description of the Nixyaawii art program, visit our gallery page here.