Completed: #17. propose exhibition of Métis identity

Original goal list posted here

Progress: #17. propose exhibition of Métis identity

I'll be submitting the following three artworks, with accompanying biography, context, prices, and application to this on Monday.

PAINTING CONTEXT

1. “Woman Changing into Eagle.” Acrylic on canvas. June 11, 2014.

On May 17, 2014, I visited Manitoban Traditional Healer / Elder Colin Mousseau at Anishnawbe Health, who told me he saw a grandmother in a vision who said I was her relative. He said to my father, mother, and myself: “You have the blood in you. It’s obvious.” He spoke of my former sickness, of the recurring dreams of flying. He said I am “Wabano Ginew”, or Eastern Golden Eagle.

I feel honoured to have a spirit that is one of the most powerful in the skyworld. East, he said, is where the sun rises. This is also where all my connections lie.

On June 11, 2014, I painted “Woman Changing Into Eagle,” to mark the name: a not-so-subtle nod to Norval Morrisseau’s “Man Changing into Thunderbird” series, and a re-articulation of one of my favourite self-portraits from 2006.

The most significant moment regarding “wabano” – that ephemeral time between night and day – that I remember in my lifetime was the wee hour bus ride from the airport to a hotel in Jerusalem in 2011. Oh, the city shone like gold! I wish I could package that beauty to share with you. The background in “Woman Changing into Eagle” is a pictorial representation.

2. “How I Learned to Fly.” Acrylic on canvas. September 30, 2014.

All of the jewelry that I wear means something. I believe in clothing and adornments as a mode of communication, in addition to functionality. If I keep it to myself, it means something only to me. I am sometimes okay with this. However, 2014 was a year of substantial growth – my 30th on this planet – so I decided to mark these subtle communications to a painting.

My centre left-hand ring is from Kitigan. It is a site run by a Native Friendship Centre-based organization where my cousin works in downtown Toronto. Kitigan solicits arts and crafts from Northern indigenous communities, which are very far from artistic centres and gives them an online urban forum in which to sell their work. This ring is a medicine wheel, which has become one of the guiding forces and philosophies in my life.

My centre right-hand ring is from a mother of one of my high school students from the 2014/2015 school year. She scheduled a meeting with me by email, only to show up at my office door in tears, thanking me for “teaching her ‘black-and-white’ daughter to ‘see the greys’”. I laughed, as this was something my own mother often chided me, when I was younger, for being unable to do. This beaded ring was a gift of thanks. She bought it from indigenous artisans during her travels in South America.

My thumb ring, consisting of interlocking puzzle pieces, was purchased for autism awareness. After many years of social and emotional struggles, I was diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder in 2014. This knowledge changed my perception of myself and the world – and so it was something I wanted to note, in subtle adornment.

I am grateful for having noted the ephemeral nature of these pieces of jewelry in acrylic. Less than a year after painting, the beads of my centre right-hand ring began to unravel and I could no longer wear it. My thumb ring, a size too big, I lost to the cold the following winter. I now wear my medicine wheel ring on my right hand. I have purchased a smaller replacement puzzle piece ring.

The hands are meant to appear like wings, replicated much like children make shadow puppets. This was a year I learned to fly.

3. “Eagle Birch Burn.” Wood Burn on Birch, backed by Decoupaged Recyled Paper. January 3, 2018.

    In late 2016, I established Treecycle Toronto, after feeling horribly guilty that my first “real” Christmas tree had sacrificed its life to stand in the midst of my living room. Treecycle operated on an indigenous philosophy of conservation, and turned previously-loved Christmas trees into new housewares, art, ornaments, and jewelry. Ever since, my uncle has been quite passionate about the ways in which he can contribute to my environmental conservation efforts.

    This is how I came to inherit many scrolls of shorn birch bark that he found at a great uncle’s cabin. At first they simply sat in my art studio, because I was unsure what to do with them. Around the same time, I inherited the gift of a wood burner. By the new year, 2018, I was itching for a new art and decided to give the wood burner a try.

    This is my first wood burn. I recently read an article that the hobbies of our ancestors can be written to our DNA. My ancestors have oft been woodworkers.

Original goal list posted here