Q: Why did you become an artist? What influenced you in taking this path? A: The path to being an artist is a bit of a wind-y road. All my life I have been involved in artmaking. When I was attending elementary school I enjoyed drawing and painting. Art was something which I excelled in and enjoyed. I learned about perspective when I was in sixth grade and remember painting apple blossom trees as a lesson in perspective. My mother still has my early drawings. Also, I remember when we moved from Albuquerque to Biloxi, Mississippi (when I was in first grade) all my classmates drew self-portraits for me to take on my trip. First grade was also the period when I pressed my first hand print into plaster. We used the bottom of a coffee can lid and the plaster was a lime green. It's odd to think but many years later I did a series of raku handprints. The handprint became a significant part of my work in the late '80's both in printmaking and ceramic form. That was the early, early years. I continued to my studies in art through my life and but did not make a career of it until 1983. Prior to that I was in business and marketing and it wasn't until I went on a rafting trip to Northern California that I decided to leave my profession and follow the art call. I moved from Marketing Director of a mid-size architectural firm, to Nanny, to full time artist. Those were the roughest days of my life in regard to monetary means but I would say some of the most joyous days. I made my living selling my painting, lecturing to schools and teaching in an Indian Education after school program. While struggling for three years I researched Native artists and their careers. I found many of them attended the prestigious Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I decided that I would follow that path. I applied for their two year program and received my degree in Two and Three dimensional art in 1987, I then went on to the University of California Santa Cruz and received my Bachelor of Fine Arts in American Studies and Sculpture in 1990, then studied for my Master of Fine Arts at the State University of New York-Albany, receiving my degree in 1993. I have to credit my parents for never discouraging me from following the career of an artist. My father is a landscape painter and growing up in New Mexico I have always been surrounded by art. In New Mexico art is ingrained in ones persona, no matter who you are. Q: From your perspective, do women in the Native art world as opposed to the non-Native art world play a difference in their roles? A: I don't think I can answer that very easily. Art is a very complicated work. If I was an artist who worked traditionally, (i.e. If I was a basket maker or traditional potter) I think I would have a different role within the framework of Native people. But I am a contemporary artist who works with non-traditional materials. I work in materials that are indicative of artists. When I look for my material I go to Home Depot, second hand stores or pick up objects at lawn sales and sometimes I combine clay into my work. My art is a reexamination of the Native American experience. I look at myself as an artist who is Native and the work I create is rooted in my culture. Q: Do women as compared to men in the contemporary Native art world explore a notable difference in themes? A: I think on the whole I don't see major differences of subject matter. The last ten-years contemporary artists have made a shift of subject matter. I don't see the angry art of the 70's and 80's but work that have been refined and has a clean edge. I think about Charlene Maxx Stevens and Duane Slick. They both teach at Rhode Island School of Design. Maxx is a sculptor and Duane is a painter. Their work is intelligent in its discussion of the world they see around them but they don't limit themselves by sticking to traditional art imagery or restrict their work by gender. They explore and express their ideas through the use of the material. Q: Tell me about some of the work you are doing as an artist. A: My work has always evolved through a series of works and the one continuing theme is the issue of boarding schools and its affect on Native culture. Other themes have been the Smithsonian Series and the Manhole Series. Both emerged while I lived in New York. Now that I am back in New Mexico I haven't really had the opportunity to concentrate on a particular body of work. Most of my time thus far has been settling into my new home and present position as Director of the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum. Things here are less edgy compared to living in a large metropolis and this affects my work as an artist. I don't feel as mean so my motivation is quite different. In my new setting I have started working on a piece for an exhibition at SUNY-Albany whose subject matter is the Criminal Mind. It will be an installation that involves large metal flat files in which the viewer will open drawers discovering information about the subject in relationship to the Native culture. It will investigate the notion of the criminal mind as to how Native people were looked at in first years of contact and it will be a layering of imagery. Q: Thank you Joanna. Is there anything you would like to say that we haven't covered? A: I am happy to be back in New Mexico. I am home and that is where my heart has always been. It has been one year in May that I left NYC and it was the best decision I have ever made. It's fabulous to be home. Joanna O. Bigfeather is an enrolled Member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma |
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