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(Many Paths)

An Online Newsletter Celebrating Native America

 

July 14, 2001 - Issue 40

 
 

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American Indian Workshops Make Art from Everyday Items

 
 

 by Karen Pierce Gonzalez, San Francisco Chronicle-June 29, 2001

 
 

Chronicle photo by Brant Ward

 
Hal Brightcloud - Chronicle photo by Brant WardHal Brightcloud of San Rafael carefully painted his face half red, half black to show how his native Muscogee (Creek) tribe in Oklahoma used to adorn themselves.

Speaking to the handful of people who have come to his Sunday afternoon face-painting workshop in Novato, he explained that red represents blood, or life, and that face-painting has long been an important form of art among American Indians.

"Not only did they use the paint to decorate themselves, they would also paint their skin (for) protection from the sun," said Brightcloud, who teaches mathematics and linguistics at Laney College and the American Indian Public Charter School in Oakland and at College of Marin.

The paints also were used to make social statements, said Brightcloud, who belongs to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.

"We sometimes had two leaders, so to speak, one for times of peace who painted his face white and one for times of war who would use black paint made from materials like coal," he said.

This face-painting workshop is one of 10 two-hour sessions the 49-year-old Oklahoma native has created for his "Sharing Traditions" lecture series, which runs through Sunday at the Marin Museum of the American Indian in Novato. The museum co-sponsors the series with the Marin Arts Council.

The last workshop explored the use of shells among American Indian cultures.

MEANING IN THE MATERIALS
"The use of these materials is distinctly Native American, and I think they have been underestimated," said Brightcloud, a multimedia artist who carves pipes from soapstone and flutes from cedar for his own ceremonial use.

Each workshop is intended to explore American Indian art because, he said, "that is a good place to begin to educate others about Native America."

Brightcloud, who is part Anglo-American, noted that the different materials "have their roots outside of the Western European definition of art."

For example, beads applied to body-adorning cloth evolved from pieces of rock that represented earth.

Even wampum belts, made with beads and shells designed to represent agreements between language communities, such as the Algonquian Indians along the St. Lawrence River, were elaborately decorated to reflect the value of the contract.

TACTILE EXPERIENCE
Brightcloud has prepared the workshops so participants have an opportunity to experiment with the materials.

"One gets to know the world -- and therefore, appreciate it -- through touching and holding what it is made of," he said.

"Human hands allow us in some ways to hold the world, even alter it," he said. Done with respect and reverence, it is a form of prayer to the spirit of these elements, something many cultures understand.

"It's not unusual for Western artists to talk about the spirit of their paints or clays," said Brightcloud, who also works with pen, ink, pencil and acrylics.

In his workshops, art materials are used to create items for daily life, because the everyday routines of family, hunting and food gathering were considered significant in American Indian life.

"We recognize the balance, the equilibrium of all life," Brightcloud said. "And when we work with the spirit of something, especially in order to help care for our own spirit or the spirit of our people, as in the use of deerskin for clothing or clay for eating pots, we pay honor to these materials."

Shirley Schaufel, executive director of the museum, notes that American Indians integrate art into daily life.

"For example, a Northwest Coast spoon made of horn is elaborately decorated on the tip with beautiful carvings of animals and other life forms," she said, adding that the spoon, which could have been made without ornamentation, was "imbued with symbolic meaning for the user."

It's those kinds of connections Brightcloud explores in the workshops, he says, when he discusses pan-tribal usage of materials in an "easy-to- understand way."

EDUCATION THROUGH ART
For Nancy Rapp of Novato, the discussions that take place among workshop participants serve as valuable education. She has attended the first five workshops, her favorite of which examined the use of clay.

"Even if I don't have skill in the subject, the material, I walk away having learned something," she said. "Another native artist attended this workshop and she and Hal started talking about the clay and their processes as artists with this material. It was very interesting."

Those discussions are what Brightcloud had in mind when he developed the "Sharing Traditions" series. He has begun gathering books and other written materials for a June workshop on feathers that Rapp says she's eagerly anticipating.

"Feathers represent the sky," Brightcloud said.

KEEPING TRADITIONS ALIVE
Brightcloud's family were Southeast Indians relocated to Oklahoma during the "Trail of Tears" journey that moved four other nations there. He lived until age 10 with his grandmother on her Indian allotment in eastern Oklahoma, and said he spent his early years trying to hide his American Indian roots.

"We were ashamed of who we were, and we believed we weren't good enough," he said.

Still, his grandmother taught him to count in his native tongue. That gave him a lifelong affinity for numbers and deep respect for scientists and mathematicians. (His pen and ink drawing of Albert Einstein recently was exhibited at Laney.)

While numbers order the world, art is a spiritual experience, Brightcloud said. Through the workshops, he'd like to help others become familiar with the diversity of American Indian art, which has its origins in precivilized (Western) times.

These art forms have continued to develop and maintain a place in contemporary times, Schaufel said, noting that Brightcloud's workshops offer a glimpse into what makes them special.

"Even though it's not something you can learn in a weekend, you can still gain an appreciation for what Native American art has to offer all of us," she said.
 

Maps by Expedia.com Travel
www.expedia.com

 

Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma
The Muscogee (Creek) Nation is a tribal government located in east central Oklahoma.  The Creek Nation boundary includes eleven (11) Counties: Creek, Hughes (Tukvpvtce), Mayes, McIntosh, Muskogee, Okfuskee, Okmulgee, Rogers, Seminole, Tulsa and Wagoner.
http://www.ocevnet.org/creek/index.html

 

Marin Museum of the American Indian
The Marin Museum of the American Indian is dedicated to cultivating an awareness and understanding of Native American history and culture.
http://www.marinindian.com/

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