Individual Artist Project Grant

Before I decided to take the leap and be a professional artist full time, I worked at a Native American Treatment facility as the art Therapist there. What I found out was surprising and quite shocking. I found out that 8 out of 10 of my clients knew little if none of their cultural heritage. Over half of them lived on their reservations and many had never been to a cultural event. In fact, for many of them, the first place they started to learn about their culture and heritage was where I worked. It was also where they started to learn Native American art, which is embedded in the culture and has a huge part to play on communicating our stories and history. I believe that my work will benefit to the community as each piece will tell a story or show an aspect of that culture. It will help those who are interested and/or are learning to know more about our and/or their heritage/culture and the importance of art and how it can teach and tell a story.I am trying to create a series that will push me both artistically and culturally. I want to create this series to not only push myself to the next level with my ceramic work, but to also successfully combine and meld different art disciplines together to create a mixed media series. My goal is to take these different materials and create pieces that enhance and help me tell different stories of my Native American culture. My goals are to have at least 6 pieces finished in the series that all tell a story about Native American culture and art. While I am finishing them, my goal is also to find at least one show or event that will allow me to show my work to the community. I feel that I have confidence to execute this because I have been able to successfully combine mixed media with my ceramic work in the past. I also have the drive and passion to push myself to the next level so that I can achieve and successfully complete this series. I just need the time and funding to achieve that goal.I can honestly say that this has been a series I have been wanting to do for a long time but I just haven't felt confident enough in my abilities or haven't felt that I knew enough techniques with the other art disciplines to successfully complete the series and I definitely haven't had the time to complete it also. However, I have learned quite a bit since my last series, that I feel that by finishing and completing this work along with showing it at an event or show would confirm to me as a successful series of work.