Arts and Cultural Heritage Grant

I am an indigenous artist originally from the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe. I have been a cartoonist and illustrator since I was a boy. Being shielded from my culture growing up, I have spent my recent years finding the identity that was ripped away from me due to various systems of colonization. Alcoholism nearly took my life in my mid 20's and I carry my recovery experience into every thing I do. My comic is a representation of my experience and will reflect the experience of other indigenous people as we take back our language, spirituality, and culture. I will be assessing this work in a variety of ways. I will be actively working to ensure that a professional and high-quality comic ends up in my readers hands. I will also be mindful of all the fundamentals of good drawing and storytelling. I will assess the engagement with my comic book when I am at local events. I will venture out into the community as an independent comic creator and I will be learning new best-practices for planning publications and measuring growth. I will measure the quality of this comic by actively seeking constructive critique from my peers. Feedback is vital to my process, If something is missing or I have forgotten a fundamental I trust that my creative circle will help me identify those fixes and adjust my pages accordingly. I will be keeping track of inventory and being mindful of traffic and attendance trends that I see at events. It's important not to reorder too many or too few books, so active assessment of my inventory will be a priority.