Indigenous Art Studio Portfolio

  My grandmother has a very large appreciation for the arts and over the years has collected a vast majority of pieces from paintings to pots. Being of Native descent she is very proud of our heritage and loves to support Aboriginal artists as much as she can. One of her favourite artists that she has multiple paintings from around her house is Benjamin Chee Chee. Seeing his works around her house has always caught my eye so for this project I decided to try creating a piece inspired by his artstyle. For this project I created this project digitally using my tablet, I originally had planned to use India ink and calligraphy but I was having some troubles figuring out how to use a calligraphy pen and I couldn’t quite achieve the smooth almost one stroke lines that Chee Chee uses in his art. I chose to draw cats in this piece because they’re actually supposed to represent my two cats. The one on the left is very playful and hyper but also a bit of a brat like my cat Ginny, and the one...

  (Theme Indigenous Cultural Objects, Knowledge & The Colonial Museum) I wanted to focus more so on the museum and cultural aspects of the project, really putting into perspective how one would feel to see their own life essentially locked up in front of them on display for the world to see. For this piece I created a short digital animation (a gif to put it simply). This art style was very easy for me because this is how I normally do my art, so it wasn’t so much of a challenge as some of the other projects I have done, however I had a fun time creating it and am happy I was able to share a piece in my own artstyle.  Originally when creating this project I was a little stumped. I kept thinking how I could make something that would relate to this theme. So I looked up pictures from museums that held indigenous artifacts and it really helped me to realize and understand what the Mootookakio’ssin project was fighting for. These items are not just items, they are culture and ...

  My work is inspired by and dedicated to the missing and murdered indigenous women. For this project I used many different materials such as yarns, threads, and paper with factual information on it to create this weaved sun piece. I wanted to use the sun because oftentimes it can represent life, health, and healing and I felt that it greatly related to the issue. This was my first time doing weaving and it was a little difficult at certain points but it was quite fun and the actual process of making the piece was actually quite relaxing. Missing and murdered indigenous women has been an ongoing silent genocide that has been occurring throughout North America for the past several years that the government has turned a blind eye to. Upon doing research one of the most frustrating things I’ve come to discover is that there isn’t an accurate account of how many women are actually missing because the government hasn’t been keeping records. The closest year I could find information for ...

  I wanted to delve into my own family’s past and paint a portrait of my great grandmother. For this piece I used acrylic paints and painted on a piece of a tree that was given to me at my cousin's wedding a few years ago, the tree itself was from one of my other relatives' backyard and was cut down by my uncle Dana who is my great grandma’s son. To create this piece I started by doing some digital drawings of my grandmother just to understand how she looked, I then took the drawing I liked the most and lined it up on a picture of the wood to get the placement right, I then traced it onto some tracing paper I had and then transferred it onto the piece of wood. By painting on this medium I felt I was challenging myself to step a little bit outside of my comfort zone, I also felt that it brought the project full circle with the familial ties.   Georgina Ester Ann Davis was a very kind and intelligent woman who was always looking out for others. She was the oldest of 7 kids and...