CONNECTING THE DOTS
Muskogee Creek pointillism artist embraces color and geometry
Creativity courses through Starr Hardridge’s veins like blood. An enrolled member of the Muskogee Creek Nation, his work reflects the pointillism of the French post-Impressionist Georges Seurat, as well as the shimmering beadwork of southeastern woodland tribes. His work can be seen at blueraingallery.com, as well as in Santa Fe’s Blue Rain Gallery at 544 S. Guadalupe St.
Pointillism is a painting technique in which artists apply small, distinct dots of color in patterns to form an image. Seurat and Paul Signac developed the technique in 1886 as they branched out from Impressionism.
Hardridge’s work often features allegorical images of Native people in their natural world enhanced by mythological symbols and designs. His bold use of color and geometry wields a modern twist inspired by Muscogee patterns and designs.
The artist’s background speaks to an amalgamation of influences, including the Savannah College of Art and Design in 1997 and a oneyear residency in France with the decorative artist Nadaï Verdon.
No brushstrokes appear in Hardridge’s work. Instead, he applies fine dots of paint using a homemade dropper.
“The scariest part of painting is putting down the first dot,” he said in a telephone interview from Knoxville, Tennessee.
First, he applies a plaster layer over mesh to work as a design grid.
“I’m working with mesh that’s one-sixteenth of an inch,” he explained.
A former decorative painter, Hardridge decided to reinvent himself as a fine artist in 2015.
“I was in the closet as a quoteunquote Native artist for about 20 years,” he said. “I did a lot of conservation work. I had always done what I call Native American art on the side.”
The national touring exhibition “Return From Exile” featured his work among 30 Native artists in 2015. The show focused on the resilience and resistance of the southeastern tribes removed to the Oklahoma Territory.
“At the time, I was illustrating creation stories in sort of a classical way,” he said. “I wanted to represent in my own painterly expression and explore pointillism. I figured that would be the best way to represent the beadwork.”
In 2012, he won a first place in painting from the Santa Fe Indian Market. Pendleton Woolen Mills
selected him as their Legendary Blanket Artist in 2015.
It can take him up to three months to complete a large painting.
“Convergence” features two woodpeckers flying toward one another against a celestial background.
“Woodpeckers are spiritual to the Muscogee Creek,” Hardridge said. “They’re sacred beings; they’re sacred birds, they’re protectors of sacred ground.”
“Best Friends” shows a Deer Woman petting her namesake.
“Deer Woman is sort of a morality play,” Hardridge said. “It’s a tale of caution. Men saw those beautiful eyes, and she drew them into the woods and stomped them.”
In “She Waited Summer Long,” a woman is nudged by a U.S. cavalry horse as oak leaves flutter around her.
“It’s a story that was told to me that was supposed to be Cherokee,” Hardridge said.
“She said the oak leaves warned of the soldiers coming with the horses’ hooves crushing the leaves,” Hardridge said.
“So I developed this story,” he continued. “They knew their lifestyle was coming to an end.”
He lifted the falling oak leaves from a design on an Osage sash.
The geometric abstraction of “Strength in Numbers” veils a circling herd of buffalo.
“They’re in a stomp dance circle,” Hardridge said. “Everything in Muscogee Creek culture is cyclical.”
By the way, “Muscogee” means “the people” in Hardridge’s native language. “Creek” was a white invention describing some tribes spotted along a creek.
Hardridge is about to work as a contracting artist for the First Nations Museum slated to open in Oklahmoa City in September.
His paintings hang in the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art in Overland Park, Kansas, as well as the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis.