ARTIST SPOTLIGHTS:

Dive deeper into the genre with these established artists

John Isaiah Pepion (Blackfeet) www.johnisaiahpepion.com

John Isaiah Pepion is an acclaimed artist, muralist and educator who hails from the Blackfeet Nation in north-central Montana, where the Rocky Mountains meet the Plains. Inspired by and deeply curious about his culture from a young age, his Plains Indian graphic art combines traditional design and contemporary illustrations to create his signature look. “I am best known for my ledger art, which is an art tradition that developed in Plains tribes,” Pepion explains. “As the buffalo hide we traditionally used for painting became scarce, Plains people were forced to adapt by making artwork on ledger paper from accounting books. I come from a family of artists and Plains Indian graphic art has been in my family for hundreds of years.”

Bobby C. Martin (Muscogee (Creek)) www.bobbycmartin.com

“My work has always contained a political undercurrent, but more recently I realize that I have the responsibility to tell my own story as a mixed-blood Native person in an increasingly fractious U.S. culture,” says mixed-media artist, Bobby C. Martin, whose piece here is a combination of drypoint and digital printmaking. “This has led to deeper explorations into identity politics and how that plays out in everyday Indian communities like the ones where I grew up in northeastern Oklahoma.” His most recent work probes deeper into the complicated nature of Native identity, individually and communally—“not to shock or divide, but in an attempt to find a common ground of shared experience.”

Bryan Waytula (Cherokee) waytulajit.wixsite.com/bryanwaytula

Following in the footsteps of his mother and grandmother, both of whom are Cherokee National Treasures in the art of basketry, Bryan Waytula works in a wide range of art mediums but has become known for his use of colored pencils and charcoals. Growing up, he spent a lot of time at his grandmother's house on the weekends, where his sister, mom and grandma would weave baskets and teach him how to do it too. “Growing up I was trying to find my niche, just something I was good or excelled at,” Waytula says. “My hope is to create a visual story that depicts the beauty and history of our Indigenous culture that admirers can learn from.”