Interview 2 » Portraits

How I spent my summer vacation . . . 3

cheryldineenferrin — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 16:47:15 +0000

Ok, so by now I have a list of about 25 Blackfeet artists and I am looking for contact information. I was really surprised to find that many of these artists do not have their own websites and the information I could find was not leading me where I needed to go. This made tracking them down a bit problematic. With the help of Darrell Norman, David Dragonfly and Zola Sellars I was able to find almost all of the artists on our master invitation list.
I spent about two weeks calling and e-mailing artists when I needed a break from working on the SAQA Portfolio 17 editing job. Most of the artists I spoke to were interested in participating, although a couple had to be coaxed a bit – and one artist did turn me down flat.

Jackie Larson and some examples of her work

The turn down came from Jackie Bread Larson. Her work is amazing. She creates beaded works, both traditional beadwork and realistic portraits that must take forever to complete. I saw one of her beaded portrait bags in Darrell Normans Lodgepole Gallery while I was visiting, it was incredible. He told me that the week before we arrived two of her works had been stolen from his gallery. It is awful that that happened but from a certain perspective it is a testament to how prized her works are. I don’t recall the title of the work I saw in Lodgepole Gallery but I was struck by the attention to detail and the radiant quality a portrait gains when created from small glass (?) beads.
I found this quote from Jackie on one of her galleries websites:
“The beads are size 14 and a small amount of size 11. The stitch technique is called applique, a two needle process where one needle carries the beads and the other is used to sew down the beads.
“Blackfeet people use this stitch exclusively. It is incredibly time consuming and the most complex stitch used in traditional beadwork. I like the detail that this stitch renders and the smooth tight appearance that it gives.”
Apparently Jackie never has an inventory. Her works move that quickly. She literally sells everything she makes as soon as it is completed and this was the reason she gave for turning me down. She would not have any work that she could afford to tie up for three years in a traveling exhibit.
I am still hoping that Jackie will reconsider her decision.

How I spent my Summer Vacation … part deux

cheryldineenferrin — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 10:08:30 +0000

Picture of the Tipi Village in Browning, Mont. from Darrell Norman's website

When we left off yesterday, I was talking with David Dragonfly, the Acting Curator of the Museum of the Plains Indian. He was discussing developing a support system to assist me in creating the Blackfeet artist portrait series. Since I am not a registered (or unregistered for that matter) Native American, I can not receive support services from the Museum of the Plains Indian. However, the Friends of the Museum of the Plains Indian, as a non-profit group not reporting to any government entity, could choose to support the project. And, bonus, they have an office upstairs in the Museum where I would be able to work when in town. David suggested that I speak to the Friends and gave me the number of their executive director who lives in Great Falls, Montana. He then sent me two miles down the street to meet the President of the Friends, Darrell Norman, at his Lodgepole Gallery and Tipi Village.

Darrell Norman in his studio, image from his website.

Darrell Norman strikes me as a soft-spoken and gracious man. I met with Darrell in his Lodgepole Gallery and studio which is attached to his home. His gallery is full of stunning works of art from Native artisans. It is a wonderful space with large windows looking over the mountains. I talked briefly with him about the portrait project and asked if he felt this was something he could support. When he said yes, he also said he’d like to participate. In the space of one hour I had three artists agreeing to participate in a project that actually hadn’t started yet. I was getting pretty excited about this idea. (check out the Lodgepole Gallery & Tipi Village at www.blackfeetculturecamp.com )
Darrell also suggested I speak with Ruthann Knudson, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Friends to discuss the particulars of the project. I made contact with Ruthann right away, but as I was also traveling to Wyoming and South Dakota, it took me a couple weeks to get a full proposal out the door.
The Friends responded quickly by extending me the Visiting Artist position, offering the use of their office in the Museum and the opportunity to pursue grants with joint applications. Darrell Norman, David Dragonfly, and Zola Sellars of the Blackfeet Heritage Center & Art Gallery, each helped me to develop a list of some of the most extraordinary Blackfeet artists. We now had support for the project- -and a name for it: Blackfeet Portrait Project. My next job would be to contact the artists to see if they would be interested in participating in the project and schedule a trip back to Montana.
OK, stop by tomorrow for another installment on the Blackfeet Portrait Project.

How I spent my summer vacation … working, the back-story

cheryldineenferrin — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 14:35:26 +0000

Perhaps by now you have heard the news that I’m the Visiting Artist for the Friends of the Museum of the Plains Indian for 2010-2011. I will be creating a traveling exhibit and many portraits of Blackfeet artists. What we really have not talked about was how this came about. I wish I could take all the credit for the idea but the truth is I had a lot of help. In the spirit of recognizing where credit is due, here we go . . .
I spent quite a bit of time in Montana this summer. My husband and I had planned a two-up motorcycle trip for most of the month of July. Well, that was before the “incident.” Yes, that’s how we are referring to a motorcycle accident June 1st that left me with a dislocated knee, multiple torn ligaments and a fractured tibia. (I’m doing much better now.)
Since I was not going to be doing much hiking – or motorcycling for that matter – I decided to make this a working trip. I figured I could talk with some of the many motorcyclists we would see on our journey and discuss participation in my Motorcyclist Portrait Project. My objective became to sign-up and photograph 8-10 new individuals to include in the project. Reality dawned on my quite quickly: no one is going to take kindly to being solicited while they are enjoying their trip to the national parks. I wouldn’t.
My husband and I discussed this and agreed that there were better venues to approach motorcyclists. Then he said, hey, why don’t you do portraits of historical figures from the Blackfeet Nation? We had been on a number of guided bus tours through Glacier National Park during the week and had gotten an introduction to historical figures of the Blackfeet Indians. Most of what we learned was interesting and distressing all at once.
Perhaps the most amazing thing was the fact that I said “Wow, what a good idea.” In the past, when my husband comes up with suggestions for my artwork, I routinely consider and dismiss them. (I don’t know, some deep-seated thing on my part about it not being my original idea. Lately, I have come to realize that is a limiting perspective.) But this idea to do modern portraits of historical figures resonated with me. I went to the Museum of the Plains Indian to see if I could get some guidance on creating historically accurate renditions of figures from their past.
The first person I met at the Museum was Harold Weipert. Harold is a key figure in the transformation of this project. He listened patiently to my idea (my husbands idea) on forming the series of portraits and he responded directly and honestly. He said, (I’m paraphrasing here) “That sounds like a great project, but you’re not going to get any help from anyone here. You are not Native, you are not from around here, and we don’t know you. There’s a lot of skepticism toward outsiders. What you need to do is portraits of people who need to promote their work as much as you do. You need to do portraits of Blackfeet artists. Then when we get to know you, you might try bringing the historical portraits up.”
I am not sure if Harold said anything else right after that because I was too distracted by the ringing of that giant bell that just went off in my head. I had been thinking about doing a series of artists’ portraits for a few years but never could get off the dime on it. I suddenly saw all these large art quilt portraits accompanied by one or two pieces of each of the Blackfeet artist’s work traveling about the country. When I told Harold that idea, he suggested I return the following day to see the Acting Curator of the museum and talk with him about my idea (our idea.)
The next day I met with David Dragonfly, Acting Curator of the Museum of the Plains Indian and artist extraordinaire. I pitched the portrait exhibit to him and asked if he would support it and help me get started. He said very slowly and calmly “That’s a good idea.” From there things seemed to move really fast.
Now, the Museum of the Plains Indian is owned and operated by the U.S. Department of the Interior; these museums (there are 3) exist to preserve the history of Native arts and promote the works of current Native artists. They do not exist to promote or display the works of red-headed/German/Irish/Swiss/French artists who happen to have a good idea. Due to the focused nature of their mission, the Museum could not help me directly. Ahh, but there is always another option to make things happen, especially where our government is concerned. The Museum is supported by a non-profit organization of Friends, and having their support, as David Dragonfly said “was a whole other story.”
The story continues tomorrow . . .

The Blackbird Exhibit

cheryldineenferrin — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:02:15 +0000

Today I am working on my pieces for the exhibit sponsored by the Fiber Artists Coalition. www.fiberartistscoalition.com
The group of fourteen artists proposed a traveling exhibit inspired by a Wallace Stevens poem. As soon as I read VII, I knew what my composition would be. In 1998, not long after we moved to Michigan and ages before those fun little iPod ads, my dear husband took a rather unflattering Polaroid of me cleaning the kitchen. Uh, yeah. I wasn’t having any of that at the moment so I confiscated the Polaroid, grabbed a black Sharpie and proceeded to completely blacken my image. I was intrigued by the abstract nature of the silhouette but not interested in maintaining the hyper-realism of the background. As with many things, I needed to give myself time (11 years?) and opportunity to realize the direction of the artwork. There is a “glow” around the figures which is yet to come. The works are created from my hand-dyed silks and a black commercially-dyed silk noil (raw silk).
The first venue for the exhibit will be the Gov. French Gallery in Belleville, Illinois. This is a lovely gallery. Regrettably, I am unable to attend the opening as it conflicts with SOFA (Sculpture Objects Functional Art) Chicago in early November. Here are the works – currently under construction – that I am sending to the exhibit and the poem that inspired them.

Cheryl Dineen Ferrin, Blackbirds at Her Feet, diptych each 45x36 inches

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
Wallace Stevens
I
Among twenty snowy mountains,
The only moving thing
Was the eye of the blackbird.
II
I was of three minds,
Like a tree
In which there are three blackbirds.
III
The blackbird whirled in the autumn winds.
It was a small part of the pantomime.
IV
A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird
Are one.
V
I do not know which to prefer,
The beauty of inflections
Or the beauty of innuendoes,
The blackbird whistling
Or just after.
VI
Icicles filled the long window
With barbaric glass.
The shadow of the blackbird
Crossed it, to and fro.
The mood
Traced in the shadow
An indecipherable cause.
VII
O thin men of Haddam,
Why do you imagine golden birds?
Do you not see how the blackbird
Walks around the feet
Of the women about you?
VIII
I know noble accents
And lucid, inescapable rhythms;
But I know, too,
That the blackbird is involved
In what I know.
IX
When the blackbird flew out of sight,
It marked the edge
Of one of many circles.
X
At the sight of blackbirds
Flying in a green light,
Even the bawds of euphony
Would cry out sharply.
XI
He rode over Connecticut
In a glass coach.
Once, a fear pierced him,
In that he mistook
The shadow of his equipage
For blackbirds.
XII
The river is moving.
The blackbird must be flying.
XIII
It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbird sat
In the cedar-limbs.

The Masters Shed New Light

cheryldineenferrin — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:49:43 +0000

I have been trying to get some flesh tones right for some time now. Part of my challenge is managing the dye process. Colors do tend to shift somewhat on silk. The other part of the challenge is my vision of the creation in the first place. Here’s what I’m working on now. A motorcyclist in the sunlight with strong shadows on his face. Since I am drawn to strong bold colors, I tend to want to render the planes of the individuals face with those same strong colors that I see. What I wind up with is a cartoon-like over dramatization. I am not happy with it.

MPP: Bill, initial working sketch

When I compared my sketch to a wonderful work by Alex Katz, I saw where my problems were. Look at how little change there is in the value between the highlights and shadows in Katzs’ work. I have been trying to force a heavy hand where I need a light touch. Here’s my new guide:

MPP: Bill, revised working sketch

I can see the light!

cheryldineenferrin — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:24:09 +0000

Hello and it is good to be back from the depths of Portfolio editing. I have shipped the final SAQA Portfolio 16 off to the printer. It is a good day. Portfolio 16 is the largest book we have published to date – 296 pages of fine fiber art quilts. It is a great collection and I can’t wait to see the published book in October.

Motorcyclist Portrait Project: Kevin

The other great news is I have just finished another work in the Motorcyclist Portrait Project series. Kevin is the second installment in the series of 25 portraits of motorcyclists. The third and fourth portraits are already well under way.
I also have an interview coming up with a very interesting Arizona artist, Kay Emig. That is coming up in a couple weeks.
Have a good one.