Daphne Odjig, Ojibway Artist

Daphne Odjig was born in 1919, of mixed parentage. Her mother was an English war bride and her father was Ojibway. Daphne was born on Wikewemikong Reserve on Manitoulin Island, Ontario.

Daphne's abilities became noticed after Norval Morriseau set native art into a place of prominence, and she had her first showing in Port Arthur (Now Thunder Bay), in 1967.

Wikipedia attributes Daphne to be the initiator of the Native Artists Group of Seven after their first meeting at her home in Winnipeg. She followed that by creating the Native Artists Professional Association.

Daphne was the only female member of the Woodland Art Group of Seven and her works were noted for the value she placed on female and family values.

Daphne received her tribe's noted Eagle Feather and the Order of Canada and a 1998 Aboriginal Achievement Award.

Please check this reference site:

Also: Click here for the Wikipedia source.

Morriseau Speaks Through His Art

Norval Morriseau was one of a small group of native artists who pioneered a unique native style of painting in Canada. His works featured solid colours, hard lines, and separated areas. This picture, lacks perspective and variety of tonal values. It speaks in a flat language for acceptance for what it is. There are no shades to the realities Morriseau gives us in this work. It has an impressionistic reality of its own, like a huge transfer lifted off a rock petroglyph, then compacted and interwoven.

I find that his art, creates more questions than answers. But then again, I am not native.

It is open ended. Is the snake and the penis one and the same along the trail along the bottom of the picture?

Is there an intentional heirarchy in the work, with the central person being dominant?

Are there symbols and meanings in birds, and snakes that are known only to native shaman?

Or, is the unity and interconnection what its all about and if it is, what really matters beyond this? And if there are only questions and no answers, then is that the answer? Is it an existential statement that it simply exists. No more, no less?

Blog readers are welcome to participate in this discussion posting.

Norval Morriseau, Renown Native Artist

Norval Morrisseau
(March 14th, 1931 - December 4th, 2007)
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A member of The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (R.C.A.) since 1970, Norval Morrisseau is the celebrated founder of the Woodland Indian School of Art (today called the Anishnaabe art), which revitalized Anishnaabe iconography, traditionally incised on rocks and Midewiwin birchbark scrolls.
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A self-taught painter, Norval Morrisseau created an innovative visual vocabulary which was initially criticized in the Native community for its disclosure of traditional spiritual knowledge, previously passed down orally. He acquired his knowledge from his grandfather, Moses ("Potan") Nanakonagos, who taught him about Midewiwin scrolls which provided him with a source of powerful images and meanings.
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In 1962 Morrisseau was the first Aboriginal artist to have work shown in a contemporary art gallery (the Pollock Gallery in Toronto), where his bright, stylized images of Windigos, spirit guides, and animals were so well received that he sold all the paintings at the opening night. His colourful, figurative images delineated with heavy black/blue formlines, were characteristically signed with the Cree syllabic spelling of "Copper Thunderbird", the name Medicine woman gave to him aiding his recovery from sickness in his youth.
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Norval Morrisseau completed many commissions during his career, including the mural for the Indians of Canada Pavilion at Expo '67. He was presented with the Order of Canada (O.C.) in 1978, and in 1980 honourary doctorates from McGill and McMaster Universities. In 1989 he was invited, as the only Canadian painter, to exibit at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris to mark the bicentennial of the French Revolution. In 1995 he was awarded with the Eagle Feather (the highest honour awarded by the the Assembly of First Nations). In 1996 he was appointed Grand Shaman of the Ojibway and in 2005 he was elected to the ranks of The Royal Society of Canada (R.S.C.).
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The National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa had in 2006 a major retrospective of his works: "Norval Morrisseau - Shaman Artist" - the first solo exhibition featuring a First Nations artist in its 126-year history.
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Morrisseau, who had been living in Nanaimo, British Columbia, died at General Hospital in Toronto on December 4th, 2007.
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1 - The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts is one of Canada’s most enduring cultural institutions is comprised of members in over twenty visual arts disciplines from across Canada.
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2 - The Royal Society of Canada (The Canadian Academy of the Sciences and Humanities) is the senior national body of distinguished Canadian scientists and scholars. Its primary objective is to promote learning and research in the arts and sciences. The Society consists of approximately 1700 Fellows: men and women from across the country who are selected by their peers for outstanding contributions to the natural and social sciences and in the humanities.
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Please check the Norval Morriseau website.http://norvalmorrisseau.blogspot.com/

Canadian Artist, Ice Bear (Chris Johnson) at his Dallas Exhibition

I have not chosen art, the painting and sculpture. It is a task, a responsibility if you will, given me by the Creator from birth. As a small child removed from home and family, speaking no English and placed in foster care in Toronto, drawing was often my primary means of communication. The elders of my people, whom I met for the first time a few years ago, tell me that even as a toddler, I drew. I am, they say, what the Anishinabe call a Dreamer.

You can find Ice Bear art at these fine galleries:
British Columbia,
CRS Trading Post, Brittannia Beach,BC
Coastal Carvings, Coombs,BC
Eagle Feather Gallery, Victoria, BC
House of the Spirit Bear, Vancouver, BC
Oak Leaf Gallery, Chemainus, BC
Sooke Harbour House, Sooke, BC
Turtle Island Gallery, Kelowna BC
Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre Whistler,BC

Elsewhere in Canada
Wah-sa Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba
Whetung Gallery,Curve Lake, Ontario

International
Agora Gallery, New York
American Indian Art Council, Dallas, TX
Turnbull Studio Gallery, Maui

Ice Bear's website:
http://www.icebearstudios.com/