The Sioux Chef: An Indigenous Kitchen.

Schef

I know I have been asking half the world of people lately, and yes, here I am again, asking. This too, is important. Chef Sean Sherman, Oglala Lakota from the Pine Ridge rez, wants to change a serious absence in the food scene. Where’s all the Indigenous food? Traditionally based indigenous food is delicious, healthy, and sustainable. This also marks a great potential for so many Indigenous kids, who are looking more and more to traditional foods, and would like to be able to earn a living cooking, doing what they love. The kickstarter for the restaurant is so close, so very close. If you have a few bucks, please become a backer in this most important venture. (Oh yeah, I’m a backer. I want travel over and eat, so gotta make this happen.)

There is a great deal of information at the site, so I’ll just include a bit here, but I’m putting up lots of photos of amazing, delicious food. Foooooooooood. If you haven’t eaten Indigenous food, seriously, you are so missing out. If we can get one Native restaurant up and running, others will happen. So please visit, and back if you can. If you can’t, please signal boost, spread the word everywhere!

Chef1

[Read more…]

Absolutely Amazing. Wow.

Kestrel is an incredibly talented and skilled artist, who not only makes full miniature tack, also makes jewelry, and braids horsehair. I have worked with human hair, exactly one time, embroidered a bit with it, and it is the devil to work with, to say the least. Everything Kestrel does is so beautiful and polished. Stunning work. Today is a look at some miniature tack.  Click for full size.

Bridle with romal reins, braided of hand cut kangaroo leather and thread, hand made sterling silver hardware. For a traditional sized model horse such as a Breyer. Horse is an artist’s resin sculpture by Carol Williams, painted by Liesl Dalpe, haired by Faye Cohen.

Bridle with romal reins, braided of hand cut kangaroo leather and thread, hand made sterling silver hardware. For a traditional sized model horse such as a Breyer. Horse is an artist’s resin sculpture by Carol Williams, painted by Liesl Dalpe, haired by Faye Cohen.

From the other side:

Bridle with romal reins, braided of hand cut kangaroo leather and thread, hand made sterling silver hardware. For a traditional sized model horse such as a Breyer. Horse is an artist’s resin sculpture by Carol Williams, painted by Liesl Dalpe, haired by Faye Cohen.

Bridle with romal reins, braided of hand cut kangaroo leather and thread, hand made sterling silver hardware. For a traditional sized model horse such as a Breyer. Horse is an artist’s resin sculpture by Carol Williams, painted by Liesl Dalpe, haired by Faye Cohen.

 

Detail of the floral-tooled popper and knots on the romal. Notice the knot tied inside the loop at the end of the romal.

Detail of the floral-tooled popper and knots on the romal. Notice the knot tied inside the loop at the end of the romal.

 

Detail of connection between romal and reins, again with a knot tied inside the loop at the connector.

Detail of connection between romal and reins, again with a knot tied inside the loop at the connector.

 

To show scale, in Kestrel's hand.

To show scale, in Kestrel’s hand.

You can see much more of Kestrel’s amazing work at Beautiful Horses, the horsehair braider.

Marcus Amerman.

Marcus Amerman's work recently appeared in an issue of Sports Illustrated - Courtesy photo.

Marcus Amerman’s work recently appeared in an issue of Sports Illustrated – Courtesy photo.

Marcus Amerman (Choctaw-Hopi) is a very well known artist in Indian Country, and he’s been commissioned to do a series of beaded portraits in a national media campaign to promote the American Indian College Fund. The originals will be auctioned at their next gala fundraiser. ICTMN has a great interview with Marcus.

Amerman: Wieden + Kennedy, an international ad firm with an office in Portland, OR, contacted me about doing beaded ads for the AICF. They send me photos of current students who benefit from the AICF and I choose which ones I want to do based on their potential visual impact and bead-ability. They would run as full page ads in a number of national magazines such as, but not limited to, Sports illustrated, Harper’s Bazaar, Native Peoples, etc. They have just finished shooting photos of current students in New Mexico and Montana. I should receive them in two weeks and begin the third in a series of five 6.5″ x 8″ portraits which are enlarged to a full page bleed (8″ x 10″). This first image is Akisa Milk and he’s Oglala Lakota from Pine Ridge, South Dakota. The AICF will retain possession of all the pieces and auction them off at their gala fundraiser, I believe. I don’t know when it is.

The ad firm gives me 4 weeks to complete a 6.5” x 8” portrait and I use that format all that time. I only work on one piece at a time because of the time it takes to configure the trays full of separated beads specific to each project.

Marcus Amerman - Courtesy Photo.

Marcus Amerman – Courtesy Photo.

Marcus is also busy making bracelets and other wondrous works for the Indian Market in Santa Fe. http://www.marcusamerman.com/

Full interview is at ICTMN.

Abstract Thoughts.

mcrhet2

“It’s energy. It’s genetic memory. I’m connected to the past present and future all at once.” -MC Rhetorik.  Hailing from the Pueblo of Kewa, hip hop artist MC Rhetorik drops the ‘Abstract Thoughts’ album.

On August 10th, 1680 in the province of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, present day New Mexico, marked the start of an Indigenous uprising against the Spanish colonizers known as the Pueblo Revolt. The Pueblo’s, under the leadership of Popé and other Pueblo leaders, planned and orchestrated the revolt which resulted in successfully driving the Spanish out of their homelands.

On August 10, 2016, MC Rhetorik (Santo Domingo Pueblo) carries on this storied history of resistance by releasing the second part of his concept ‘Abstract Thoughts‘, with Abstract Thoughts the album.

What are your plans for the release of Abstract Thoughts

I’ll be releasing the album on-line on bandcamp.com for download.  Today, I will be giving both a workshop and performing at the Youth Making a Change: Youth Conference in Albuquerque. I’m pretty honored and excited since the conference was entirely organized by our youth. That’s inspiring. From there I’ll be headed to Utah this weekend for a performance.  In the future, the album will be available on CD.

MC Rhetorik (far left) with LRI’s Matt Remle (center green shirt) at Shell No demostration.

MC Rhetorik (far left) with LRI’s Matt Remle (center green shirt) at Shell No demostration.

You can read more here.

The Emperor Has No Balls.

1471541498

Most of this post will be under the fold. It’s best to be aware that once something is seen, it’s seen. If you don’t want to see naked, don’t look. If you don’t want to see Trump, don’t look. If you don’t want to see Naked Trump, seriously, don’t look. Now that’s out of the way:

According to the Washington Post, anarchist artist collective INDECLINE has placed naked statues of Trump around the country Thursday morning. They were unveiled in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Cleveland and Seattle. INDECLINE posted videos of itself making the statues on YouTube.

“I don’t expect these things to last more than 30 or 45 minutes,” an anonymous spokesman for INDECLINE told the Post. “But I would love to watch some irate 65-year-old Trump supporter try to take thing down with his bare hands.”

[Read more…]

Rolled Paper Ocean Reefs.

Absolutely stunning work.

reef-5

reef-9

reef-1

For artist Amy Genser, paper is pigment. The Connecticut-based artist cuts, rolls, and arranges countless tubes of mulberry paper mounted to Masonite boards to produce vibrant reef-like canvases. The tightly rolled papers perfectly mimc the forms of sea coral that appears to grow organically in every direction across (and on the sides of) each canvas.

You can see more of her recent work in her portfolio.

Via Colossal Art.

Gettin’ organized.

Okay, long hours of getting organized. Again. I had to take my old jeans organizer down, because rats. Yes, they discovered it and started using it as a climbing wall. Wheee! Not so whee for me. Got that back up, because now I can close the door, and the magical climbing wall goes away for the night. This holds only the thread I’m using for the Tree Quilt. The Peace Quilt thread is in a large container of its own; the rest of my embroidery thread is in a 6 drawer cart. So, on with the organization:

Org1

Then it was time to sort through and organize all the vintage thread I’ve come across in thrift stores:

Org2

Org3

Then I tackled the small bag of perle 3 from Kestrel. That contained 170 skeins. I’m going to need a lot more containers before I tackle the big bag.

Org4

Org5

Org6

Click for full size. © C. Ford, all rights reserved.

Box of Joy, Part II.

From Marcus, resin-metal (stainless and nickel steel) wondrousness! (Yes, one of them is upside down, because it’s for adult eyes only.) They need a bit of polishing with steel wool, which is being lovingly done by Rick. The Buddha was first, and now has a place of honour on my desk shelves, because he just makes me happy. Thank you, Marcus!

Box2