Artist Racial Categorization

In my opinion, this is Native American Indian art.


I was recently featured in the Fargo-Moorhead Arts Pulse magazine regarding my 2010 Bush Fellowship Award that included my own personal opinion on being labeled a Native American Indian artist. Since I was a little boy, my grade school friends always wondered why I was drawing robots, cars or things that I would see on a daily basis. They expected me to draw Tee-pees, Indian Chiefs, animals, and so on. People still have this idea that Native American Indians should only make Indian art. Deep down inside, I didn't want to be labeled in this sense. I really didn't like drawing images like that either. I didn't find no interest in drawing traditional American Indian cultural icons. If I did, I changed a lot of the images and made them more intricate and interesting. I saw that type of art growing up in a prominate Indian neighborhood of South Minneapolis. Everyone was doing it. Traditional Indian art is so well known, even the Chinese are mass producing it and selling them in gas stations and small retail stores throughout the world. I found that type of art too easy and boring. I wanted to create my own art on a new level and steer clear of the old traditional Indian style of art.

Over the years I have come into heated arguments and rational conversations over being labeled a Native American Indian artist. People seemed to be confused on what kind of artist I should be labeled as these days. Instead of trying to label me, how about seeing me as an artist rather than trying to label my race? People often look at my work and say "your not an Indian artist" or they say "I'm an Indian artist" because I drew an Indian figure. My art reflects a combination of different styles of Indian icon imagery, current mainstream and abstraction. Some opinions continue to be rather different than my own. I respect their opinions, but they should also in turn respect mine as well. Let me give you an example: Swedish, Norwegian artist James Rosenquist. Slovakian artist, Andy Warhol. Irish, Hungarian artist Georgia O'Keefe & German, Cherokee artist Robert Rauschenberg...why aren't these artists nationalities' or races labeled? Why is it only Native American Indians labeled a "tag line" behind their name? I do respect Native Indian artists who want to be recognized with their racial identities but I have also met other Indian artists who agree with me on this issue and would rather be called artists rather then trying to categorize their race or nationality.

I recently spoke to my friend James Rosenquist on this issue and he understood what I was talking about. James didn't understand why people wanted to label an artist's race. James was quite upset over that topic. He said to me, "From now on you're an international artist!"

This topic has been frustrating and tiresome to me over the years, so once again, it's not necessary to label my race as an artist. I'm more than happy to share my heritage, pride and culture with people, just ask. I was born and raised in an American lifestyle. Yes, my heritage is Native American - but my culture is simply as an American living among many nationalities and races from my perspective. I am simply an artist, where I create my art from my experiences, my imagination and the world around me. I hope this blog explains my perspective on this heated discussion.