i am an Ojibwe, I currently create in Cree Territory, when gathered to my kin we shall see . . . .

All art is representational - by this I mean the information given in, say a painting of a flower, is not presented as a photograph of the flower, rather it is depictive, as seen by the artists eye, it represents part of the truth of the flower to the person viewing the painting. Creating any art is an organic process, in that the piece takes on a life of it's own and the artist oftimes looks forward to seeing what the piece creates of itself.

Our Ojibwe language, (ᐊᓂᔑᓇᐯᒧᐎᐣ) [Anishinaabemowin]), is an Algonquian language spoken on by about 50,000 people in the Canadian provinces of Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and by about 30,000 people in the US states of Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Montana and North Dakota.

i work in a wide range of art expression, painting, stone, making paper out of plant fibers and such.

i have taught art in canada & the united states, and on various first nations and reservations. my art work is in institutional and private collections around the world.

what is the art about? who knows . . . .

i believe that the painting or other piece is nothing, what the artist is creating is the viewers response to the visual or physical components of the piece - viewing art is one of the few 'collective' experiences we have still in our world.

that being said still, sometimes, as sigmund freud tells us, "sometimes a cigar, is just a cigar."

i believe all children are born mystics, until the world beats it out of them, but not all of them thankfully. i am mindful of the comments by matthew fox that "we should be radically amazed by existence itself...we are all mystics, just as we are all prophets."

-- and also by albert einstein who tells us " the most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. it is the source of all true art and all science. he to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."

ART RULES

Art Rules, what I think ought be rules . . . key, it is not 'when did I start creating art', it is 'when and why did you stop?'

· the language of art allows one to express visually what you can't express in words, especially the words of a dominant culture.

· don't set limits on what you think "art” can be.

· life is about choice, each individual eventually can find his or her own path, but the more information you have, the more informed and more healthy and better for your community and yourself are the choices you make.

· art will feed and develop one's mind and soul, because if we don't take care of our body and soul, where else are we going to live?

· the ability to create is a gift, we honour the uniqueness of each individual as we all work to find our own voices.

· it's easy to teach somebody to be like me– it takes courage to teach someone to be themselves.

· we ought have an open mind to what art can be.

· art learning never ends, never, like never . . . them's the rules.