Minnesota sulfide mining vs The Ojibwe. Featured artist: Ojibwe artist Jim Denomie

Who is Getting Rich from COVID – 19 in Your Neighborhood?

Minnesota sulfide mining vs The Ojibwe. 

Featured artist: Ojibwe artist Jim Denomie

 

 

 

Ojibwe artist Jim Denomie

Toast Series

Monoprint with oil pastel

 

 

Over 150,000 people have now died from COVID - 19. Our government officials don’t want you to see the numbers but we all know each number is/was a person. To personalize COVID, Athraigh Studio continues its effort to look beyond the numbers and into the art made by the people.

 

In the U.S. people of color are at greater risk than others. Among the most vulnerable are Native Americans.  In today’s,  exhibit detailing Who are the people COVID – 19 is Killing in Your Neighborhood?, Athraigh Studio brings you examples of the art of The Ojibwe and a few related details regarding their battle to save the earth and their people from the greed of the mining companies.

 

 

Have you ever been to the boundary waters in Northern Minnesota?

“At over 1.1 million acres, the BWCA contains more than 1,100 lakes, 1200 miles of canoe routes, a dozen rugged hiking trails and endless opportunities to explore and discover an adventure.”

https://www.friends-bwca.org/

 

 

In 2018, “… the Trump administration announced it would reinstate Twin Metals’ expired mineral leases at the edge of the Boundary Waters. Later that year, the Administration canceled a study into a 20-year moratorium on sulfide mining in parts of the Superior National Forest…”

https://www.friends-bwca.org/

 

This opened the door for Antofagasta, a Chilean-owned mining conglomerate who is working to open a  sulfide mine at the edge of the Boundary Waters.

 

A quick couple of facts about sulfide mining:

 

“Because of its inherently polluting nature, the EPA has called hard-rock mining (or sulfide mining) the most toxic industry in the country.

In fact, there has never been a sulfide mine that has not polluted surrounding water sources.

Even worse, the pollution from sulfide mining is nearly impossible to contain and can last for hundreds, even thousands of years…”

https://www.friends-bwca.org/sulfide-mining

 

So, if all goes as planned for Antofagasta, you should expect to paddle your canoe through “acid mine drainage”: sulfuric acid and heavy metals such as mercury, lead, arsenic and other toxins.

 

Picture the pristine Boundary Waters and the people who originally called the location home:

“The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW)…  Between 2.5 million and 10,000 years ago, glaciers from the last ice age shaped the lakes and rivers that the BWCAW became known for. Lakes and streams cover about 190,000 acres of its over-one-million-acre surface area.

 

Before European exploration and immigration, Dakota, Ojibwe, and other Indigenous people lived on the lands that now make up the BWCAW.”

https://www.mnopedia.org/place/boundary-waters-canoe-area-wilderness-bwcaw

 

The Ojibwe and the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe opposition to the mining threat has been met by calls to boycott their casinos and businesses by

“ … former Minnesota Senate Minority Leader and big-time sulfide mining supporter Tom Bakk and Ely Minnesota mayor, Chuck Novak, urging a wider boycott of Ojibwe businesses…”

http://www.timberjay.com/stories/mayor-accused-of-fanning-the-flames,16016

 

https://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2020/02/the-ojibwe-have-every-right-to-oppose-copper-nickel-mining-in-northern-minnesota/

 

The Ojibwe and the Chippewa now struggle to contain COVID 19 with limited resources and to preserve the Boundary Waters. In recognition of their effort, Athraigh Studio would like to help make you familiar with the art created by Ojibwe artist Jim Denomie:

 

“Denomie, a member of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Ojibwe, combines vivid hues and disarming humor in powerful narrative paintings that invite new perspectives on historical and contemporary events in Indigenous and American life…”

https://indigenous.boston/mcknight-names-ojibwe-artist-jim-denomie-2019-distinguished-artist

 

Untitled (Canoe series), 2011

Monoprint with oil pastel,

edition 1/1, 30 x 22 ⅜ inches

 

Toast Series

Monoprint with oil pastel,

edition 1/1

 

Standing Rock 2016, 2018

(detail)

oil on canvas

 

Series: Oil Sketches

monotypes on Somerset Satin white.

20” x 15”

 

Rabbit with Star vest, Looking In (Burnt Umber Sketches series), 2011

Monotype,

20 x 15 inches

 

YouTube Version:

 

Athraigh Print Studio Website:

https://www.joelelginathraighprintstudio.com/

 

Instagram:

joel.elgin.athraighprintstudio

 

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/athraigh

 

More info on Jim Denomie and the BWCAW

 

https://indigenous.boston/mcknight-names-ojibwe-artist-jim-denomie-2019-distinguished-artist

 

https://www.mplsart.com/written/2020/01/chris-larson-jim-denomie

 

https://crowsshadow.org/

 

https://froelickgallery.com/news/71-welcoming-jim-denomie/

 

https://www.mnopedia.org/place/boundary-waters-canoe-area-wilderness-bwcaw

 

https://www.friends-bwca.org/sulfide-mining

 

 

 

Joel Elgin, Athraigh Studio: Jordan Cove Pipeline. Rick Bartow, Mad River Band of the Wiyot Indians printmaker.

Sung to the tune of the Sesame Street song…

Who are the people in Your Neighborhood?

Whose Getting Rich from COVID – 19 in Your Neighborhood?

Jordan Cove and Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline.

Plus:

A small exhibition by Rick Bartow, Mad River Band of the Wiyot Indians printmaker.

Over 140,000 people have now died from COVID - 19. Our government is making it more difficult to see the numbers and making little effort to personalize the pandemic but we all know each number is/was a person. Athraigh Studio continues its effort to look into the numbers and into the art made by the people.

In the U.S. people of color are at greater risk than others. Among the most vulnerable are Native Americans.  Today, in the third exhibit detailing Who are the people COVID – 19 is Killing in Your Neighborhood?, Athraigh Studio brings you examples of the art created by the indigenous people of Northern California and Southern Oregon, specifically the prints made by Rick Bartow, who “…was a member of the Mad River Band of the Wiyot Indians and had close ties to the nearby Siletz Reservation…”

https://highdesertmuseum.org/bartow/

The indigenous people of Northern California and Southern Oregon have been in a battle to survive the pandemic and to save the earth and their people from the greed of big oil companies, specifically the Jordan Cove LNG Project.  

Jordan Cove liquified natural gas ("LNG") terminal and Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline (together known as "Jordan Cove" or "the Project". Pembina is the parent company of the Jordan Cove Project (originally owned by Veresen), a Canadian Company.

Some important facts and a bit of history:

“…pipeline will run through 400 streams and waterways including underneath the Klamath River, Rogue River, and Coos Bay…”

“…twice the size of the DAPL(Dakota Access Pipeline)…”

“…80 miles of old growth forest will have to be clear cut for the pipeline…”

“…Pipeline would run through traditional tribal lands and burial sites of the Yurok, Hoopa, Karuk, Modoc and Klamath Tribes of Northern California and Southern Oregon…”

https://kidefm.org/lng-project/

For the past  “…15 years, Jordan Cove LNG has failed to qualify for any of the necessary state permits to dredge Coos Bay for an LNG export terminal and to trench across Oregon for a 230-mile fracked gas pipeline, threatening harm to Tribal resources, private landowners, drinking water, and fisheries along the way…”

https://kcby.com/news/local/jordan-cove-lng-project-receives-federal-approval

“…The Jordan Cove Project was denied by the federal government twice in 2016…”

https://kidefm.org/lng-project/

March 2020 under the cover of COVID.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)  approved the controversial Jordan Cove project. U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, opposed the decision:

“A few days ago, Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell stacked the decks when yet another Republican commissioner was confirmed to FERC, leaving the Commission unbalanced. This is despite current law that says the FERC should be an independent and bipartisan commission…

“…Oregon Governor Kate Brown responded with a statement, saying in part: "Given a national and state emergency, in which the federal government and its agencies are unable to fulfill their basic responsibility to keep citizens safe, it is stunning that the FERC moved forward on this decision today, approving the Jordan Cove project and Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline…"

https://kcby.com/news/local/jordan-cove-lng-project-receives-federal-approval

“…FERC has wrongly approved a pipeline that would harm our burial grounds, pollute our waterways, and endanger our community,” said Klamath Tribal member Ka’ila Farrell-Smith. “For years my Tribe, and others, have advocated to stop Jordan Cove LNG, and we will continue to stand up until this pipeline is stopped for good...”

https://kcby.com/news/local/jordan-cove-lng-project-receives-federal-approval

Oregon has already denied key permits for this projects so thankfully, the FERC decision doesn’t mean Jordan Cove LNG is immediately moving forward. The legal struggle will continue and the indigenous people of Northern California and Southern Oregon will battle with COVID – 19 while at the same time fighting to save their traditional land from the greed of both the United States government and their Canadians business partners. Compounding the struggle will be Trump’s recent (July, 2020) “…rollback to the country’s landmark environmental law, the National Environmental Policy Act, by speeding up approval for federal projects like pipelines, highways and power plants…” 

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/15/trump-to-weaken-national-environmental-policy-act.html

In recognition of the monumental efforts of the Northern California and Southern Oregon people, Athraigh Studio would like to help make you familiar with the art created by a printmaker who I greatly admire:

Rick Bartow.

“Rick was many things: a Native American, a decorated Vietnam veteran, a contemporary artist and an intellectual. He was born and raised in Newport, Oregon. He was a member of the Mad River Band of the Wiyot Indians and had close ties to the nearby Siletz Reservation. After studying art for a time at what is now Western Oregon University, he was drafted into the Army and served in Vietnam. The trauma he experienced there left him with post-traumatic stress disorder and caused him to struggle with alcoholism for most of the 1970s.

He found his way out of those dark years by reconnecting with Indigenous tradition, immersing himself in the beauty of nature and embracing the therapeutic and redemptive power of art. Rick once described this process by saying, “I drew myself straight.” His work is raw and powerful, and it exhibits a hard-won sense of optimism.

https://highdesertmuseum.org/bartow/

Untitled (2003)

Blue Coyote

Monotype, 15"h 22.5"w

Untitled

Monotype on Rives BFK

22"h15"w  

Untitled (Coyote/Dog Monotype)

Monotype,  22"h 24.5"w, 2001

Untitled (Yellow Winged Bird)

Monotype, Mixed Media

Kestrel with Horizon

Paper & image size: 30” x 22 3/8”, 2008.

Please visit the Athraigh Print Studio Website:

https://www.joelelginathraighprintstudio.com/

Youtube Version:

Instagram:

joel.elgin.athraighprintstudio

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/athraigh

More on Rick Bartow and the Northern California and Southern Oregon indigenous people:

https://stoningtongallery.com/artist/rick-bartow/

https://kinggalleries.com/making-marks-telling-stories-rick-bartows-small-scale-prints/

https://www.wiyot.us/148/Cultural

Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians 

http://ctsi.nsn.us/

https://klamathtribes.org/

Joel Elgin Athraigh Studio. Printmaking in the Time of COVID-19. Cinque Gallery: Ernest Crichlow (1914–2005)

Athraigh Printmaking Studio’s series of small exhibitions continue today with its series of exhibits of African-American printmakers. The issues addressed by these artists are still current. I had not learned of many of these amazing printmakers in school and therefore, sadly, I did not expose my students to them. I hope that by bringing these artists to you now, you might have a better understanding of the long battle against racism, artists of color have fought and continue to fight today.

The Cinque Gallery was founded in 1969 by artists Romare Bearden (1911–1988), Ernest Crichlow (1914–2005), and Norman Lewis (1909–1979) to exhibit the work of both new and established African–American artists, and to provide community educational programs. The gallery was named after Joseph Cinqué, the leader of the Amistad slaveship mutiny of the 1830s. For more than three decades, Cinque sponsored more than 300 exhibitions in a number of New York City venues, as well as regional travelling exhibitions before closing in 2004.

https://www.aaa.si.edu/exhibitions/expanding-the-legacy-new-collections-on-african-american-art/cinque-gallery-records

1. Cinque Gallery brochure

Date: 1959-1981

Rendering of the Amistad, slave ship on which Joseph Cinqué led the historical uprising.

Cinque Gallery. Cinque Gallery brochure, 1959-1981. Cinque Gallery records, 1959-2010. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

Today’s exhibit will feature Ernest Crichlow (1914–2005) who describes his art:

“… I think I know now that this is valid and this is me and this is all that really counts. As I say, the styles will go by and I will hope that I'll have a place and that is all you can do…”

https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-ernest-crichlow-11459

2. Untitled,

oil on masonite, circa 1942

3. Lovers

lithograph, 1938

…interior scene with Ku Klux Klansman struggling with African American woman in a bedroom.

4. Untitled

aquatint, 1988

5. Waiting

lithograph, 1965

…a lone child peering through a barbed wire fence.

For more on Ernest Crichlow, please go to:

https://beardenfoundation.org/cinque-artists-program/

https://www.aaa.si.edu/exhibitions/expanding-the-legacy-new-collections-on-african-american-art/cinque-gallery-records

https://pffcollection.com/artists/ernest-crichlow/

Please visit the Athraigh Print Studio:

https://www.joelelginathraighprintstudio.com/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/athraigh

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/joel.elgin.athraighprintstudio/

“Where We At” Black Women Artists' Collective. “Weusi” Artist Collective KAY BROWN (1932 - 2012)

 

“Where We At” Black Women Artists' Collective.

“Weusi” Artist Collective

KAY BROWN (1932 - 2012)

During the run of COVID-19, Joel Elgin’s Athraigh Printmaking Studio would like to offer you an opportunity to gain some knowledge of both printmaking/art and the various methods and reasons artists react to the issues around us.

African – American artist’s groups and collectives have traditionally created the support needed to build a strong unified voice. The collective voice from sixty years back is not only the structure for the contemporary art produced today but also impacts the street art that is so important in the raising of awareness in the current nation/worldwide protests.

Artist Kay Brown was a member of two important groups: Where We At and Weusi.

“…Kay Brown (1932-2012) was an African American artist and one of the founders of the Where We At Black women artists’ collective in New York City. She was also a member of the Weusi Artist Collective, based in Harlem during the 1960s and 1970s…”

http://www.shadesofnoir.org.uk/creatives/portfolio/kay-brown/

Weusi Artist Collective

“…A Swahili word meaning blackness, “Weusi” is also the name of a distinguished collective of artists established in Harlem during the 1960’s...”

http://whirlwindcreative.com/weusi/

Where We At Black Women Artists' Collective

“ … In early 1971, Kay Brown, Dindga McCannon, and Faith Ringgold gathered a group of black women at McCannon’s Brooklyn home to discuss their common frustrations in trying to build their careers as artists… Out of this initial gathering came one of the first exhibitions of professional black women artists: “Where We At”—Black Women Artists, 1971. Adopting the show’s title as its name, the collective began meeting at members’ homes and studios, building support systems for making their work while assisting each other with childcare and other domestic labor. Where We At recognized the power of collectivity—empowering black women by creating a network to help them attain their professional goals as artists…”

https://www.albrightknox.org/blog/exhibition-spotlight-dindga-mccannon-and-%E2%80%9Cwhere-we-%E2%80%9D-black-women-artists-we-wanted-revolution

 The Devil and His Game

 collage of various papers and mixed media on canvas, 1970

The Kick of Life

color etching and aquatint. 1974

Black Mother and Male Child

etching and aquatint on cream wove paper. 1974–1975

Meditation

etching, aquatint

Willowbrook

etching, aquatint

More on Kay Brown:

https://ogs.ny.gov/harlem-roots

http://www.shadesofnoir.org.uk/creatives/portfolio/kay-brown/

YouTube version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8abbowLTGE

If you wish to view higher resolution images of this article and/or read more please visit the Athraigh Print Studio main page or it’s related blogs:

https://www.joelelginathraighprintstudio.com/joel-elgin-athraigh-studio-blog/where-we-at-black-women-artists-collective-weusi-artist-collective-kay-brown-1932-2012

https://www.joelelginathraighprintstudio.com/

 https://joelelginathraighprintstudio.blogspot.com/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/athraigh

Betye Saar: The Liberation of Aunt Jemima

Betye Saar:  The Liberation of Aunt Jemima

African American printmakers/artists have created artwork in response to the insulting image of Aunt Jemima for well over fifty years.

To offer some insight into the long battle with racially offensive images, Athraigh Print Studio offers a small exhibit of artwork created by brilliant, contemporary printmaker/sculptor, Betye Saar.

The Liberation of Aunt Jemima

Wood, Mixed-media assemblage, 11.75 x 8 x 2.75 in. 1972.

“…In 1972, the Rainbow Sign Cultural Center in Berkeley put out an open invitation for an exhibition of works depicting black heroes. Saar, who decided that she wanted a heroine, produced The Liberation of Aunt Jemima,  … Aunt Jemima was Saar’s response to the rage and helplessness she experienced after the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. The work also responded to the politics of civil rights and black nationalism. Aunt Jemima was the symbol of black nurturing and black servitude. She was the caregiver for the master’s children, as well as her own. She was also the go between for the house and the field. In Saar’s hands, Aunt Jemima, with her broom and her rifle, is transformed into a freedom fighter…”

https://sculpturemagazine.art/ritual-politics-and-transformation-betye-saar/

In an interview, Betye Saar stated:

“…When Martin Luther King was assassinated, I reacted by creating a woman who’s my warrior: Aunt Jemima. Aunt Jemima is a derogatory image of black women … So I created a piece called The Liberation of Aunt Jemima. I gave her a rifle. It wasn’t that I was advocating violence through weapons, but I thought if you saw a weapon—if you saw a gun—you would know that she meant business. I used the image of the gun to imply that kind of violence, but her true violence was her spirit—that she wanted to overcome, that she wanted to move on from where her position was…”

http://womenatthecenter.nyhistory.org/women-work-washboards-betye-saar-in-her-own-words/

At the same time, Saar created Liberation of Aunt Jemima: Cocktail. Consisting of a wine bottle with a scarf coming out of its neck, labeled with a hand-produced image of Aunt Jemima and the word “Aunty” on one side and the black power fist on the other, this Molotov cocktail demands political change, insisting that full racial and gender equality must be achieved, to borrow the words of slain civil rights leader Malcolm X, “by any means necessary.” 

https://sculpturemagazine.art/ritual-politics-and-transformation-betye-saar/

Liberation of Aunt Jemima: Cocktail

Mixed-media assemblage, 12 x 18 in. 1973. 

Liberation (washboard)
Mixed media assemblage, 19 x 8.5 x 2.5 in. 2014

For more on the Betye Saar, please go to:

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-betye-saar-transformed-aunt-jemima-symbol-black-power

https://sculpturemagazine.art/ritual-politics-and-transformation-betye-saar/

http://womenatthecenter.nyhistory.org/women-work-washboards-betye-saar-in-her-own-words/

http://www.betyesaar.net/index.html

Please check out the main Athraigh Print Studio Website:

https://www.joelelginathraighprintstudio.com/

YouTube Version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xj1gmBacF94

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/athraigh

Guerrilla Murals: “The Wall of Respect”

Fifty three years before artists covered buildings with murals to make the world aware of the murder of George Floyd, members of the Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC), created and painted the Wall of Respect on The corner of 43rd Street and Langley Avenue on Chicago’s South Side. 

Artists Xena Goldman, Greta McLain, and Cadex Herrera painted this mural on the 38th street wall of Cup Foods, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nadjasayej/2020/06/04/the-story-behind-the-mural-at-the-george-floyd-memorial/#1b086cdd27f1

Denver artists Thomas "Detour" Evans (left) and Hiero Veiga work on a mural of George Floyd on the side of Ready Temporary Services, 1915 E Colfax Ave.

Leigh Paterson / KUNC

https://www.kunc.org/post/artists-find-platform-release-protest-art-during-denver-demonstrations#stream/0

“…The Wall of Respect is regarded as the first collective street mural in the United States…”

https://nublockmuseum.blog/2017/04/26/exhibition-website-and-symposium-trace-colorful-legacy-of-the-wall-of-respect/

(Photo credit Roy Lewis)

https://chicagocrusader.com/wall-respect-phenomenon-lives/

“Wall of Respect,” a 20-by-60-foot mural painted on a tavern, honored more than 50 African-American heroes, including Ray Charles, W.E.B. Du Bois, Dick Gregory, Charlie Parker, Bill Russell, Nina Simone and Malcolm X. (Robert Abbott Sengstacke/Getty)

The Wall was a collaborative effort of OBAC’s three workshops—Visual Arts, Writer’s, and Community.

“OBAC was a multi-disciplinary collective of artistic, community and intellectual practitioners active within the US civil rights movement…”

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/dec/08/chicago-wall-of-respect-collective-ownership-organisation-black-american-culture

Poet and publisher Haki Madhubuti, a member of the OBAC writers’ workshop:

“…The mural's painters and photographers were members of the visual artists workshop of Organization of Black American Culture (OBAC), an acronym that means "chieftain" in the West African language of Yoruba…”

https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-flash-wall-respect-black-0730-md-20170728-story.html

Further,

“…Madhubuti notes that the "Wall of Respect" was an outgrowth of the Black Arts Movement, a cultural expression of the Black Power Movement...”

https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-flash-wall-respect-black-0730-md-20170728-story.html

"It was a guerrilla mural," said artist Jeff Donaldson in a 2003 interview shortly before his death. Donaldson, one of the 21 artists and photographers who created the mural without the permission of the building's owner, added: "It was a clarion call, a statement of the existence of a people."

“…over the next eight years, more than 1,500 murals were painted in virtually every black neighborhood in the nation, according to art historian Michael D. Harris.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-flash-wall-respect-black-0730-md-20170728-story.html

For further details regarding “The Wall of Respect”:

https://editions.lib.umn.edu/panorama/article/wall-of-respect/

https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-flash-wall-respect-black-0730-md-20170728-story.html

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/dec/08/chicago-wall-of-respect-collective-ownership-organisation-black-american-culture

 Please check out the YouTube version:

Thanks for reading!

https://www.joelelginathraighprintstudio.com/