DUANE BIGEAGLE
Translating decades of travel and heritage into soulful oil paintings that honor ancestral memory.
Description of Art
1) "Grandpa's Meeting House" oil on canvas, 20"x24", painting of my grandfather's Native American Church meeting house, Bug Creek, Greyhorse, Oklahoma. 2). "Walking to Gangtey Gompa, Bhutan" oil on canvas, 24"x30". From my series: "Postcards for the Osage" paintings from my travels for my Osage relatives in Oklahoma. This painting is of a monastery in the small country of Bhutan in the Himalayas. A gallery of recent artwork is available here: http://duane-bigeagle.pixels.com and creative writing is available here: www.duanebigeagle.com.
Artist Biography
I am Hominy District Osage, born in Claremore, OK, in 1946. I have a B.A. Degree from the University of California at Berkeley and have been painting, writing, and publishing poetry since the early 1970s. I have also taught creative writing to young people with the California Poets In The Schools Program since 1976 and am a past President of the Board of Directors of that organization. I was awarded three California Arts Council Artist in Residence grants in the late 1980s and have received several awards for my poetry, including the W.A. Gerbode Poetry Award in 1993. I have also served on various local, state, and national grant and policy review panels for many agencies, including the California Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. I have been a college teacher since 1989 and a Lecturer in Native American Studies at San Francisco State University, Sonoma State University, and presently at College of Marin. I am a founding Board Member of the Northern California Osage and the American Indian Public Charter School in Oakland, CA. I am also a traditional American Indian singer and Osage Ilonschka Southern Straight Dancer. An extended biography is published in: Here First: Autobiographical Essays by Native American Writers, ed. by A. Krupat & B. Swann, Modern Library, New York, 2000.
Personal Statement
As an American Indian youth, I learned to value a connection with the land that sustains our lives. I learned early that individuality, creativity, self-expression, and love of beauty are essential to the survival of a whole and healthy person. I have experienced the roles that art and poetry play in the passing of culture from one generation to the next. These lessons and values have formed the person I have become -- poet, painter, teacher, traditional singer and dancer, artist in education, community organizer, and cultural activist.
