Available Paintings

Connect with the Original Paintings For Sale page to see the full list of available paintings. Email BringsYellowArt@yahoo.com for inquiries.

Comes Running

Comes Running, or as she is sometimes named- “Coming Running” is a Siksika woman whose portrait is based on a photograph by Walter McClintock from 1909. In the photograph, Coming Running is seen smiling, balancing one child on her hip while another child appears to be attempting to wander off. Anyone who’s tried to wrangle a toddler has probably been in this same position, but maybe handled it with less grace.

I chose to include Comes Running in a portrait because of the rare occurrence of her smiling in the photograph, the ease at which she does it, and because the blanket she is wearing reminded me of the paintings created by Byzantine and Catholic artists in their depictions of the Virgin Mary. 

I’m captivated by this juxtaposition of a Native woman smiling and appearing very human in her interaction while at the same time presenting as a religious icon. I included the gold rays behind Comes Running as a wink to iconography and the idea of “sacredness” that is seen in religious art. 

I do this intentionally because I am aware of the historical and ongoing mistreatment of Indigenous women on this continent. Women who, as human beings, deserved to be given the status of “sacred” but were often treated as less than human. 

Colonization tried to strip Indigenous women from their status as humans, and therefore sacred, and through my art I try to put it back.

Comes Running is available at the Radius Gallery.

Bloom

“My country was like a flower and I gave you the best part”- Eneas, Kootenai

“Bloom” features a portrait of a young woman named “Agath” who shows up in historical photos taken on the Flathead Reservation around 1905-1907. “Agath” is most likely an English speaker’s misunderstanding of the Salish pronunciation for the name Agnes. After some further digging in the photographic archives, I believe that “Agath” is actually a young Agnes Incashola. 

Due to the age I perceive Agnes to be when she shows up in the photographic record, she most likely grew up as part of the first generation of Salish people that would be raised ONLY on the Flathead Reservation, forcibly removed physically and metaphorically from the traditional homelands in the Bitterroot Valley. She will live to see the passing of the Allotment Act, the death of Chief Charlo, the transition for the Salish, Kootenai, and Qlispel people from their homelands to life on the Flathead Reservation, to the opening up of the Flathead Reservation to non-Native settlement. 

Behind Agnes is an abstract rendering of the petals of an Arrowleaf Balsamroot plant. Balsamroot grows throughout the Mountain West including the Flathead Reservation and Missoula and Bitterroot Valleys.  Balsamroot is a hardy and resilient plant. It is winter tolerant, drought resistant, regrows after fire, and survives grazing and trampling.  It was used for generations by the Salish and other Tribes as a food source. Even further behind Agnes and the Balsamroot  is a muted copy of the Hellgate Treaty which had promised the Tribes land to remain “undisturbed” on. 

Bloom features Agnes and the Balsamroot as physical symbols of the resilience of Indigenous people in the face of changing and adverse environments. 

Bloom is available at the Radius Gallery.