Contributions in the World of Art with Dennis Fox Jr.

Well i come i have a degree in art and i have a degree in anthropology and i did that because i have an interest in art is a reflection of man so might as well study man why they create art and you know that today’s indian artists and i’ve always believed that they’ve got to compete in today’s movements genres of movements whatever it be cubism pluralism whatever it is and avant-garde is and whatever it is to be successful and be deemed a creditable intellectual artist so to speak the person that is carrying that art to the next level and we always want to progress with that art but the native artist has to also maintain the tribal mores and traditions of wherever they came from so they have to do traditional work help the tribe help the community help your people and still make a living and compete in these national movements that are going on when somebody comes to me and says can you do this for me and that person may be pitiful or we call gideshads either they don’t have much but they need this they want to dance they want to do this they want to be in a ceremony and i need this okay i’ll do that for you and then they come and they say oh i came for that and is it finished yeah it’s finished i got it all you have to do is pay me and that gift or that payment just may be a little bit of tobacco or cigarette and that will pay for that piece of artwork that’ll pay for that whatever it may be a pipe or a fan or whatever they need to do in their ceremony or dance with but the work that i did for them to me that payment means more than any piece of uh monetary gift that could happen just that acknowledgement that they understood that that tobacco i’m going to pray for them and i’m going to pray for that instrument that they use and that difficulty of surviving as an artist then in your today’s world then you have to compete with the painting and the sculpture and there’s some really good artists that come from our nation here we got kathy whitman and she goes by the artist name elk woman ryan burr there’s les burr there’s there’s a bunch of really great artists that are of this nation and represent us very well and the one that’s really come into light and i really have a high admiration for his montiello bird and he really carries on her tradition well and he can he’s the one that can tell you these stories and he’s the one that can tell you how this all fits together and he’s very well rounded in that ability to converse with the non-tribal member and spread what he’s trying to get across in his artwork and we really appreciate people like him