Visual Language Magazine Contemporary Fine Art Vol 2 no 10 October 2013
Visual Language Magazine is a contemporary fine art magazine filled with dynamic international fine art, brilliant colors and stimulating composition. This month features the Miller Gallery Fall Show in Cincinnati, and studio visits with Nocona Burgess, Artspan artist Joe Belt, Sarah Beth Banning, Dave Sime, Connie Morse, and Texas artist Kristine Byars. Enjoy an up close and person interview with Texas Artspan artist Sharon Hodges and the gallery show of Texas Artspan artist Melissa Doron. The issue would not be complete without the fascinating photography of Artspan Photographer Rudolph De Ram. On the Cover is the artwork of Artspan Artist Joe Belt. Visual Language is the common connection around the world for art expressed through every media and process. The artists connect through their creativity to the viewers by both their process as well as their final piece. No interpreters are necessary because Visual Language Magazine crosses all boundaries.
Visual Language Magazine is a contemporary fine art magazine filled with dynamic international fine art, brilliant colors and stimulating composition. This month features the Miller Gallery Fall Show in Cincinnati, and studio visits with Nocona Burgess, Artspan artist Joe Belt, Sarah Beth Banning, Dave Sime, Connie Morse, and Texas artist Kristine Byars. Enjoy an up close and person interview with Texas Artspan artist Sharon Hodges and the gallery show of Texas Artspan artist Melissa Doron. The issue would not be complete without the fascinating photography of Artspan Photographer Rudolph De Ram. On the Cover is the artwork of Artspan Artist Joe Belt. Visual Language is the common connection around the world for art expressed through every media and process. The artists connect through their creativity to the viewers by both their process as well as their final piece. No interpreters are necessary because Visual Language Magazine crosses all boundaries.
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VL<br />
Studio Visit<br />
Nocona Burgess<br />
I am Comanche from Lawton Oklahoma. I am the great-great grandson of Chief Quanah<br />
Parker and my father is also former chief of the Comanche tribe. Throughout my life I<br />
have traveled around the country with my family. I have lived in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania;<br />
Poplar, Montana; Phoenix, Arizona; and Santa Fe, New Mexico. We traveled a lot while<br />
my parents were working on their degrees. Many opportunities allowed us to see and experience<br />
much of the country and all the different kinds of people. That is what my parents<br />
wanted to give to my brother and me to expand our thinking.<br />
I have always been around art. My dad went to school for art and education and has always<br />
painted and drawn. My maternal grandfather was an artist, as is my maternal grandmother<br />
a quilt maker of her own designs. My great-grandmother who raised my father,<br />
was an accomplished bead worker despite being blind. With all this art and all these artists<br />
around me, I had <strong>no</strong> choice but to pursue art. It is in my blood.<br />
In 1989, after a year at the University of Oklahoma, I decided to move to New Mexico,<br />
where I stumbled upon the Institute of American Indian <strong>Art</strong>s (IAIA) in Santa Fe. I could<br />
draw and had painted a bit. I was pretty good and, because of my family, more advanced<br />
than most in my classes. At IAIA my art really took off. I had a good time and learned a lot<br />
about Native art and how the traditional forms had evolved into more contemporary styles.<br />
This is what really grabbed my attention. I had already k<strong>no</strong>wn quite a bit about traditional<br />
style. I grew up k<strong>no</strong>wing people like Doc Tate Nevaquaya, Rance Hood, Allen Houser,<br />
and reading about Oklahoma artists like Woody Crumbo and Kiowa 5. I liked the idea of<br />
modern Indians; after all that’s who I am. I loved the old style, but it seemed so distant to<br />
me. To this day I enjoy painting old portraits and traditional subjects, but in my own style.<br />
In a way, when I paint them the subjects speak to me and I get to k<strong>no</strong>w them. After looking<br />
at them over and over for hours, how can I <strong>no</strong>t receive something from them My painting<br />
is a way of saying thank you to them for all of their sacrifices.<br />
In 1991, I graduated from IAIA with an Associate in <strong>Fine</strong> <strong>Art</strong>s degree. I then went on to<br />
the University of New Mexico. I found myself questioning whether art was the way to go.<br />
Could I make a living at it I knew some people did, but they always seemed the exception<br />
to the rule. I continued on with my degree with an emphasis in both studio art and native<br />
art history.<br />
I began work at a bingo hall, soon to be a casi<strong>no</strong>. This is when I started to drift away from<br />
art. I got promoted and made my way into management. It was pretty cool and the money<br />
was really nice; it felt good <strong>no</strong>t to be a broke college student any more. From 1991 to<br />
1996, I worked in the casi<strong>no</strong>. My work schedule left <strong>no</strong> time for school and definitely <strong>no</strong><br />
time for art. I missed the art, but soon learned to live without it. I was successful and making<br />
a good living.<br />
In 1996, I decided the casi<strong>no</strong> was <strong>no</strong>t for me and I left. I needed a new start so I moved<br />
back to Oklahoma. I got back in touch with my people and family. I needed to get back to<br />
my art. It was 1997, and I hadn’t worked on any art for years. I enrolled at the University<br />
of Science and <strong>Art</strong>s of Oklahoma (USAO) to work on my B.F.A. There I started taking<br />
classes again and getting back into the flow. <strong>Art</strong> was back in my life.<br />
http://www.eagleserpentstudios.com/<br />
58 | VL <strong>Magazine</strong> - <strong>Visual</strong><strong>Language</strong><strong>Magazine</strong>.com<br />
Right: Quanah Parker - Quahada - Cheif, Warrior, Statesmen 80x68