Under the alchemy of English's brushwork, familiar elements are recombined and made emotionally explosive. What elevates the painting beyond easy sentiment or facile interpretation is this: the white stripes in the flag, lacking a clear border, seem to blend into the background, making the red stripes look skeletal, like ribs. Could it be that the Indians, shrouded in Old Glory, are made ghostlike and porous, more susceptible to assimilation by a conquering culture? Or, rather, does the apparent permeability of the flag signal a kind of transparent Oneness, uniting all under its protective embrace?
English's work is rich with such tensions. Although his art focuses "100 percent on Indian imagery," English's paintings are informed by a whole universe of personal, social and historical tensions. "I think there's a political element to my art," says the Albuquerque-based artist, adding that "we're not trying to indict anybody." Rather, English, 64, says he is concerned with representing Native Americans in all their complexity - as fully modern citizens who nevertheless retain and nourish the ancient traditions of their forebears.
What drives English is a desire to celebrate Native American culture in all its "pride, integrity and spirituality." He says he refuses to perpetuate the image of the beaten-down and defeated Indian. To this end, he says he always tries to paint Indians "looking straight forward or at the sky - never looking down."
Despite this mission to capture images of strength in his work, English says he's not trying to ignore the harsher aspects of Native American life; the hard-earned dignity of his painted images is informed by the endemic difficulties faced by Indians in this country, including poverty, crime and drug and alcohol abuse. It is through his work that he tries to come to terms with these realities. "I've got some trauma to overcome," he says. "Five hundred years - the worst kind of holocaust trauma."
Over the years, English has donated several of his paintings to organizations that support Native American initiatives dealing with such issues as drug and violence, education and the environment. He also served as director of the National Indian Youth Council, an organization founded in 1961 that fights for Indian civil rights and education initiatives.
It is English's own life - his transformation as an artist - that informs the straight-forward-looking aspect of his paintings. "My style was influenced by my life experience," he says, adding that it wasn't until he quit drinking 25 years ago that he became serious about his work. "When I sobered up, I started painting professionally at 39. Art was in my blood. I just had this crazy journey I had to take."
English was born in North Dakota, a member of the Turtle Mountain band of Chippewa Indians, but his formative years were spent with his family in a small town in southwest Colorado. Even as a child he knew he wanted to paint. "The excitement about art itself was probably innate," he says. As a young man hungry for experience, however, he found himself isolated by his surroundings. "I didn't have access to art museums," he says of his early years.
It wasn't until English set out for San Francisco in 1965 - as the counterculture was preparing to implode in the Haight-Ashbury district - that he began to gain the experience he so desired. "I was out there doing it all," he says of his wild times in San Francisco. "There it was, plus the art scene."
Suddenly, English had access to the city's supply of world-class museums and what he calls "the broad range of art ... it was just a turn on for me." He was in awe of the work of "the masters" - Van Gogh, Picasso, Dalí. "Most of those European guys, I just loved them all. I loved what they did."
During this time English also became familiar with the history of contemporary Native American artists. Specifically, he cites as influential on his style the work of New Mexico painters R.C. Gorman and Fritz Shoulder, as well as that of Black Bear Bosin and Allen Hauser. He also spent time hanging around Indian artists on skid row, where he would watch guys sketch using paper and ballpoint pens. "It was amazing to me that they could sit and draw something without ever erasing," English says. "That just totally amazed me."
It is such street-level experience that defines the genesis of English's own style. "I've been really independent," he says of his development as an artist. "Mostly I'm self taught. The school of hard knocks, but I prefer it that way. When they start telling you what you gotta do, that's the pits."
At first, English "experimented around" with his style and technique, working in a variety of media including acrylics, watercolors, charcoal - "the whole gamut," he says.
Finally he settled on watercolors. "It was the only thing I knew at the time," English explains. Eventually he would meet up with Tulalip artist Hank Gobin, who was working as a teacher and administrator in New Mexico. Gobin suggested that English try working with gouache, a water-based paint that gives richer, deeper tints than traditional watercolors. "He saw something in my style that gouache would enhance - make it more profound," he says. "Boy, that was a transition."
According to English, it was at this point that "the paint and the style really began to come together."
The exhibit on display at Daybreak Star Art Gallery, which runs through July 31 (www.unitedindians.org/gallery), gives a sampling of English's work with gouache, as well as some oil and acrylic paintings and a handful of monotype reproductions. "It's kind of a compilation of work over a few years," he explains.
English says he relishes any opportunity to show his work in the Northwest. "I like coming to Daybreak Star, to support the positive direction that they're motivated to move toward," he says, adding that he appreciates the center's mission of "healing the community in all respects."
Thanks to such organizations, English says he's "more than optimistic" about the direction Native American cultures are heading in today's world. "There's a vision," he says. "When you have a vision, you have something to challenge you."
For English, that spirit of optimism extends to his experience as a Native American artist. "The exposure is more national and international," he says. "We've kind of broken down a lot of barriers. It's the original art form of this country," he adds, pointing to such aboriginal artifacts as canoes and petroglyphs.
English says his own status as an artist has opened the door for all manner of experience he might not have had access to otherwise. "Penetrating society as an American Indian has been exciting."
[[In-content Ad]]
