Eric Otter Bacon

/

TRIBAL AFFILIATION: Passamaquoddy

MEDIUM: Basketry, Woodwork

ARTIST STATEMENT
As a toddler, my mother said I was already constantly making hand-drawn replications of sneakers and boots, particularly the tread patterns. Woodworking and basketmaking soon followed at around age 5-6 with the influences from my maternal grandfather, a Grand Lake wood strip canoe builder, my father a wood and bone/antler carver, my uncle who steam bent wood into dog sleds, and many basket makers on the reservation. At age 16, I began working with Loyd Owle, a well-known Cherokee artist at the Unity Youth Treatment Center in North Carolina, learning leather work and stone carving, amongst other Native arts. While attending treatment there, I learned what it was to value life, and this is where my first pieces of Native art were sold. For many years following, I pursued a tattoo apprenticeship, focusing much of my artwork on the industry and doing much study and research on indigenous patterns and designs from around the world. 2004 is when basket making was when I had taken up professionally. Within the next few years, I attended multiple Native markets around New England, starting to enter and win placement in those art competitions. Before completing the first decade of professional basket making my work had won many ribbons at numerous Native art market competitions and in the collections of major museums nationwide. During this time, I started working closely with birch bark canoe builders David Moses Bridges and Steve Cayard, building 5 different bark canoes with multiple Native communities to learn and share the knowledge of traditional canoe construction and material gathering/preparation. Moving forward, I'd like to continue sharing and teaching the acquired knowledge of traditional arts, inspiring others to find value and hope within themselves so that they may have some of the tools needed to continue in a positive, meaningful life.  

 
 
 

Carol Emarthle Douglas

/

TRIBAL AFFILIATION: Northern Arapaho - Seminole Nation of Oklahoma

MEDIUM: Basketry - Other, Painting/Illustration

ARTIST STATEMENT
I am a Traditional/Contemporary basket weaver, multimedia artist.  I create baskets that tell a story by design, shape and use of color.  Coiled basket weaving is an extremely time consuming process and the baskets produced in a years time are one of a kind.  My inspiration is from my Northern Arapaho and Seminole heritage. Some of my designs from Plains style beadwork, ledger art, parfleche designs of my mother’s tribe, my father, of the Seminole Nation inspires the color, patterns of Seminole patchwork in my weaving and painting. Seminole designs represent the eight tribal clans and designs in nature.

My choice of employing contemporary processed materials is due to not having access to my traditional raw materials,I use hemp core, waxed linen thread for larger baskets, round reed, raffia; a palm fiber, silk thread, and beads to create miniature baskets.  I will use natural plant fibers when available.  The technique of coiling baskets is one of the oldest methods in basketry and were passed down by both tribes.   As a basket weaver I continue learning new ways of mixing materials and incorporating new techniques.  My baskets range in size from large pieces which can be up to 14” in diameter and miniatures 1” in diameter with intricately detailed designs.  My paintings are inspired by previous sketches of my own basket designs which I deconstruct and then transfer to paper.

As a weaver, the opportunity to travel and share my weaving techniques through teaching and presentations of my work have been one way I can   carry on the tradition of keeping the art of basket weaving alive for all generations. 

Along with weaving my painting is another way to express my creativity to gain a wider audience in another medium.  Most of my paintings to date are inspired by baskets I created over my career.  Painting allows me to work with more color, detail of design and is a way to bring my previous basket sketches to life.  I plan to continue painting to  allow my basket weaving pieces come to life in a new form.

 

Connect with Carol

 
 
 

Butch Phillips

/

TRIBAL AFFILIATION: Penobscot Nation

MEDIUM: Basketry - Other

BIOGRAPHY
Butch Phillips, a tribal elder of the Penobscot Nation, grew up on Indian Island. He is a tradition bearer within his community.

Phillips is a birchbark artist known for etching winter bark with traditional Penobscot double curve motifs and designs. He is also recognized for his moose calls (article here), log carriers, and model canoes.

In 2002, Butch assisted in the construction of an 18-foot birchbark canoe that was finished and paddled in shifts during the annual Katahdin Spiritual Run, a 100-mile trek by canoe, bike and foot to Mount Katahdin. Later, Butch went on to build a 14-foot canoe on his own, and an 18-foot canoe with two of his sons. Since then, he has participated in events that showcase birchbark canoes while paddling the Penobscot River.

Butch has been instrumental in the restoration of the Penobscot River, advocating for the removal of dams to allow for the return of migratory fish species such as salmon and sturgeon. The restoration of the river was a collaborative effort by the tribe, seven conservation groups, the local power company, the State of Maine, and the Federal government. Butch is one of twenty-four Penobscot individuals featured in the documentary “The River is Our Relative.” In this film, Butch shares his spiritual connection and celebrates his cultural ties to the Penobscot River.

 
 
 

Theresa Secord

/

TRIBAL AFFILIATION: Penobscot

MEDIUM: Basketry - Ash, Basketry - Other

BIOGRAPHY
Theresa Secord (b.1958) is a traditional Penobscot basket maker and the founding director of the Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance (MIBA). During her 20 years of leadership, MIBA was credited with saving the endangered art of ash and sweet grass basketry by: lowering the average age of basket makers from 63 to 40; and increasing numbers of weavers from 55 to more than 200; in the Maliseet, Micmac, Passamaquoddy and Penobscot tribes. Over the course of 30 years, Theresa taught more than a dozen apprentices the endangered art of ash and sweet grass basketry. Now, some of her apprentice’s apprentices- have apprentices!

Theresa has been honored several times for her advocacy. Among the most notable, the National Endowment for the Arts bestowed her with the prestigious life time achievement award, the National Heritage Fellowship, in 2016. In 2003, she was awarded the Prize for Creativity in Rural Life by the Women’s World Summit Foundation, granted at the UN in Geneva Switzerland, for helping basket makers rise out of poverty.

She has won a number of first place ribbons for her own basketry at the Santa Fe Indian Market, the Eiteljorg Indian Art Market and the Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair and Market. Her baskets are in many private and museum collections.

In addition to weaving baskets, Theresa continues to help other artists achieve their own goals of art and economic self-sufficiency, through work for national Native arts organizations; First Peoples Fund of Rapid City and the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation of Portland, OR.

In Maine, Theresa sits on the Governing Board of the Colby College Museum of Art, has consulted to the Portland Museum of Art on the Portland Biennial, and has co-curated a number of local Wabanaki basketry exhibitions.

 

Connect with Theresa