Wednesday, June 13, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
11
Big River artist to show at Raven Makes Gallery
For 15,000 years “the
big river” to the North
— Wimhal, Nch-i-Wana,
Swah’net’qhu or Columbia
— has sustained, supported,
and inspired humans.
Oregon artist Lillian Pitt,
raised on the Warm Springs
Reservation of which she is a
tribal member, first and fore-
most considers herself a Big
River person.
“My ancestors were trad-
ers and innovators,” she
says. “They traded goods and
exchanged ideas with people
from many Native traditions.
I honor my ancestors by car-
rying on this tradition of
exchanging goods and ideas
through my art.”
Pitt will be offering a pre-
sentation on Saturday, June
PHOTO PROVIDED
Lillian is a master of many media,
including glass.
23, from 1 to 2 p.m. at Raven
Makes Gallery in Sisters.
Long before she became
a distinguished artist, Lillian
owned and operated a suc-
cessful hair styling business.
But eventually, as many peo-
ple with artistic inclinations
will do, Lillian took a class.
I honor my ancestors by
carrying on this tradition
of exchanging goods and
ideas through my art.
— Lillian Pitt
She remembers one aspect
of it quite clearly: “Once my
hand touched the clay … I
knew!” This calling merged
with her sense of heritage,
and that combination gradu-
ally but steadily developed.
In time, it became a force of
nature within the art world of
the Pacific Northwest.
The Portland Art Museum
offers the finest collection
of Native American Art in
Oregon and beyond. These
works span both the North
American continent and its
history, from ancient times
to the current era. The works
of Lillian Pitt are displayed
prominently at the entrance
to the expansive collection.
The Museum at Warm
Springs has held exhibitions
honoring Lillian’s work and
displays her pieces at the
entrance to the Collections
Room. The High Desert
Museum also exhibits her
work. The Smithsonian’s
Museum of the American
Indian in Washington D.C.
and The Burke Museum in
Seattle, hold yet another
nationally respected collec-
tion of her pieces. The list
of awards, shows, and exhi-
bitions for Lillian’s career
is over three pages long.
Books have been written that
include her works; books
have been written about
her works. Her place as the
preeminent living Native
American artist of Oregon is
unquestionable.
These distinctions, how-
ever, may place a certain
kind of artistic perimeter
around Lillian, creating a
perception that her Native
American roots and artistic
traditions are what enabled
her to be so successful. While
she does not shy away from
those connections, a single
opportunity to see Lillian’s
pieces at a show, one chance
to meet her, quickly broad-
ens the perspective a person
might hold regarding her
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ability as an artist.
Lillian has come to under-
stand, incorporate, and mas-
ter many of the concepts and
techniques of contemporary
Western art. Her range of
media — glass, clay, metal,
jewelry, printmaking, multi-
media — establishes an
exceptional breadth of skills
for any artist.
“Everything I do, regard-
less of the medium, is
PHOTO PROVIDED
directly related to honor-
Lillian
Pitt’s
most
recent
work will
ing my ancestors and giving
be
featured
at
Raven
Makes
Gallery.
voice to the people, the envi-
ronment, and the animals,”
Pitt says. “It’s all about shared connections regarding
maintaining a link with tra- ancestral roots. These trav-
dition and about honoring els served to deepen her
the many contributions my own sense of place and
ancestors have made to this belonging to the Big River
world.”
of the Pacific Northwest,
Lillian has travelled far which she shares through
beyond the region of the educational funding and
Big River to New Zealand, projects.
Fiji, The Marshall Islands,
Her new works will be
and Japan. This came about on display at Raven Makes
for sharing, learning, and Gallery, 182 E. Hood Ave.
experiencing the tradi-
Pitt will be holding a
tion and art of their First show in Sisters June 22-24
Peoples. What she came with an artist reception on
to understand in these far- Friday from 4 to 7 p.m. and
off worlds, more than any- a presentation on Saturday
thing else, was the sense of from 1 to 2 p.m.
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