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About Smoke signals. (Grand Ronde, Or.) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 15, 2004)
Smoke Signals 7 OCTOBER 15, 2004 Native Artist Teaches Grand Ronde Elders To Water Color Sonny Warren-Ryan keeps his talents flowing to a grateful community. By Ron Karten When Sonny Warren-Ryan, now 69, was young, he looked forward to the cartoon section of the news paper. Warren-Ryan has a Native heritage but is not a member of any Tribe. "It made me happy," he wrote in a letter to the Smoke Sig nals office, "but at the same time there was a hole in my happiness because there were no cartoons about Native Americans." He has set about changing that with a cartoon character called Feather and a dream to see other Native cartoons begin to proliferate. . . . Ji- . v , S x t , ' . , j . ' ' f ' Elder Art Tribal Elder Arlene Beck's watercolor is on display at the Community Center, along with many other works by Tribal Elder students of Sonny Warren-Ryan. He has stopped at various places along the way to teach Native chil dren to draw cartoons. "I wanted Native American car toons to be a part of the Native American experience," he said. "I think maybe we take ourselves too seriously." He also believes the non-verbal communication of cartoons and pic tures in general is emblematic of the Native experience. "We spoke with pictures long before we spoke with words," he said. He draws new cartoons every day. He said that the political the ater all around makes for some good concepts these days. His cartoons appear in Indian Coun try Today and the Klamath News. Warren-Ryan also is an artist in many other me dia from pen cil to water color to oil paintings, and he is happy to pass on to oth ers all of his gifts. "(My works) are mostly in private collections," said the soft-spoken Warren-Ryan. "I don't paint to keep it. I paint to share it. That's probably why I don't have any thing," he said. "I never saw a coffin big enough to take much with you," he added. In the spring, Warren-Ryan led a well-received water color work shop for Elders here in Grand Ronde. The results are on display in the Community Center. "I enjoyed it," said Tribal Elder and Elders Committee Chairwoman Arlene Beck. Warren-Ryan described her as "my prize student. She did some exceptional work." She described his teaching style as, "Hands on, showing. I haven't been to school for eons, but he worked with us individually and made it a lot easier. He made it enjoyable," she said. "He wants to do another (class) and I've signed up again," said Beck. The original class came at the re quest of Elders who know Warren Ryan and his work, said Marion Mercier, Manager of the Education Sonny Warren-Ryan Division. Having heard interest in another class not only from El ders but from younger adults, Mercier said that in November, the division will let Tribal mem bers know that they are thinking about offering the class again, opening it to all adults with room for beginners and those who are developing as water color artists, "and see if anybody wants to sign up." Warren-Ryan does not charge for the class. "It's about the Tribe," he said. "It's not about me." H Tribal Youth Awarded Scholarship To Creative Writing Workshop In Michigan Spencer Olson wrote stories and poetry about his roots. By Ron Karten In his report about the cre ative writing workshop held in July at Kalamazoo Col lege, Tribal youth Spencer Olson, 14, wrote: "In the evening students shared writings with the community, I shared a story, 'The Dragon, the Monkey and the Coffee,' complete with differ ent voices for each character. I love to make people laugh." And he did, according to Amelia Katanski, English Professor at Kalamazoo Col lege and one of the organiz ers of the week long work shop. "I was really impressed by him. He was one of the younger students but you never would have known that. He was so mature. He read in all the different H ff "l I "It"" ft 4 Spencer Olson voices and had the entire audience laughing and enjoying themselves. He's an amazing performer." "The main goal of the workshop was to have students write about who they are, where they come from and where their imagination can take them," wrote Olson about the experience. With the success and the accolades, Olson was most taken by the value of learning something new. "The most important thing that happened was my discovery that I loved writing poetry," he said. "I've always liked to write stories and comedy but never been too interested in poetry. All that changed while I was in Kalamazoo." Olson was one of two Native youths from Oregon to be selected for the program, and the youngest of 20 Native high school students from across the U.S. to attend. All received full scholarships to the program. "We weren't looking so much for students with a lot of experience," said Katanski, "but for students demonstrating particular interests, that this Here is a poem Olson wrote at the workshop: I AM am from Douglas Firs and logging equipment I am from television and DVD's I am from laptops and desktops and cameras and phones I am from meat, cola, veggies, fries, burgers, water, popcorn and ramen noodles I am from school yellow, orange and purple I am from my room, the library, the teen center I am from collections, Legos, books I am from Wendell and Teressa I am from he who knew me before I was born and cleansed my sins in the blood of the lamb I am from snow, rain, blazing sun, cooling breezes I am from small houses and arcades Poor and rich I am from stuffed turtles, dogs and bears I am from those who lived here before the white man came I am from many things Spencer Olson was something they wanted to do intensively for a week." The workshop came about, said Katanski, because "we have several faculty members teaching courses involving Native American culture, but up to this point, we had not made a concerted effort to put that together and think about our commitment to the Native American community. This was our first effort." B
