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.
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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