S2E23: Allison Bremner (Tlingit)

Allison Bremner (Tlingit, '23 Cultural Capital Fellow) recounts the pivotal moments that led her to embrace her cultural heritage through art, like the sparks that flew at the Celebration dance festival in Juneau. Her words paint vivid pictures of her artistic evolution, from the early days of form line painting to her deeply respected mentorships. Allison candidly discusses the balancing act of a self-employed artist, from the thrill of commercial success to the profound duty of crafting traditional pieces for cultural ceremonies. She opens up about the support system that's crucial not just to survive but to thrive in this space, weaving a narrative that affirms the significance of community in an artist's life.

Chapters

• 0:03 Power of Indigenous Art and Culture
• 9:27 Celebrating Indigenous Artists and Culture

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

The myth of the starving artist isn't something that I would want any artist, let alone our people, to strive for. I would love it if artists felt good about making money and if they didn't find ways to give back to their community so that they can be successful doing what they love.

Speaker 2: 0:34

First Peoples Fund presents the Collective Spirit Podcast. The Collective Spirit moves each of us to stand up and make a difference, to pass on ancestral knowledge and simply extend a hand of generosity. The Collective Spirit podcast features Native artists and culture bearers who discuss the power of Indigenous art and culture.

Speaker 1: 0:59

My name is Allison Bremner. I am a multidisciplinary Tlingit artist with a focus on painting, and I'm from Yakutat, alaska, currently based in Washington state. So it was in, I believe, 2010,. I attended a biennial dance festival in Juneau, alaska, called Celebration, and it's just this incredible gathering where Native people from all over Southeast Alaska come together to dance, you know, and obviously to reconnect. But it was my first time to Celebration in a while. I had gone when I was a baby and a kid, but it was really my first time back as an adult and seeing our art come to life through dance, through regalia, through these massive masks. It completely changed my world Seeing our art come to life like that and I knew immediately that I had to be an artist. That very same day, I went to the local mall and I bought a little canvas and I did my first form line painting, which is our traditional system of two-dimensional design. I did my first form line painting of a sun and, looking back, the technical aspect of the form line I did was terrible because I had no training, but I'm still really proud of the feeling behind it.

Speaker 1: 2:30

After that initial experience where I knew I wanted to be an artist, I didn't know where to go from there, so I went the traditional art school route and I spent a year at Emily Carr in Vancouver, bc, and I really loved it. I have nothing but great things to say about the support that they give Indigenous students there. But I had one non-Indigenous professor tell me that this is the direction that Native art is going. This is where Native art will be in the future, and it didn't sit well with me, and so that was a sign that I needed to find a more traditional for lack of a better word traditional route of education, and I also wanted to learn our traditional arts like form, line and carving, and that's not something I was going to be able to learn at a university at that time, and I had the very good fortune from there of being able to work with David Albert Boxley and David Robert.

Speaker 1: 3:43

I have two sides to my practice. I have the commercial side, and that's the work that pays the bills and I put in galleries to sell and it's a little bit more contemporary. It's a little more humorous, definite use of what could be considered contemporary colors, and I do collage and mixed media things. And then I have the traditional side of my practice that the commercial side kind of funds where the traditional side are pieces that I don't put on social media. I don't put on my website because they are for traditional, ceremonial or cultural use Someone's regalia for dancing or something that a clan has commissioned for a potlatch or something for another clan to own and I don't post them because I don't feel like ownership of those pieces. It's just an honor to be able to help with that visual expression of the culture. I think the reception has been good because I balance it with the traditional side. So I might be out making a paddle with Burt Reynolds lying on a bearskin rug to sell, but then when I go home I'm doing other projects for the clans there and I think that balances things out.

Speaker 1: 5:12

Yes, I'll be really real and say finances as a self-employed artist can be pretty difficult. I really paid my dues and didn't make very much like the first 10 years that I was self-employed. Very much like the first 10 years that I was self-employed and the timing worked out well because I was single and didn't have kids at the time so I could live that lifestyle where I was just immersed in the art and learning and trying to build a career. I will say that the myth of the starving artist isn't something that I would want any artist, let alone our people, to strive for. I would love it if artists felt good about making money and if they didn't find ways to give back to their community so that they can be successful doing what they love. So something that helped me was finding peers in my art form who were very open and willing to talk about money and to give advice, and someone where I could ask hey, I have this upcoming project, what do you think about what they're proposing to pay me? And my friend would come back and say well, you should be asking for this and this. And I'm still working on thinking of myself as someone who can make money. So finances, taxes those would be the main things.

Speaker 1: 6:47

First People's Fund is, I feel, like one of the few big national organizations who are giving grants to artists to do what we love and help the community. So, starting out, I've always had First Peoples Fund on my list of places I wanted to work with, and so it was really neat to get to do the project that I did get to do with First Peoples Fund yes, I'm so excited to talk about it. So, as I mentioned earlier, I'm from Yakutat, alaska, which is about population 500. There is one school and you can't drive in, you have to fly in or take a ferry and it's the northernmost Tlingit village-5 students and do a 16 by 4 form line mural. And just a side note, I found, with applying for grant applications, the ones that I'm most passionate about when I'm like this is my dream project. I want to do a mural in my home village with the kids and share the art. It's not a project for a museum or a prestigious show, but the ones that I'm most passionate about tend to be the grants I tend to get.

Speaker 1: 8:31

I just got back from Yakutat and we did 10 days and it was just a dream. I had the K-5 students and all the teachers gave me a set schedule where I got to have a certain block of kids for a certain amount of time. I pieced the mural up into age and skill levels, so the kindergartners helped me paint the whole base white for the mural and then the older kids came in and helped with the more intricate parts of the form line and then the second and third graders came in and did the medium chunks of painting. But it was such a joy because that was my goal as an artist when I started was to go out, learn the art and then come back and share it. The mural ended up being instead of 16 by 4, just for the space that they had, we ended up changing it to 8 by 8. And I'm so excited they're working right now to get it up on the wall.

Speaker 1: 9:27

On the last day we had all the kids come in and sign their name on the back. We had eight Sharpies going. It was really fun and just such a treat. So thank you so much to First Peoples Fund for making it happen. Maybe to folks who are thinking about applying for a fellowship, definitely do it. I would say, if you don't get chosen on the first round, to try again, just keep going and keep pushing.

Speaker 2: 10:07

And when you do get it, it's all worth. It is to honor and support Indigenous artists and culture bearers through grant-making initiatives, culturally rooted programming, and training and mentorship. Learn more at firstpeoplesfundorg.