Collective Spirit Podcast
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. The Collective Spirit® podcast is produced by First Peoples Fund, whose mission is to honor and support Indigenous artists and culture bearers through grant-making initiatives, culturally rooted programming, and training & mentorship. Learn more at www.firstpeoplesfund.org
Collective Spirit Podcast
S3E6: Terran Last Gun (Piikani Nation)
In this episode of the Collective Spirit Podcast, we sit down with Terran Last Gun (Piikani Nation), a 2020 Artist in Business Fellow and multidisciplinary artist. Terran shares the roots of his creative journey, the influence of family and community, and how he's transforming the traditions of ledger art into bold, contemporary expressions. Tune in for a vibrant conversation on innovation, cultural continuity, and the ever-evolving power of Indigenous art.
And I just really respect and appreciate they were interpreting our surroundings in these geometric forms, and so that's what I'm doing. I'm just creating new interpretations, new geometric forms and really, yeah, that's what I'm sharing with my audience, with anyone, you know, whoever wants to see my work and learn more about it.
Speaker 2:First People's 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. Welcome to the Collective Spirit Podcast, where we explore the stories, practices and creative journeys of Indigenous artists and culture bearers. In this episode, we sit down with Taryn Lastgun, a Pekani or Blackfeet artist whose vibrant and dynamic work pushes the boundaries of Pekani modernism. Based in Santa Fe, new Mexico, taryn draws inspiration from land, cosmos and cultural narratives, working across printmaking, ledger art and photography to shape a contemporary Indigenous visual language. A 2020 First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership Fellow and recipient of the 2024 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Award, taryn has exhibited his work in museums and galleries across the country. Today we'll dive into his creative process, how he navigates the evolving art world and how he remains grounded in his roots, family and community, while forging new paths in Indigenous art. Stay tuned for an inspiring conversation.
Speaker 1:Hello everyone. Hello Heidi, thank you for having me today. My name is Taryn Laskin. I'm from the Pikani Nation, also known as the Blackfeet Nation of Montana. We're members of the Blackfoot Confederacy, which includes three other nations from Canada Ghana, siksika and Bikani. So just to give some context into my background and where I come from, the Bikani people of Montana are Blackfeet of Montana. We got split in half and so that's why there's a Bikani in Canada as well. So I like to point that out, just to make clear that you know we were the same people, but we just got split due to the Canadian-US border. So when I talk about things related to my culture, I'll often say you know Blackfoot Painted Lodges, or even my Blackfoot name when I introduced myself is Sakwena Makka, which means Laskan. It was my great-great-grandpa, dick Kipps. One of his Blackfoot names that was transferred to me when I was about 10 years old, so I have a lot of respect for that name and carrying that on for my family. I was born and raised in Browning, montana. That's pretty much the capital of my nation, bikini Nation, and I've been living in Santa Fe and working since 2011. Came here to attend Institute of American Indian Arts and I finished up there in 2016 with a BFA in museum studies and AFA in studio arts and have continued to live down here in Santa Fe.
Speaker 1:The medium you know there's various mediums I work with. I consider myself a visual artist, working with different media such as printmaking, painting, and you know more. Currently, in my primary medium is ledger drawing, but within each of these mediums I'm using sort of this very similar visual language that I've developed over the years and so I've, you know, whatever medium it might be, I'm approaching it kind of the same way as the other medium or previous. So, yeah, that's what I'm doing now is just ledger drawing, which is using these antique documents, just regular ledger sheets, ledger notebook paper. Some of its government type paper, municipality, county, city documents and other stuff is like hotel registrar register or, like I don't know, bingo cards. Most of it is from the early 1900s up into the mid 1900s, 1950s, but also sometimes the paper I'm using is even older than that late 1800s, like 1889.
Speaker 1:And then I'm also using colored pencils, and so I use three high quality colored pencil brands whole bind, which is probably my favorite. That's the one I use the most because it's super velvety. Uh, favor castel, which is the second one I use the most. And then pablo uh, pablo color pencils. They're very like hard tips, so using them it takes a lot more. I mean, you could feel like the how, how much longer it takes to fill in a space with that colored pencil brand versus Holbein, which is just kind of fills in a lot quicker and easier to apply. But those are the. Those are like the materials I'm using. And then archival micron pens. So that's. You know, each ledger drawing starts with line work and it's all about the line work in the beginning and then after that it's all about filling it in, selecting color and then filling it in. But you know, that's, that's who I am, that's where I'm from, that's where you know I current, where I'm currently living, the mediums I'm working in and, yeah, just happy to be here.
Speaker 2:I'm wondering if, if we, you could just share a little bit about you know, how you got introduced to ledger drawing and maybe also include a little bit about like how if I'm not mistaken, it sounded like when you initially had attended iaia you were really like doing the museum track and then things kind of shifted. So if you could just talk a little bit about you know, your introduction to the medium and then also how things might have shifted as you progressed in your education.
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally. So I got introduced to ledger drawing through my father. My father's name is Terence Gardartopy and he does ledger. He's been doing ledger art for a number of years now well over 20 years so that was my first introduction to seeing how ledger art you know what it was even about and what my dad was doing or still does today in terms of focusing on cultural figures, these prominent people that are part of our history warriors, people part of our origin story the sun, the moon, morning star and so that was sort of my introduction not only into ledger art but also into, you know, my own culture and and learning about um Blackfoot art and and realizing that you know I was very curious about these geometric shapes my dad was using in his works these triangles, these circles, um discs, rings, clusters of, uh, like polka dots and these little mounds, and so I was always curious to like what those were, and that's what really got me into doing my own research and learning more about Blackfoot Painted Lodges and the way we interpret our surroundings through these geometric forms but also figurative forms. So that was really, you know, my father got me into like the art history of our own tribe, our own confederacy, and then also ledger art.
Speaker 1:And so ledger art, you know, it's really been around since, like the 1860s you know, maybe there's some earlier stuff than that, I mean anything earlier than that it really starts to go into hide paintings, lodge paintings winter counts. So you know, ledger art is very much reminiscent of those earlier forms of art that were already here in North America happening for thousands of years, and so I like to point that out to people when they talk about, when we talk about or ask it, when I get asked about, ledger art, you know, is that it's very much a continuation of other art forms that were already here present in North America, art forms that were already here present in North America. And then ledger art, you know just, it was about the materials they had at hand. You know, no longer hides weren't accessible. So a lot of these early documentations of ledger art came from Great Plains, warriors being incarcerated, and so there's a lot of good examples out of Florida, the prisons there, and really they were just documenting their changing worlds. So there was a lot of war scenes, warrior scenes, warfare, courtship, ceremonial gatherings, and then over time you could see how there were automobiles, cars, motorcycles, trains, yeah, all these things that, as we moved further into time, more contemporary things we were introduced to, those started to show up in ledger art, and so that's, you know, that's where I my dad kind of taught me a lot about those different aspects of ledger art and how it started with Great Plains people primarily, but now it's done by all Native people people primarily, but now it's done by all native people.
Speaker 1:Um, you know, there's a lot of different people working with ledger art and documenting and recording things that are part of, you know, their lives now, and so the it's evolved, you know, into many people using it now. Um, and so that's where I got some of my first sheets, too was from my dad, you know. He gave me some of my first documents and and then, being in I going for my museum studies. That for sure has influenced me as an artist and how I how I, I guess just operate as an artist.
Speaker 1:Um, that museum studies definitely plays a role in that, and so I I didn't really use my paper there for a bit, I was just keeping it, holding onto it because it just felt so precious and I was didn't want to ruin it, and so, um, I just had them stored away for for a number of years there before I started to like really work with work with them in 2020. That's when I really had my first show of ledger drawings was in 2020. But just to go back to what you had mentioned in terms of my educational uh path, you know, at journey at I, I, I went, I my dad told me about the museum studies program.
Speaker 1:He attended I? I for a few years and so he was a guy who introduced me to I? I. I had been to the campus one time during Indian market, when I came with him, I think it was like 2007 or something. So I was been to the campus and then so I was familiar with it a little bit.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I really wanted to pursue museum studies and I was really interested and still interested in collections, how people collect just historical items. I was mainly interested in historical collections, but II really introduced me to the contemporary side of collections, and so that's what got me to go to II was these different museum experiences I had while attending the Blackfeet Community College and going to different trips. Yeah, that got me really focused on, like, wanting to be involved with material learning about history, designs, all of that. And so I went to II to pursue museum studies and, yeah, well, there I, one of my instructors encouraged my class to take an art course, and so that's what I did. I took color theory and I just really fell in love with the being. I guess just being creative and being in that creative act was very rewarding, and so I just continued to take art classes, the intros ones that I could take and eventually I was like you know what I think I'll? I want to pursue an AFA at least, and so that's what I did.
Speaker 1:And I focused on printmaking, more specifically screen printing, that's the out of the techniques. I was really drawn to that, and then also photography. So those were my two focuses. That's what I learned in terms of classes. I took a lot of printmaking and a lot of photography and after graduating I just decided to pursue art you know, the art career rather than museum. I did a lot of museum work as a student. You know I worked at Mokna a lot, did exhibitions, um, worked in the collections there for a bit art and all of that kind of stuff at ii. So yeah, all of that experience. If I hadn't gone to ii, I wouldn't be pursuing art right now and I wouldn't be, you know, operating how I do, if I wasn't for that place.
Speaker 2:So yeah, well, thanks for sharing that and I guess we'll just get right into it. You know you're talking about sort of coming from this family lineage associated with ledger drawing. Of course, your father is quite well known in his own right, you know, and you have this close association. So I'm wondering, given that your work is deeply rooted in Pekani visual traditions and ledger art, yet it also embraces contemporary aesthetics, how do you navigate the balance between tradition and innovation in your artistic practice?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I, you know, growing up I in Montana, browning, is very rural, we're two hours away from any city, and so my outlook and view on art was I old, you know, native and settlers encountering each other, scenes like that, like CM Russell, all of those you know, that's what art is in Montana, and so that was my view on art. And if you were trying to be an artist, you had to do art like that. That's how I viewed it. And even being an artist, you know, I never wanted to be an artist growing up. That's one question I'd always get Are you going to be an artist like your dad? So it's funny how that has come full circle and I am pursuing art. But, yeah, even I thought art had to look like his art too. You know, if I was going to be an artist, my art had to look like what my dad was doing. But but he always made clear to me that, you know, I could do whatever I want. And you know, ledger, art doesn't just have to look like what he's doing, it can be whatever. And so I, after getting to ii and working in the collections and seeing that there was actually natives doing really cool contemporary stuff you know innovative for their times too, like looking at, in terms of the collection spanning 50 years, contemporary art, that really opened my eyes to being like, okay, actually you can do art differently, you can do it like this. And then, eventually I got introduced to non-Native artists that remain some of my favorite artists today, such as Frank Stella, carmen Herrera, and these artists that were, and even Jeff Kam, the late Jeff Cam Neil Parsons, who's also from my community you know, there's these, there were these artists that were working with really large, you know, color field paintings, the hard edge paintings, and just very geometric.
Speaker 1:And so I think after that, I was like, okay, you know, these guys are doing just purely geometric shapes, and and one thing that I was doing well at II in terms of printmaking, I was trying to figure out like, well, what do I do? And, um, you know, I I just overheard some people encouraging to look at your own community, look at your own cultural art history, and even Lloyd Keevanew, and reading some of his quotes and thoughts you know of, of at least embracing where you come from. And so that's what I did at first, and so, and it was the painted lodges, the geometric shapes, I was just really drawn to those and have done my own research, have collected material about them, taking my own photos. And you know, my dad's a lodge painted lodge owner. Some of my instructors at Blackfeet Community College they're painted lodge owners and so definitely have gotten first-hand knowledge about them and they're not just like these decorative painted lodges that you would see and be like oh, that's nice art. You know, these are very, um, personal to those lodge owners. It's, they're very, they're like a small bundle. I consider them alive. You know, those art, it, it, once it's transferred and goes through that transfer ceremonial process, it becomes activated and alive and and the way you act around it changes. And so I I was really drawn to those and specifically the geometric shapes.
Speaker 1:And you know I just realized that we were doing these, uh, geometric, creating geometric forms of visual expression and also interpretation of our surroundings. You know we had been doing that for hundreds, thousands of years and I was just like this is so cool. You know a lot of people think that I get asked, you know, am I inspired and influenced by Western movements, you know, such as those artists I had mentioned that are non-native? And yes, I am. I'm very much drawn to those movements and those genres, but also my own tribes, and that we were already using these types of visual forms, and so that's what I kind of latched onto. A lot of those forms are very repetition and almost like a pattern at the bottom, because there's like multiple triangles or multiple mounds or multiple circles, disks, and so I worked with it like that.
Speaker 1:At first I was like taking it literally from the lodge and working it in multiples and creating landscapes, and after a while I was like you know, I don't want, how can I? You know I've always been drawn to abstraction, and so I was just like how can I further abstract and sort of reduce these? You know reduction and minimize some of you know minimize it, I guess and so over time it started to become just one shape, and that's what I focus on nowadays too is I'm just giving this single shape prominence, and I think that really comes from growing up in Montana on the plains. There's often these buttes that are out on the plains. They just look like islands and they're just very prominent landscape, um landmarks out on, out on the territory, traditional territory too, and so those types of experiences, um, I guess, you know, help me kind of navigate, creating and being an artist and and I'm constantly reading, I'm constantly collecting books.
Speaker 1:I think that helps with staying innovative and fresh and keeping the ideas rolling um and just being out in the world. You know, I'm like road signs, I don't know, just different things that attract me will eventually sort of remain with me. If it's that impactful and kind of, I'll work with it in different ways, and so I'll see shapes out in the world, I'll see color schemes, um, out in the world that I'll eventually start using. And and just lastly, you know, to end on this one, um, and I think what I'm doing too now I, so I I'm always comparing, making comparisons or parallels with the how people have painted these lodges and how they middle part, like my dad, um, you know these they're animals, they're weather elements, they're rocks, um, and so a lot of bee gunny artists, black feet artists.
Speaker 1:You know they'll work with all of that and because we were so like just connected to the world around us and and these painted lodges are like world views of that, but yeah, the work nowadays is really gone more into, rather than land and cosmos, which I've always been focused on, it's starting to lead more into personal experiences and how those experiences are making me feel. So I'm trying to um, yeah, the work is going based on these personal experiences. Now, and even the titles you know the titles are all based on what's happening that moment in time, and I spend a lot of time on my titles too. I just write down whatever comes to mind and they're like little poems, I guess you could say.
Speaker 2:I just really love how you were talking about these painted lodges and I was kind of looking at a bunch of historic images as you were talking and I like how you were talking about them as being spaces that can be activated.
Speaker 2:You know that they're not just these spaces where people occupy and or that they're decorations, right but that they serve like a very significant personal and cultural community purpose. But I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about how color and geometry play a significant role in your work and if you could share how your use of bold colors and geometric abstraction connect to your heritage. I know you talked a little bit about that as far as, like how it's related to these painted lodges and has a direct relationship to sort of the abstract images that your community has been using since forever. Did you want to talk a little bit more about how your work which I would consider to be a slight departure in some ways, like it's definitely still connected, but I guess maybe learn a little bit more about how you're applying these things in your work today?
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally. You know, a question I have here in my studio is written down on a post. It is like how do we relate to color and how do we relate to form or shapes? And that could be personally or collectively, you know, as a tribe, as a nation, and over time, you know, I've interpreted that different ways. But color-wise, in terms of our painted lodges, you know, there's only like five colors that are mainly used and it doesn't just apply to the painted lodges, it applies to our war bonnets, our war shirts, um, different things that we were, that we've created, are still creating too, and you, you'll see different hues of yellow, different hues of red, blue, green, black and white. Those are the colors you see all the time on our painted lodges and sometimes it might kind of go out from that, but it's pretty much the primary colors green and black and white, and so I've used those colors a lot over time.
Speaker 1:But once I started doing ledger drawing, ledger art and working with all these colored pencils, that really expanded my color theory knowledge and and how, how I think about color relativity, how colors interact with each other. But I all of a sudden I had all these different colors to use and pull from and and what's nice about? When I run out of a color, you know I can just go to artists and and get a few more of that same color. So I'm I'm constantly I'm able to work with the same color and over and I'm constantly. After I finish, I document my colors too. So I have a sketch pad and I'll write, fill in a little square of color and write the name, the brand, date it, when I used all of these colors. So every time I finish a project I document all of the colors, been able to remember all these color names and sort of start interpreting the. When I'm out in everyday life I'll see certain colors and you know I'll be like that's whatever chartreuse green or lavender blue or you know whatever tiger lily like. So I think that's really interesting how I based on documenting colors, how I've been able to sort of see those colors out in the world now.
Speaker 1:But I I was taking this class or helping present in this class at the Blackfeet Community College and one of the elders that was in charge of it, leonard Weasel Traveler. Somebody asked him like you know, is there certain colors that we use? Or you know, is there certain colors that are just black feet or black foot. Um, and he gave a really cool story. He told a really cool story about Noppy, who's one of our trickster. Um, I consider him like a sub creator, but he's a trickster and always like moral of the story, you know, type, character, and there's a story of him in the rainbow and he either like roped the rainbow or something, um to that story. But he just said you know, you see all those colors in that rainbow. Um, he's like all we use, all those colors. You know all of the colors and the rainbow is what we use. And so I always thought that was really cool too to hear you know, because I think often, as a younger person from my community, who's not, you know, who doesn't know that type of knowledge? That's more cultural and traditional. Um, and just seeing colors that we use, I would think like those are the only colors we should use, like the ones I mentioned, the primary black and white. But just hearing that story he told and and saying that you know all the colors in the rainbow, you know those are all the colors we use, and so I really took that kind of seriously in terms of my studio practice and I just started to use all different colors, tints, tones and shades of these. You know main colors and and that's really expanded my color in terms of what I'm doing right now and these color schemes I'm creating, yeah, they're just, it's really expanded over the years, especially with ledger drawing.
Speaker 1:And then the shapes, you know they go back to again those painted lodges. You know geometric abstraction or even indigenous abstraction. You know geometric abstraction or even indigenous abstraction. You know those are ideas that I've come across as an artist, and even Jeff Cam would talk about indigenous abstraction. But there was a really great write up I read about Australian artists and how they're. They talked about indigenous abstraction, you know, being there but also around the world, talked about indigenous abstraction, you know, being there but also around the world, and it's just these, these forms of interpreting and documenting their cultures, and so what looked like just polka dots all over was actually a map, and so I was like this is.
Speaker 1:You know, this is really cool because this is what I'm sort of doing um, um, you know this isn't just this sort of simple or randomly put together shapes and colors. You know I'm I'm actually trying to, um, capture, interpret things that I come across or experience. Um, so, yeah, I guess, looking at my own tribe and how they interpreted our surroundings through triangles, because we live right next to the Rocky Mountains, I always tell people, you know, yeah, we're plains people but we're also mountain people just because we lived right on that boundary and a lot of our resources are in the mountains and a lot of our resources are in the mountains, but yeah, they are just in turn. And then our creator, the sun as a circle, the moon as a circle too, but sometimes a half crescent morning star is like this cross symbol, and then circles or clusters of circles, is constellations, specific ones sometimes, and then just stars, and I just really respect and appreciate that they were interpreting our surroundings in these geometric forms. And so that's what I'm doing.
Speaker 1:I'm just creating new interpretations, new geometric forms and really, yeah, that's what I'm sharing with my audience, with anyone whoever wants to see my work and learn more about it. I'm hoping the titles give a little. The titles are really the artists, my thoughts about the work, and so, yeah, that's the shapes. For sure, that's what they're. I've stuck with the geometric forms and lately I've done a little bit more organic looking forms, but mostly it's hard edge geometric forms just because I feel they create order and balance and organization. That's what it makes me feel like working in this geometric manner.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I like how you're talking about it in the context of like you're just building upon a pre-existing vocabulary that existed in your community. You're just adding to that, which I think is makes total sense. You know something I wanted to ask you about is? You mentioned that your work is shifting to include more daily or contemporary reflections and experiences, but then you also mentioned the initial reason behind ledger work being created from antique and or archival paper. Why, then, do you continue to use archival and antique papers as a component to your work? Do you feel like it's necessary, and how does it inform your work shifting into more contemporary themes?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I. One thing I really enjoy about ledger art in general is that, you know, they, they, a lot of artists, continue to use these old documents and what's really cool about about them is, um, you know, the, the penmanship, I guess, and the dates they come from. Uh, that's something I'm more interested in, not so much what the document it is, uh, but more so like the dates, because I am I'm always thinking what was happening during those times, you know, and it's a lot of atrocities and hardships and obstacles. You know we're already forced on reservations, the bison are nearly eradicated, our hunting grounds, you know, are taken away from us, and so I continue to use these documents because it feels like I have this piece of history from that time that was really hard for us and all of a sudden I'm like a hundred years later and I'm repurposing it and reinvigorating it, giving it new life, um, and basically just reinserting ourselves into this larger North American narrative that you know, most Native people have always reclaiming, and I don't know even sovereignty or survivance. Those types of words come to mind when I'm working with this, because these papers have their own life and a lot of these old documents have watermarks that are from East coast paper mills that are no longer in existence, and so there's even that's a whole nother layer to the work is that and it's, you know, part of American history and all of a sudden it's like in my hands, I. So I really think that's interesting and I think about that a lot when I'm working with these old documents, how people from the time this document came from, our ancestors, probably wouldn't have access to this government form, this city form, receipt, whatever it might be, and all of a sudden today we do. But yeah, so there's this.
Speaker 1:I like working with that old material. For that reason it feels very historical and fragile, it feels extra important versus printmaking, stonehenge paper, archival, you know, like working with these other drawing papers that are really good too, that are, you know, really good too, but yeah, these ones, I I think just it's, it's really cool just to work with this different type of material and and put this completely new contemporary um form on a visual form that's done in colored pencil. Uh, I think the aesthetic of colored pencil is really cool too. That's why why I've continued to work with that and a lot of the first ledger drawings they're all done in colored pencil or crayon or pen. So I've kind of stuck with that original way of creating, just because I really like the aesthetic and how it looks.
Speaker 1:And my father, he's the same way. He gave me some of my first colored pencils and that's all he uses, too, is colored pencils to create his work, whereas some artists today they'll use more like acrylics, maybe even oil, maybe even sort of these archival marker-based inks. So you know, you see the ledger, art has definitely changed over time, but I really like those original materials that people were using and creating these different looking forms that are for sure still continuation, continuum, but new that are for sure, still continuation, continuum.
Speaker 2:But but new, something that you mentioned earlier was how you continue to participate. I mean, you're doing so much right now, right like you're, you're in these um exhibitions, everywhere, um, and I think one thing that has been a continuous presence also is your ability to continue to show at places like Indian Market. So I'm wondering you talked a little bit about like how you don't necessarily quite fit in to the categories but that you continue to place at markets like Swaya, for example how do you navigate the tension between classification and artistic freedom? What do you think needs to change in the way Native art is categorized and understood?
Speaker 1:No, that's really a great question. And yeah, like I had mentioned in the beginning a little bit in terms of Swaya, you know, entering Swaya, which you know is the largest native market here in the united states, even out there, I would say, in the world, and super prestigious and has been around, you know, over 100 years now and, um, my first year getting in was in 2019. I wasn't doing ledger art that time. I was doing more serigraphs and screen printing, um, so that's what I had started out entering. And then in 20, I guess after 2020, when you know they had done the virtual thing, um, which I participated in and I think I entered a ledger one for that, but I think it was 2022 was when I finally got back in and entered a ledger piece.
Speaker 1:I did this diptych ledger drawing that I hadn't been seeing. Like my father, he collages a lot of documents on larger documents and he's really well known for that, but I hadn't really seen people combining like large sheets and creating diptychs or triptychs, um, and so that's something, you know. I was like, well, this is pretty neat in that there's a, a best of show, you know that you can enter. So, as an artist, I was like, well, that's, I want to participate in that and I want to submit something that I feel is, you know, pushing my own self as an artist, but also the medium I'm working with and that I'd be entering. And so I chose to do this diptych piece, creating a, this huge sort of window, black and white, super high contrast color scheme that I went with and I got first place in in my, my category and I think I got even like my best of class or something like that, the lower one that you can get, and so that was really cool because that was sort of just, I guess, for me acknowledgement of you know what I'm doing people are seeing, gravitating towards that, some people at least, at least those judges uh, felt enough to award me first place for that and and so that was really great, and so I was like, well, I just gonna continue to to submit work like this, even though the definition says, you know, it's more representational and that's so true to ledger art. History is that, yes, it did start out like that and people continue to work like that.
Speaker 1:But to me, the general, the umbrella sort of definition is of ledger art is documentation and recording, and that's what I'm doing, and even before I got into ledger art with my printmaking, I was recording and documenting landscape scenes that I would come across or star stories that I would hear. Um, yeah, and so I. I think that's why I gravitated towards ledger art, um, you know, so intensely at first was because it was another form of documenting and recording, and so that would be my argument is that I'm, you know, ledger art is that's what it's about. It's about recording our changing environments, our changing landscapes, our changing experiences, and this is what it looks like today, is what I'm doing. And so, yeah, I think, you know I.
Speaker 1:And then I've heard people say like, not directly, but other people have told me, like my dad, just, that people are like, well, you know what is this guy doing? Or what is this? You know what is this? Isn't ledger art, maybe, I don't know. I just think that we need to Like they're just trying to control that definition and keep us herded herded altogether, like cattle or something for this medium and I always just go back to oscar howe's letter to the philbrook museum. You know that's what he was saying is like we need to be able to express ourselves and not do what you think is native art, and so I think, as natives, we're trying to say this is native art now to ourselves, and so I think that's really interesting too. But, you know, I don't.
Speaker 1:I just keep creating based on, in terms of Swaya and Best of Show, something that I feel is pushing myself, you know, and it's all about just me pushing myself as an artist and and knowing that, yes, I am going to submit this work to that show, and knowing that, yes, I am going to submit this work to to that show, um, but yeah, it's more about just like, what am I doing? How can I? It gives me a chance, though, to push myself. I mean, it does give me a chance to go larger. That best of show, uh, each year, I've gone larger. So the first year was a diptych lat.
Speaker 1:The year after that, which was 2023 was a triptych, this huge piece, and then last year I submitted this quadriptych using four sheets, and all of these are framed together. So it's also a challenge to work with framers in terms of what I'm asking for, because these are all floating hinge, you know, they're not matted, so they, when I, when I, when I dropped these off, it's very like I want it to look like this and I've learned a lot to work with framers too. I mean, I would say that for sure. I've learned so much about framing and working with different frame shops.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah, you just touched upon so much, especially that comment related to like how I've often found because I think a lot of the stuff that I'm pursuing is non-conventional or not necessarily, uh, associated with like quote-unquote native art uh and I've often found too that like it's often non-native folks that are the least flexible in terms of understanding or recognizing what is and isn't Native art, but that folks from our own communities are like generally fine with it. So in that way, like it's a little bit frustrating, little bit frustrating, but also I feel like at ease with it too, because I'm like we can laugh about it at the end of the day, because we know, like you know, it still gets the green light from our own community, you know so then you know it's like okay, I'm just gonna keep doing whatever we're doing, you know so you know just these things that keep me rolling as an artist, as a full time artist.
Speaker 1:I was teaching at II and I took the semester off because I have so much going on. So you know, I taught three semesters serigraphy one and serigraphy two and just this semester I was like you know, I have have a lot of opportunities rolling right now in my career that I just need to focus on and trying to teach and be an artist and pursue. The amount of projects I'm trying to pursue was just so hard. But I'm very grateful for the teaching experience I got because you know that's something I would be interested in doing again down, further down the road. But people can always follow me on Instagram and Facebook. They're both just at Taryn Laskin, my website. You know I am pretty good at making sure I update my happenings and what's going on.
Speaker 2:The Collective Spirit podcast is produced by First Peoples Fund, whose mission 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. Bye.