Shining Lights
in conjunction with Strong Unrelenting Spirits by Tom Jones, a special feature of works by Karen Ann Hoffman, Judith L. Jourdan & Sadie Cheyenne.
September 8 - October 15, 2023
Karen Ann Hoffman is a Haudenosaunee Raised Beadwork artist, citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, and member of the Turtle Clan. She has had the benefit and good fortune to learn beadwork as a student of Samuel Thomas and the late Lorna Hill, both of Niagara Falls, Ontario. Her work is in the permanent collections of many fine caretakers, including the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, to mention only a few. Karen was a National Heritage Fellow in 2020 and a Unites States Arts Fellow in 2022. She lives, beads, hunts, and forages on the edge of the Fogarty Swamp in Central Wisconsin.
Judith Jourdan’s work featured in Shining Lights is inspired by her extensive research at the Royal Ontario Museum, her studies with Sam Thomas, the sharing of designs with her by Rosemary Hill, and the Glengarry caps of the Scottish settlers. For over 30 years Judith has been among those artists actively seeking to restore the knowledge and skills of beadwork amongst the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin. She is nationally recognized for her intricate, and sometime, life-sized dolls, many of which are in held in permanent collections; even her traditional name, Kaya?tuishlu.ni, means She Makes Dolls.
Since childhood, Sadie Cheyenne has loved to create things and explore the world around her. Art has always been a constant in her life beginning, perhaps, when she took second place at an art show in kindergarten! This exhibition highlights Sadie’s painted turtle shells, something she began working with in 2021. Sadie says of them, “The turtle plays such an important role in the Haudenosaunee Creation Story, so I feel a strong connection to them and developed a desire to honor their sacred shells by incorporating them into my artwork.” This past June, she received her Oneida name at Strawberry Ceremony. Her Faithkeeper chose Kah<t^tha (Ga-hun-dun-ta) as Sadie’s Indian name, which translates to “she drops meadows”. The Faithkeeper felt it was a perfect fit because her artwork is almost always vibrant and full of life.