The other day I met with a professor at my university. I was very thankful that he set aside some time to meet with me, as professor are busy all year round. I had a great talk with him about things I wanted to do with my degree and some of the things I was interested in at the moment. I also told him that I was being commissioned to do a painting for a documentary. This opportunity I am very thankful for as well. He then shared with him that he was friends with Daphne Odjig. This is a lady whose work I had just seen the week before. Her work was being featured at a near by gallery called “Gallery Indigena” located in Stratford Ontario. I remember looking at her work and I noticed that it looked like a Picasso Style. He then proceeded to tell me that she was one of the few artists (actually 1 out of 4 in the entire world) that was asked to do a memorial painting in honor of Picasso. The only word I could think of at that time was: Amazing!

And you know what, that is amazing because I didn’t know this and probably not too many do. He also shared that she wasn’t all that “big” in Canada until recently. It’s a shame that artists don’t get noticed until “later.” Ms. Daphne is still living, but as he told me “very sick.” All I can say to that is, I am thankful to hear about all of this while she is still here. It is great because she is female and she is First Nations and she is from Wikiwemikong, Ontario. There are sooooooo many great First Nations people (not just First Nations females) to be proud of and I wish the rest of Canada knew about them or at least more people…not just Canada.

Anyways, I am writing this post to share to the rest of the world about something I am proud of: being an artist, female, and First Nations.

And to also share with the rest of the world, the lovely work and a great great great accomplishment of a First Nations Female who was born right here in Ontario.

You can check out her bio and some of her work at Art History Archive and some of her work at the Gallery in Stratford, Ontario online at Gallery Indigena.