News — custom art RSS

Heart Berry teamed up with Jessie Stomski, Pro Basketball Player, and the University of Minnesota to bring together athletes, our communities, and learning together this past week.

The narrative about Dakota and Ojibwe relations has always been told as singlularly one of conflict.  When St Cloud State proposed an art installation in their new American Indian Center, Heart Berry's artist Howes knew right away what she hoped for. "This area is so important as this place between our nations as Dakota and Ojibwe people. I really wanted to work with a Dakota artist on this project. Holly Young and I both loved the idea of sharing the story of the gift of the big drum from the Dakota.  The Big drum to me is such an Incredible gift of grace."  This pencil to digital collaboration pulls together the old stories with a modern installatin by Turtle Mountain sign...

“The Great Rice Race”  Mural by Heart Berry’s Sarah Agaton Howes now at the Duluth Children's Museum  Our mural shares the fun and work of wild rice harvesting, canoeing, and the animals that share our ecosystem (our earth) with us. Going ricing is a fun time of community, sharing, full of stories and hard work.  “I love to hear the stories the old guys tell of their amazing rice harvests or the time they tipped their canoe, this mural depicts the fun and also the work of this beautiful way of life.”  In the Great Rice Race, Rabbit and Turtle playfully race while Bear, tired from a long day naps on the canoe.  Fish and Otter watch the excitement while...

Heart Berry Artist Howes was asked, along with Dakota artist Marlena Myles, to create an image depicting how we protect the future.  The posters, and promotional materials created by the Native American Community Clinic in Minneapolis will promote the Covid-19 Vaccine for tribal communities.   "To be good relatives to our communities means taking care of ourselves on mental, physical and spiritual levels so that we can honor our elders' teachings and pass those down to the youth. We all are responsible for protecting our future generations by nurturing our youth and cherishing our elders through our own actions. This kind of compassion for others and ourselves is the blooming flower of life in each of us." Marlena Myles "I have...

Heart Berry's Howes "Bringing Back Mamahood" in new Headwaters Foundation for Justice Calendar "Transformation as an Anishinaabekwe is returning.  Every move has been made to remove us from our hearts, our lands, and our breath.  When we return to our ways, our language, and our ceremonies, and who we truly are we transform not into something new but into something ancient.  We become that which we grieved and raged and sobbed and longed for.  A memory. We are returning because our grandmother's kept themselves safe for us.  This is our work."   Howes draws on motherhood and her own work to reclaim her identity often in her art.  In the Ojibwe Floral Tradition, Howes was taught to use plants as...