America Meredith
Encyclopedia
America Meredith is a Swedish
-Cherokee
painter, printmaker, and lecturer living in Santa Fe, New Mexico
. Her work is known for its humorous approaches to social and environmental issues and for combining Native American and pop imagery.
author and American Indian Studies professor, and Mary Ellen Meredith, a Cherokee museum director and curator. Meredith's maternal grandfather was William Thomas Milam, a Cherokee photographer and aeronautical engineer from Oklahoma
. W. T. Milam's uncle was J. B. Milam
, the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation
, and his great-uncle was Will Rogers
, a Cherokee humorist, actor, and movie producer. Meredith was named for Will Roger's mother, Mary America Schrimpsher Rogers.
During much of the 1990s, Meredith worked as a bike messenger in San Francisco, California
, where she was active the International Longshore and Warehouse Union
Local 6's organizing campaign of the Bay Area urgent delivery industry.
Meredith earned her AA at City College of San Francisco
; her BFA in painting from the University of Oklahoma
in Norman, Oklahoma
; and her MFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute
in San Francisco, California
in 1995. She also attended the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma
in Chickasha
and the Institute of American Indian Arts
in Santa Fe, New Mexico
.
, gouache
, watercolor, and egg tempera. One art series, The Cherokee Spokespeople Project, involved handmade paintings and drawings illustrating Cherokee words reproduced as spokecards, which were distributed to cycle couriers and cyclists worldwide.
) in 2010. At Ahalenia Studios in Santa Fe, Meredith and other Native American art
ists, such as Melissa Melero (Paiute) and Sam Haozous (Chiricahua Apache), curate shows "too edgy, too silly, or otherwise inappropriate for other local galleries."
s Best Painter award. She was award a Cultural Equity Individual Artist Grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission, and she participated in the National Museum of the American Indian
visiting artist fellowship. She has won numerous awards in juried art shows at the Cherokee Heritage Center, SWAIA's Santa Fe Indian Market
, the Heard Museum
, and others, including the 2007 IAIA Distinguished Alumni Award - For Excellence in Contemporary Native American Arts.
Swedish American
Swedish Americans are Americans of Swedish descent, especially the descendants of about 1.2 million immigrants from Sweden during 1885-1915. Most were Lutherans who affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America ; some were Methodists...
-Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
painter, printmaker, and lecturer living in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
. Her work is known for its humorous approaches to social and environmental issues and for combining Native American and pop imagery.
Background
America Meredith was born in 1972 to Howard Meredith, a CherokeeCherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
author and American Indian Studies professor, and Mary Ellen Meredith, a Cherokee museum director and curator. Meredith's maternal grandfather was William Thomas Milam, a Cherokee photographer and aeronautical engineer from Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
. W. T. Milam's uncle was J. B. Milam
J. B. Milam
Jesse Bartley Milam was the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation from 1941 to 1949.-Early life:J. B. Milam, as he was commonly known, was born on May 10, 1884, near Italy, Texas to Sarah Ellen Couch Milam and William Guinn Milam, both Cherokees...
, the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation
Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation
Principal Chief is today the title of the chief executives of the Cherokee Nation, of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, and of the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, the three federally recognized tribes of Cherokee. In the eighteenth century, when the people were organized by clans and...
, and his great-uncle was Will Rogers
Will Rogers
William "Will" Penn Adair Rogers was an American cowboy, comedian, humorist, social commentator, vaudeville performer, film actor, and one of the world's best-known celebrities in the 1920s and 1930s....
, a Cherokee humorist, actor, and movie producer. Meredith was named for Will Roger's mother, Mary America Schrimpsher Rogers.
During much of the 1990s, Meredith worked as a bike messenger in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, where she was active the International Longshore and Warehouse Union
International Longshore and Warehouse Union
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union is a labor union which primarily represents dock workers on the West Coast of the United States, Hawaii and Alaska, and in British Columbia, Canada. It also represents hotel workers in Hawaii, cannery workers in Alaska, warehouse workers throughout...
Local 6's organizing campaign of the Bay Area urgent delivery industry.
Meredith earned her AA at City College of San Francisco
City College of San Francisco
City College of San Francisco, or CCSF, is a two-year community college in San Francisco, California. The Ocean Avenue campus, in the Ingleside neighborhood, is the college's primary location...
; her BFA in painting from the University of Oklahoma
University of Oklahoma
The University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...
in Norman, Oklahoma
Norman, Oklahoma
Norman is a city in Cleveland County, Oklahoma, United States, and is located south of downtown Oklahoma City. It is part of the Oklahoma City metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, Norman was to have 110,925 full-time residents, making it the third-largest city in Oklahoma and the...
; and her MFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute
San Francisco Art Institute is a school of higher education in contemporary art with the main campus in the Russian Hill district of San Francisco, California. Its graduate center is in the Dogpatch neighborhood. The private, non-profit institution is accredited by WASC and is a member of the...
in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
in 1995. She also attended the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma
University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma
The University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, or USAO, is a public liberal arts college located in Chickasha, Oklahoma. It is the only public college with a strictly liberal arts-focused curriculum in Oklahoma. It provides Bachelor's Degrees and many students move on to graduate schools across...
in Chickasha
Chickasha, Oklahoma
Chickasha is a city in and the county seat, business and employment center of Grady County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 15,850 at the 2000 census. Chickasha is home to the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma and hosts an annual Festival of Light celebration located at...
and the Institute of American Indian Arts
Institute of American Indian Arts
The Institute of American Indian Arts is a college focused on Native American art. It is situated in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It is congressionally chartered, and was created by an executive order of former American President John F. Kennedy in 1962...
in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
.
Artwork
Meredith paints with acrylicAcrylic paint
Acrylic paint is fast drying paint containing pigment suspension in acrylic polymer emulsion. Acrylic paints can be diluted with water, but become water-resistant when dry...
, gouache
Gouache
Gouache[p], also spelled guache, the name of which derives from the Italian guazzo, water paint, splash or bodycolor is a type of paint consisting of pigment suspended in water. A binding agent, usually gum arabic, is also present, just as in watercolor...
, watercolor, and egg tempera. One art series, The Cherokee Spokespeople Project, involved handmade paintings and drawings illustrating Cherokee words reproduced as spokecards, which were distributed to cycle couriers and cyclists worldwide.
Art career
Besides creating her own art, Meredith curates shows such as the 2006 Frybread and Roses: Art of Native American Labor and Freedom of Information: The FBI, Indian Country, and Surveillance, which she co-curated with Ishkoten Dougi (Jicarilla ApacheJicarilla Apache
Jicarilla Apache refers to the members of the Jicarilla Apache Nation currently living in New Mexico and speaking a Southern Athabaskan language...
) in 2010. At Ahalenia Studios in Santa Fe, Meredith and other Native American art
Native American art
Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the visual artistic traditions of the indigenous peoples of the Americas from ancient times to the present...
ists, such as Melissa Melero (Paiute) and Sam Haozous (Chiricahua Apache), curate shows "too edgy, too silly, or otherwise inappropriate for other local galleries."
Honors
In 2006, Meredith tied for SF WeeklySF Weekly
SF Weekly is a free alternative weekly newspaper in San Francisco, California. The newspaper, distributed throughout the San Francisco Bay Area every Wednesday, is published by Village Voice Media, a 16-paper alt weekly newspaper chain that also includes the New York City Village Voice and the Los...
s Best Painter award. She was award a Cultural Equity Individual Artist Grant from the San Francisco Arts Commission, and she participated in the National Museum of the American Indian
National Museum of the American Indian
The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum operated under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution that is dedicated to the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of the native Americans of the Western Hemisphere...
visiting artist fellowship. She has won numerous awards in juried art shows at the Cherokee Heritage Center, SWAIA's Santa Fe Indian Market
Santa Fe Indian Market
Santa Fe Indian Market is an annual art market held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA over two days on the weekend after the third Thursday in August and draws an estimated 100,000 people to the city from around the world. The Market was first held in 1922 as the Indian Fair and was sponsored by the...
, the Heard Museum
Heard Museum
The Heard Museum of Native Cultures and Art is a museum located in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. There is also the Heard Museum North Scottsdale branch in Scottsdale and the Heard Museum West branch in Surprise....
, and others, including the 2007 IAIA Distinguished Alumni Award - For Excellence in Contemporary Native American Arts.
Notable exhibits
- 2009-2011 Intrigue and Novelty. Aurora University and Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, Chicago, Illinois.
- 2010 The Cherokee Spokespeople Project. The Chapel at the Cherokee Heritage CenterCherokee Heritage CenterThe Cherokee Heritage Center is a non-profit historical society and museum campus that seeks to preserve the historical and cultural artifacts, language, and traditional crafts of the Cherokee. The Heritage center also hosts the central genealogy database and genealogy research center for the...
, Park Hill, Oklahoma. - 2009 United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues Art Show. United NationsUnited NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
, New York, New York. - 2007 At the Crossroads. Oklahoma State CapitolOklahoma State CapitolThe Oklahoma State Capitol is the house of government of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It is the building that houses the Oklahoma Legislature, and the meeting place of the Oklahoma Supreme Court. It is located along Lincoln Boulevard in Oklahoma City. The present structure includes a dome that was...
: East Gallery, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. - 2006-7 Face to Face: Portraits by America Meredith. Wheelwright Museum of the American IndianWheelwright Museum of the American IndianThe Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian is a museum devoted to Native American arts. It is located in Santa Fe, New Mexico and was founded in 1937 by Mary Cabot Wheelwright, who came from Boston, and Hastiin Klah, a Navajo singer and medicine man....
, Santa Fe, New Mexico. - 2007 Do Not Park Bicycles: Aboriginal Cycling Culture. Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Brandon, Manitoba, Canada.
- 2007 American Icons through Indigenous Eyes. District of Columbia Arts Center, Washington, DC.
- 2005-7 Impacted Nations: Energy Development on Tribal Lands. Traveling exhibit.
- 2006 Native Pop. New Mexico Museum of ArtNew Mexico Museum of ArtThe New Mexico Museum of Art , the oldest art museum in the state of New Mexico, is one of four state-run museums in Santa Fe...
, Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Personal
Meredith serves on the board of the Cherokee Arts and Humanities Council, a grassroots community organization based in northeastern Oklahoma. She is active in the movement to revitalization indigenous languages. Meredith says she sees indigenous tribal people as "the future, not the past, in our globalized world."External links
- America Meredith, artist's official site