Teri Greeves
Encyclopedia
Teri Greeves is an award-winning Kiowa
-Comanche
-Italian
bead
work artist, living in Santa Fe, New Mexico
. She is enrolled in the Kiowa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma.
in 1970. Her mother, Jeri Ah-be-hill, owned a trading post on the reservation, while Greeves was growing up. "By repeating to customers what I heard her saying when she was selling to and educating the public," Teri says, "I unknowingly gained a broad knowledge of different beadwork from tribes around the US." Greeves took up beadwork at the age of eight. Although she is primarily self-taught, she also received instruction from Zeedora Enos (Shoshone
) and Calvin Magpie (Cheyenne
). Greeves attended the University of California, Santa Cruz
, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in American Studies in 1995. She has also studied at St. John's College in 1988 and Cabrillo College
in 1993.
. She strives to simultaneously portray Kiowa realities and oral history with her contemporary experiences. She is most known for her fully beaded tennis shoes, which feature pictorial elements on solid, hump-stitched backgrounds. Her humor is evident throughout her work, for instance, in her fully beaded high-heeled tennis shoes.
Reflecting on her tribe's traditions, Greeves said, "A long time ago, a Kiowa woman brought beadwork to her Kiowa people. She was compelled to express herself and her experience as a Kiowa woman of her day. My grandmother was a beadworker. She too was compelled to bead/express herself and her experience as a Kiowa living during her time. ... I must express myself and my experience as a twenty-first-century Kiowa, and I do it, like all of those unknown artists before me, through beadwork."
, Heard Museum
, Montclair Art Museum
, the Museum of Arts and Design, the Brooklyn Museum
, the Denver Art Museum
, the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology
, the Hampton University
Museum, the Heard Museum, the Joselyn Museum, the School of American Research, the National Museum of the American Indian
,
the Museum of Fine Arts
of Santa Fe, the Sequoyah National Research Center in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture
.
Kiowa
The Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma...
-Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
-Italian
Italian American
An Italian American , is an American of Italian ancestry. The designation may also refer to someone possessing Italian and American dual citizenship...
bead
Bead
A bead is a small, decorative object that is usually pierced for threading or stringing. Beads range in size from under to over in diameter. A pair of beads made from Nassarius sea snail shells, approximately 100,000 years old, are thought to be the earliest known examples of jewellery. Beadwork...
work artist, 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...
. She is enrolled in the Kiowa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma.
Background
Teri Greeves was born on the Wind River Reservation in WyomingWyoming
Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...
in 1970. Her mother, Jeri Ah-be-hill, owned a trading post on the reservation, while Greeves was growing up. "By repeating to customers what I heard her saying when she was selling to and educating the public," Teri says, "I unknowingly gained a broad knowledge of different beadwork from tribes around the US." Greeves took up beadwork at the age of eight. Although she is primarily self-taught, she also received instruction from Zeedora Enos (Shoshone
Shoshone
The Shoshone or Shoshoni are a Native American tribe in the United States with three large divisions: the Northern, the Western and the Eastern....
) and Calvin Magpie (Cheyenne
Cheyenne
Cheyenne are a Native American people of the Great Plains, who are of the Algonquian language family. The Cheyenne Nation is composed of two united tribes, the Só'taeo'o and the Tsétsêhéstâhese .The Cheyenne are thought to have branched off other tribes of Algonquian stock inhabiting lands...
). Greeves attended the University of California, Santa Cruz
University of California, Santa Cruz
The University of California, Santa Cruz, also known as UC Santa Cruz or UCSC, is a public, collegiate university; one of ten campuses in the University of California...
, where she earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in American Studies in 1995. She has also studied at St. John's College in 1988 and Cabrillo College
Cabrillo College
Cabrillo College is a public community college offering associate degrees and certificates in more than 70 fields of study such as: engineering, computer science, allied health , public safety, marine biology and the visual and performing arts. The college itself is named after the explorer Juan...
in 1993.
Artwork
Greeves employs a variety of beadwork techniques in her art. She uses a loom for beaded bracelets. Her larger pictorial work involved beads stitched onto brain-tanned deerhide, which she often mounts onto wood or other structures. For instance, she beaded a parade scene onto hide stretched onto an antique umbrella in her piece that won Best of Show in the 1999 Santa Fe Indian MarketSanta 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...
. She strives to simultaneously portray Kiowa realities and oral history with her contemporary experiences. She is most known for her fully beaded tennis shoes, which feature pictorial elements on solid, hump-stitched backgrounds. Her humor is evident throughout her work, for instance, in her fully beaded high-heeled tennis shoes.
Reflecting on her tribe's traditions, Greeves said, "A long time ago, a Kiowa woman brought beadwork to her Kiowa people. She was compelled to express herself and her experience as a Kiowa woman of her day. My grandmother was a beadworker. She too was compelled to bead/express herself and her experience as a Kiowa living during her time. ... I must express myself and my experience as a twenty-first-century Kiowa, and I do it, like all of those unknown artists before me, through beadwork."
Honors
Her beadwork and dedication to furthering Native American art has earned Greeves innumerable awards and honors. Greeves won Best of Show at the 1999 Indian Market and since won many more awards at the Heard Museum, Indian Market, and Eight Northern Pueblos Arts and Crafts Show. She was awarded the Eric and Barbara Dobkin Fellowship from the School of American Research in 2003. Her work is found in such public collections as British MuseumBritish Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
, 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....
, Montclair Art Museum
Montclair Art Museum
The Montclair Art Museum is located in Montclair, in Essex County, New Jersey, United States.-Collection:The Montclair Art Museum is one of the few museums in the United States devoted to American art and Native American art forms. The collection consists of more than 12,000 works...
, the Museum of Arts and Design, the Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum
The Brooklyn Museum is an encyclopedia art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At 560,000 square feet, the museum holds New York City's second largest art collection with roughly 1.5 million works....
, the Denver Art Museum
Denver Art Museum
The Denver Art Museum is an art museum in Denver, Colorado located in Denver's Civic Center.It is known for its collection of American Indian art,and has a comprehensive collection numbering more than 68,000 works from across the world....
, the Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology
Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology
The Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology is Brown University's anthropology museum. The museum has a gallery in Manning Hall on the university campus in Providence, Rhode Island. Its Collections Research Center is located in Bristol, RI .-History:...
, the Hampton University
Hampton University
Hampton University is a historically black university located in Hampton, Virginia, United States. It was founded by black and white leaders of the American Missionary Association after the American Civil War to provide education to freedmen.-History:...
Museum, the Heard Museum, the Joselyn Museum, the School of American Research, 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...
,
the Museum of Fine Arts
New Mexico Museum of Art
The 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...
of Santa Fe, the Sequoyah National Research Center in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture
Museum of Indian Arts and Culture
The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology is a museum of Native American art and culture located in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It is one of eight museums in the state operated by the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs and is accredited by the American Association of Museums...
.