Page 21

Leo Neilson is one of the youngest of a growing group of successful Native artists based in Winnipeg.

The 27-year-old half Cree painter who signs his work "Sweetpea" didn't pick up

a paint brush until he was 16, as no one in his family was artistic. But the work of two artists got him started. One was Benjamin Chee Chee, whom he never met but whose innovative work he greatly admired.

Page 21

Leo Neilson is one of the youngest of a growing group of successful Native artists based in Winnipeg.

The 27-year-old half Cree painter who signs his work "Sweetpea" didn't pick up

a paint brush until he was 16, as no one in his family was artistic. But the work of two artists got him started. One was Benjamin Chee Chee, whom he never met but whose innovative work he greatly admired.

Page 21

Leo Neilson is one of the youngest of a growing group of successful Native artists based in Winnipeg.

The 27-year-old half Cree painter who signs his work "Sweetpea" didn't pick up

a paint brush until he was 16, as no one in his family was artistic. But the work of two artists got him started. One was Benjamin Chee Chee, whom he never met but whose innovative work he greatly admired.

Page 21

Leo Neilson is one of the youngest of a growing group of successful Native artists based in Winnipeg.

The 27-year-old half Cree painter who signs his work "Sweetpea" didn't pick up

a paint brush until he was 16, as no one in his family was artistic. But the work of two artists got him started. One was Benjamin Chee Chee, whom he never met but whose innovative work he greatly admired.

Page 19

Sam Warrior remembers when he began studying photography at college in 1980, many of his teachers wanted him to take all reference to his heritage out of his work.

"Native art wasn't considered art," he says. "I was either kitsch or artifact. If you wanted to be taken seriously, to play with the big boys, you had to take the Native element out altogether. Even the National Gallery in Ottawa didn't really accept Native art as art."

Page 19

Sam Warrior remembers when he began studying photography at college in 1980, many of his teachers wanted him to take all reference to his heritage out of his work.

"Native art wasn't considered art," he says. "I was either kitsch or artifact. If you wanted to be taken seriously, to play with the big boys, you had to take the Native element out altogether. Even the National Gallery in Ottawa didn't really accept Native art as art."

Page 19

Sam Warrior remembers when he began studying photography at college in 1980, many of his teachers wanted him to take all reference to his heritage out of his work.

"Native art wasn't considered art," he says. "I was either kitsch or artifact. If you wanted to be taken seriously, to play with the big boys, you had to take the Native element out altogether. Even the National Gallery in Ottawa didn't really accept Native art as art."

Page 19

Sam Warrior remembers when he began studying photography at college in 1980, many of his teachers wanted him to take all reference to his heritage out of his work.

"Native art wasn't considered art," he says. "I was either kitsch or artifact. If you wanted to be taken seriously, to play with the big boys, you had to take the Native element out altogether. Even the National Gallery in Ottawa didn't really accept Native art as art."

Page 18

A little gray at the temples and a few laugh lines hint that the tall, powerful man might be a little older than first guessed at.

Moses Bignell, 52, also strikes one immediately as a man who earned that touch

of gray honestly, through rough, hard work.

Bignell, the trapper, collector, actor, designer, mechanic, band councillor and community activist is a busy man indeed, but his real passion is art.

Page 18

A little gray at the temples and a few laugh lines hint that the tall, powerful man might be a little older than first guessed at.

Moses Bignell, 52, also strikes one immediately as a man who earned that touch

of gray honestly, through rough, hard work.

Bignell, the trapper, collector, actor, designer, mechanic, band councillor and community activist is a busy man indeed, but his real passion is art.