Artist remains true to culture

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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."

Fortunately, a lot of that attitude has changed, to the point where Warrior has some of his own work in the National Gallery, as well as the National Archives and the Art Gallery of Ontario. But it's still a struggle to make a living as an artist.

"You really have to work at it, to become credible and get a reputation. You have to make yourself known just to get into the galleries and the markets, but you can't be too aggressive, because that turns people off."

Warrior is just beginning to earn the kind of reputation that will get him the sales and commissions he needs, but he realizes that being an artist today also means being a salesman and business manager. That's why he and his wife Linda, also an artist, are back in school again, taking business courses at the University of Lethbridge.

"Linda taught school here last year and helped us get through," Warrior says, "but eventually we'd both like to work at our art and be able to get by. That's why we moved back to Brocket - so we could try to become self-sufficient."

The couple and their 10-year-old son now live in a modest home, with some land and out-buildings, on the south side of the Peigan Reserve. Eventually, they hope to get a good-sized garden growing and raise a few animals, so they can be self-sufficient in food and reduce their costs. A small shed on the property has been turned into a studio, though Warrior says it's not used much in the winter.

Warrior's current work is in printmaking, or serigraphy. The technique uses silk or nylon fabric as a screen thorough which paint is pushed onto paper. Stencils or other agents are used to block off the portions of the paper that he doesn't want a particular color on.

On many of his prints, Warrior uses a clay and water mixture on the screen to get the mottled, earthy look he's after. Once the first color pattern is down, he cleans the whole thing off and start again for subsequent colors. In some areas he uses stencils to

get a more exact pattern.

"My work is really political," he says. "I'm mostly trying to produce an image that's pleasing yet reaches people on an emotional level. If I've got a political message,

I try to make it very subtle."

Though the artist has spent much of his adult life in the city, going to chool and working, he has strong roots on the reserve and in nature.

Of mixed Native ancestry, he grew up on the Peigan Reserve, but his father was

a direct descendant of Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce.

Through his grandmother, with whom he lived for many years after his father died, he learned a love of nature. From his mother, a Cree, he gained an appreciation for formal education. Both play an important role in his art.

Warrior showed his talent even as a child, and after graduating from high school, put together a portfolio of his drawings and got into the Alberta College of Art in Calgary. Here, he studied photography for four years, then went on to the University of Calgary, where he majored in printmaking in the Faculty of Fine Arts.

His obvious talent and willingness to learn brought him several scholarships and won him recognition in a number of competitions. In 1987 he was one of the five finalists in the Esso Native Art competition and later had some of his work accepted in the Esso Emerging Artists Collection in Calgary.

His work as both a photographer and printmaker has been shown in more than

two dozen exhibitions. He's now working toward a show in Red Cloud, South Dakota, scheduled for July 1993.