FARGO — Fargo-Moorhead-based Anna Johnson is a printmaker, painter, mixed-media artist and owner of Flying 7’s Fine Art.
She’s also a connector.
“My big thing in my life is I connect people,” she says.
But ask her more about her art and you’ll realize her ability to make connections extends deeply into her skills, talents and interests in art and the preservation of her Native American roots.
Contributed / Anna Johnson
An enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa in Belcourt, N.D., Johnson connects the past with the present through art depicting myths and stories from her tribal heritage .
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“In my generation, we didn’t have these connections to our histories or our cultures that we should have,” Johnson says. “As I grew up and as I got older, I wanted to know more about things. When I started to learn more, I realized just how important it is to pass these things on to the next generation, because who else is going to?”
Recognized widely across the Midwest for her work in the cultural preservation of tribal histories, Johnson recently received a $15,000 grant from Waterers. Waterers is a group of “fund stewards whose vision is to radically transform the paradigm of ‘giving’ from a scarcity economy model to one of abundance and cooperation,” according to waterers.org .
The organization has funded $1.8 million fund to artists, with a particular interest in “culture bearers” working in Native nations.
Contributed / Anna Johnson
With her own funding, Johnson took time off from her work as a truck driver to paint a mural depicting the Chippewa’s Turtle Mountain creation myth onto a 26-foot-by-9-foot wall inside the country’s first tribal owned and operated Tribal Child Advocacy Center in Minnesota.
Operated by the White Earth DOVE Program , the advocacy center isn’t open yet, but Johnson hopes her mural, which she gifted to the organization, will create a colorful, inviting — and meaningful — experience for anyone walking its halls.
“It’s the first of its kind. There isn’t one on any reservation anywhere,” Johnson says.
DOVE, which stands for Down on Violence Everyday, provides shelter, community outreach, direct support services, safe harbor, residential facility support groups and services for elders.
“This advocacy center is going to be so important to do something for our own community to keep revitalizing things like that to the state that we should be able to take care of our own Native American children on our own reservations,” Johnson said.
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Contributed / Anna Johnson
A ready mix truck driver for Aggregate Industries, Johnson spends the months she’s not behind the wheel taking commissions for artwork, teaching art classes and volunteering for YouthWorks, the Indigenous Association located above the Katherine Kilbourne Burgum Center for Creativity at the Plains Art Museum, and many other organizations.
She also had a hand in the Roberts Street “Welcome to Fargo” postcard mural where she painted Ojibwe floral elements, hummingbirds and rabbits. She’s also designed for many community-based arts projects, such as utility box artwork and a park bench. Johnson also has permanent work at West Acres Mall and other high-traffic areas across the community.
While she doesn’t know exactly when the children’s advocacy center will open to the public in White Earth, she looks forward to a day when it will — and Johnson plans to continue creating more connections in the community, both with the people she meets and through the art she makes.
This article is part of a content partnership with The Arts Partnership, a nonprofit organization cultivating the arts in Fargo, Moorhead and West Fargo. For more information, visit https://ift.tt/2wgB0P5.
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Fargo artist brings creation myth to life inside first-of-its-kind tribal youth center - INFORUM
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