Corwin Clairmont facts for kids

Corwin "Corky" Clairmont is a talented artist from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation. He is known for creating art in several ways:

• Printmaking: This is like making art using a printing press, often by carving designs into a surface and then transferring them onto paper.
• Conceptual art: This type of art focuses more on the idea behind the artwork than on the finished piece itself.
• Installation art: This involves creating a large-scale artwork that takes up an entire space, like a room, and often includes many different objects.

Corky Clairmont's art often has strong messages about history and current events that affect Indian Country (a term for Native American lands and communities). He wants his art to make people think and ask questions, rather than just giving easy answers.

I don't put work out that gives solutions but provokes questions. - Corky Clairmont

About Corky Clairmont

Growing Up

Corky Clairmont was born in 1946 in St. Ignatius, Montana, on the Salish Kootenai reservation. Even when he was young, he loved to create. His parents always encouraged him to be artistic. For holidays, family members would give him "paint by number" kits, which he didn't like and never finished.

When he was 15, Corky designed the tribal seal for his community. His design was chosen and is still used today! In high school in Polson, Montana, he learned about different art techniques. During his second year, he discovered how to paint with a palette knife and acrylic paint. This was his first real experience with painting, and it helped him decide to become a professional artist.

College and Beyond

Corky went to Montana State University and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree. Later, he continued his studies at California State University, Los Angeles, where he received a Master of Fine Arts degree in 1971.

His college experiences taught him about different art movements happening around the world. He was especially interested in artists like Joseph Beuys and John Baldessari because their work often focused on nature and the environment. After finishing school, he stayed in Los Angeles for a while, teaching art and helping with art programs at the Otis Art Institute.

Working for His Community

In 1984, Corky Clairmont returned to Montana and became an administrator at Salish Kootenai College. At that time, the college didn't have an art program. Corky took the lead and helped create a new arts department!

By 1989, he became the Director of Art Programming and Assistant Vice President, roles he still holds today. He even designed the college's art building, called "Three Woodcocks," which was inspired by a traditional Salish longhouse (a long, narrow house used by some Native American tribes). Corky lives in Ronan, Montana and is still very involved in his community, serving on important boards and committees.

Corky Clairmont's Art Journey

Gail Tremblay, another artist, describes Corky's work:

His work offers a door to revelation and gives indigenous and non-Indian people alike a space to reflect on the dynamics of culture in their lives.

Early Artworks

When Corky first started his art career, he created conceptual artworks, similar to the artists he admired. He often worked alone or with other artists, mostly showing his art in Los Angeles.

In 1979, he received a special grant called the National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts Grant. This grant allowed him to travel to seven different American cities and publish parts of a statement that said, "Support Subversive Art in Your Community," in major newspapers. He collected postcards and photos from these cities and sent them, along with the newspaper clippings, to important museums like the Whitney Museum of American Art. When put together, these pieces showed the full statement.

One of his early works, Los Angeles Sidewalk/Survival (1981), featured photographs of 12-inch squares of Los Angeles sidewalks. These pictures showed everything from grass growing through cracks to graffiti. On the back of each photo, he put instructions on how to survive difficult situations, like broken bones or even nuclear fallout. Through this series, Corky wanted to show how people in the countryside and in big cities experience life differently.

Corky's early art often explored ideas about nature and the purpose of art. He felt a sense of dislocation (feeling out of place) after leaving his Indian reservation home and moving to a big city like Los Angeles. His art helped him express these feelings.

Returning to Montana

In 1984, Corky Clairmont moved back to the reservation. He became very active in his community, joining tribal committees and working with local organizations. He also spent time learning about the history of Native American peoples and their relationships with early settlers, especially those on the Flathead Indian Reservation.

It's work that I feel is educational and is not just for the native community, but is for everyone that might want to get a better understanding of our Indian people. - Corky Clairmont

His research inspired two important artworks about the Treaty of Hellgate. This treaty was an agreement made a long time ago between Native American tribes and the U.S. government.

His first work was a small, wallet-sized card with the entire treaty printed on it in tiny letters. He gave these cards out and displayed them. The second work, Skunk Prairie Hellgate Treaty Rocks, showed the treaty text written in a spiral shape. Corky carefully wrote out all twelve articles of the treaty by hand. This process helped him feel a stronger connection to his community's history.

After writing the treaty by hand, Corky cut his copy into 50 smaller pieces. He then took these pieces to Skunk Prairie, a special area where the Salish Kootenai people traditionally hunted and gathered. He placed the cutouts under rocks covered in lichen (a type of plant that grows on rocks), showing the lasting connection between humans and the earth. He photographed them and left them there as an offering. The photographs were then placed into the cutouts of the mats, and the mats were displayed on a wall in the shape of an "X." This "X" represented the signatures of those who signed the original treaty.

Art in the 1990s

The 1990s marked 500 years since Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas. This led Corky to create a series of artworks called Submuloc Warrior. ("Submuloc" is Columbus spelled backward!) In this series, Corky used irony to challenge the way cities named after Columbus celebrate this anniversary, which for Native Americans, marked the beginning of colonization and genocide.

He also created the Grandfather Rocks series, which included two artworks. One was about the murder of a Piegan Blackfeet man by the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and the other was about the defeat of Chief Joseph. These artworks used photographs and text to encourage viewers to question how these historical events are usually told.

The "Animals' Bridge" on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana. This bridge helps animals like bears, deer, and mountain lions cross the highway safely.

During this decade, printmaking became a very important part of Corky's art. His monoprints (unique prints that can't be exactly repeated) and other prints often had many layers of meaning and images. This encouraged people to look closely and think about the symbols in his work.

For example, Turtle X's 93 used images of turtles, bears, birds, buffalo, trucks, cars, bulldozers, and photos of the Montana landscape and highways. Using bold colors and grayscale, he explored ideas about trade, transportation, and the dangerous effects that U.S. Route 93 had on the reservation and its wildlife. In this series of 10 prints, you can see how vehicles gradually outnumber the animals. Because of this issue, Corky worked with his community and highway officials to build overpasses and underpasses over waterways and roads. These structures allow animals to cross safely.

You can even watch video clips of bears, mountain lions, deer, and other animals using these wildlife crossings on Route 93. The Montana Department of Transportation reported that the "Peoples Way Project" on the Flathead Indian Reservation set a new standard for helping wildlife. It included wildlife fencing and many underpasses and one overpass for animals.

Art in the 2000s

A map showing the western trail of Lewis and Clark's exploration, which inspired Corky Clairmont's 10,000 series.

In the early 2000s, Corky revisited the topic of Lewis and Clark in his series 10,000 Years Indigenous Indian People, 200 Years Lewis and Clark. These Monoprints continued to use animal images like lizards, turtles, fish, eagles, hawks, bears, and horses. As you look through the prints, the animals disappear and reappear, representing the trail taken by Lewis and Clark from Bismarck, North Dakota to the Pacific Coast.

Corky also included photographs and parts of a map showing their journey. You can see Moccasin prints traveling through the artworks. These moccasin prints represent the soft-soled, natural shoes worn by Native peoples, which allowed them to feel the ground. In contrast, the hard-soled shoes worn by the explorers changed the way of life for Native peoples. This series was a serious look at the value of natural resources, the impact on cultures, and the land that was changed by the Anglo (European-American) settlement in Indian Country.

During this time, Corky also started creating new installation art. One piece, TIME X, used "artifacts" from gift shops – little trinkets he collected from his travels that were supposed to represent "Indians." He arranged them in a display that looked like an altar. Through this work, Corky questioned stereotypes and how the Lewis and Clark exploration is shown in gift shops and popular culture today.

In 2003, Corky received the Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art. His works TIME X, 10,000 Years Indigenous Indian People, 200 Years Lewis and Clark, Turtle X's 93, and Split Shield were all shown in a group exhibition at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art.

Art in the 2010s

In June 2010, Corky Clairmont helped design the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes veteran memorial with architect Paul Bishop. This special memorial is made of granite and shaped like a large eagle. On each side of the center panel, there are images of a male and female warrior on horseback, along with buffalos. Images of Salish and Kootenai camps are also shown on the eagle's wings.

The memorial panels have space for the names of over 2,600 Salish, Pend d'Oreille, and Kootenai tribal members who have served in the United States military. There's also an area for unknown warriors. To get ideas for the design, Corky talked with tribal elder veterans. After finishing the design, he showed it to different community groups for their approval. Corky said about creating the memorial:

I felt that the Creator and those we are honoring got to me somehow and influenced the concept I came up with. In reality my inspiration came from many forces. I just put what I see together. Even though this memorial is specific to our tribal veterans I can't help but believe that it honors all Indian veterans.

Important Artworks

• Emblem of the American Indian Library Association
• Tribal seal of the Salish-Kootenai
• Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes Veterans Memorial, 2010

Exhibitions (Where His Art Has Been Shown)

• Corwin Clairmont: Two-Headed Arrow/The Tar Sands Project
• Corwin Clairmont: Welcome to the Rez, 2009, Holter Museum of Art, Helena, MT
• Native Perspectives on the Trail, 2005, Missoula Art Museum, Missoula, MT
• Reflections After Lewis and Clark–Contemporary Native American Art, Montana Museum of Art & Culture, Missoula, MT
• Corwin Clairmont: Halfway Between Here & There, 2001, Missoula Art Museum, Missoula, MT
• Indian Reality Today, 1999, Westfälisches Museum für Naturkunde, Muenster, West Germany
• New Art of the West 5, 1996, Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, IN
• Contemporary Indian Art, 1995, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
• Treaty Times: Past, Present and Future, Missoula Art Museum, Missoula, MT

Notable Collections (Where His Art Is Kept)

• Missoula Art Museum, Missoula, MT
• Montana Museum of Art & Culture, Missoula, MT
• National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, D.C.
• Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS

Awards and Honors

• Montana Governor's Arts Award for Visual Arts, 2008, State of Montana
• Eiteljorg Fellowship, 2003, Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art
• National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts Grant, 1979, National Endowment for the Arts
• Ford Foundation Grant for the Arts, 1971, Ford Foundation
• Artist-in-Residence, Rutgers University

See also

• List of Native American artists
• Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas