Faye HeavyShield facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Faye HeavyShield
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HeavyShield giving an artist talk at the Eiteljorg Museum's 2009 Fellowship for Native American Fine Art
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| Born | 1953 (age 71–72) Blood 148, Alberta, Canada
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| Nationality | Kainai Nation, Canadian |
| Education | Alberta College of Art and Design, University of Calgary |
| Known for | Installation, sculpture |
| Movement | Canadian feminist art, contemporary Indigenous art |
Faye HeavyShield, born in 1953, is a talented artist from the Kainai Nation in Canada. She creates amazing sculptures and large art pieces called installations. Her art often uses many similar objects and words to make big, unique artworks for specific places.
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About Faye HeavyShield
Faye HeavyShield grew up on the Blood Reserve in Alberta, Canada. She was one of 12 children! Her father ran a ranch there. As a child, she went to a Catholic school. She learned both the Blackfoot language and English. Faye spent a lot of time with her grandmother. Her grandmother shared many stories about the Kainai people. The Kainai are also known as the Blood people. They are part of the larger Blackfoot Confederacy.
In 1980, Faye started studying art at the Alberta College of Art and Design. She later earned her degree in Fine Arts from the University of Calgary in 1986. In 2007, Faye helped create a show called "Legends of Kainai." It shared stories from the Blackfoot people of Southern Alberta.
Faye HeavyShield's Art
Faye HeavyShield's art often shows her life and the world around her. She gets ideas from the prairies, rivers, and wind in southern Alberta. Her childhood in the Kainai community also inspires her. She uses the past, present, and her imagination to create her art. Her works often connect to the human body, the land, and language.
When Faye started art college, she loved working with her hands. She enjoyed making sculptures and large installations. Creating these pieces made her feel deeply connected to the materials and ideas.
Sculptural Installations
Many of Faye's artworks are made for a specific place. One example is body of land, first made in 2002. For this piece, she placed hundreds of small paper cone shapes on a wall. These shapes look like tiny tipis. They are in shades of red, pink, purple, and brown. The colors come from magnified digital images of human skin. body of land shows how environments, communities, language, and history stay strong.
Faye's works often feature many similar objects. These can be the paper cones, small boats, or tiny squares of cloth. She often makes these delicate objects by hand. The process of creating many similar items, like dyeing cloth, is very important to her. Faye finds these repetitive tasks calming and a way to explore new ideas.
Indigenous Culture in Art
Faye's life on the Blood reservation and her Blackfoot heritage are a huge source of inspiration. These influences are always present in her artwork. In 2004, she created kuto'iis, which means "blood." This piece has hundreds of small knotted cloth balls attached to a wall. They are painted with red ochre. Like body of land, the knots are placed in a scattered way. Each knot represents a blood clot. The repeated pattern and the ritual of making the knots are like remembering stories, sounds, and home.
From 2007 to 2008, Faye studied Blood beadwork in museums. She looked at collections at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Royal Ontario Museum, and the Glenbow Museum. She noticed how these beautiful objects were stored in rows or on shelves. They often had only small tags. While studying, she thought about the people, mostly women, who made these objects. These artists were often related to her own family. One artwork from this study is hours (2007). It is a book with no words. It has twelve pages made of woven white seed beads.
Christian Symbols in Art
Faye's Catholic schooling and the importance of Christianity on the Blood Reserve also appear in her art. Drawings and sculptures inspired by the wimples worn by the Grey Nuns appeared in the mid-1990s. An example is heart hoof horn. She also used prayers in her installation now I lay me down. This piece showed semi-abstract fonts on a wall. It reflected Catholic rituals and prayers. now I lay me down was part of her 1994 exhibit "Into the Garden of Angels" in Toronto.
Feminism in Art
In the 1990s, Faye HeavyShield was a leader in the Canadian feminist art movement. Many of her works during this time explored ideas about women and womanhood. In 1993, she created sisters. This artwork was a circle of six pairs of high heels. The toes of the shoes pointed outward. The installation represented Faye and her five sisters. It showed the strength of women.
She used shoes again in 1994 for she: a room full of women. This piece brought together twelve pairs of women's and girls' shoes. They were spray painted matte black. This was the first time Faye used her own words in her art. She placed framed black and white panels over each pair of shoes. These words represented "everywoman."
Landscape Art
Faye grew up in southern Alberta, near two rivers: the Oldman and the Belly. She used to play in the Oldman River as a child. In 2004, she started taking photographs of the rivers. She then made black and white photocopies of these photos. She called this work old man is a river.
Faye has said that her time with rivers has been recorded through images, writing, and drawing. She explores how rivers influence our bodies and our histories. This connection to places and their textures has become important in her site-specific art.
The artwork old man is a river is shaped like a diamond. One half has encaustic images of prairie grass. The other half is a large digital print collage. It includes her thoughts written on it. This work was shown in 2005 at the Alberta Biennial.
In 2004, she created camouflage. This was an installation and performance piece. Faye placed stones and twigs from the Oldman River on the shore of the St. Croix River. These stones and twigs had photocopied images of the river and text from the Blackfoot dictionary on them. She left them there for nature to interact with. Three weeks later, most of the pieces had scattered or been carried away by the tide. This artwork was made on the 400th anniversary of Samuel de Champlain's arrival at the site. It showed ideas of moving things to new places and exchanging ideas.
Exhibitions
- Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists (2019), Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States.
- The Art of Faye Heavyshield (2022), a 40-year look back at her art, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina.
Notable Collections
Awards
- Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art, 2009, Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art
See also
In Spanish: Faye HeavyShield para niños
