Natalie Ball facts for kids

Natalie Ball (born 1980) is a talented artist from Chiloquin, Oregon. She is a member of the Klamath Tribes and also has Modoc heritage. Natalie creates many different kinds of art. Her work often mixes painting, sculpture, and textiles.

About Natalie Ball

Natalie Ball was born in Portland, Oregon. She is part of the Klamath Tribes. Her family also includes African-American, Modoc, and Anglo-American backgrounds.

Natalie is a descendant of Kientpaush. He was also known as Captain Jack (1837–1873). Captain Jack was a chief who led the Modoc people in the 1872 Modoc War.

Natalie's family has a history of art. Her grandfather was a painter. Her aunt, Peggy Ball, was a quiltmaker. In 1954, her family moved from Klamath lands to Portland, Oregon. This happened after the Klamath Termination Act was passed. This act ended the special relationship between the Klamath Tribes and the U.S. government.

Natalie Ball is a mother of three children. One of her daughters is named Lofanitani Aisea.

Natalie's Education

Natalie Ball studied art at several universities. She earned her first degree from the University of Oregon. There, she studied art and ethnic studies.

Later, she earned a master's degree. This was in Maori Visual Arts from Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand. Maori are the native people of New Zealand.

In 2018, she earned another master's degree. This was an MFA from Yale University School of Art. She focused on painting and printmaking there.

Natalie's Artworks

Bang bang (2019) at the Rubell Museum in 2021

Natalie Ball creates art using many methods. These include installation art, where art fills a space. She also does performance art, where she uses her body. Her work often includes mixed-media textile art, sculpture, painting, and printmaking.

Her textile art often combines sewn words with quilts and dolls. These pieces often connect to Modoc and Klamath history. Her aunt taught her how to make quilts when she was young. This inspired Natalie to explore different materials and traditional crafts.

In 2015, Natalie created an installation for a festival. It was called One Flaming Arrow Indigenous Art, Music, & Film Festival. This art piece was in Portland, Oregon. It used many items, like coyote heads and her handmade quilts. It also included old newspaper clippings from the 1800s. These clippings were about her great-great-grandfather, Kientpaush.

A local news group, Oregon Public Broadcasting, described the art. They said the fresh wood in her piece, "Mapping Coyote Black," made the gallery smell "thick and sweet with piney smells."

Natalie said about her art, "Everyone knows that Coyote is a trickster." She added that Coyote is "intelligent and powerful." She sees Coyote as a woman, representing herself as an artist.

Natalie believes being a mother is very important to her art. She says her work looks at how people think about "Indian identity." She is inspired by performance artist Coco Fusco. Especially by Fusco's piece "Two Undiscovered Amerindians Visit the West."

Natalie's Art Career

Natalie Ball's art has been shown all over the world. She has exhibited her work in places like Hungary and New Zealand. She was also part of the 15th Sharjah Biennial. This is a big art show that happens every two years.

In the United States, her art has been shown at many famous museums. These include the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Portland Art Museum. She also showed her work at the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts. In 2015, she created an installation called Mapping Coyote Black at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art.

Awards and Honors

Natalie Ball has received many awards for her art. Some of these include the Lilla Jewel Fund Award and the Santo Foundation Award. In 2016, she received the Joan Shipley Award from the Oregon Arts Commission. The Oregon Arts Commission also named her an Individual Artist Fellow in 2016.

In 2018, the Seattle Art Museum gave her the Betty Bowen Award. In 2019, she received a Golden Spot Residency Award. This was from the Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts.