Topic Three: Rhinoceros, Part Two

This reading really messed me up and it definitely effected the way I viewed this assignment. I was so disgusted with our society and how we used even photography to screw entire nations of people over and perpetuate stereotypes and misconceptions. More than anything it made me re-evaluate myself. What do I really know about Native American people? There are natives of Africa, Australia, South America, North America, and we treat them all like crap even now. And what am I doing to help them or to change that? I think I'm an ally to Native American people as if I have some sort of insight others don't, why? Because I listen to a now mainstream music group that just happen to be Native American, I'm interested in this "mysterious" culture that isn't mine, I listened to what a few Indigenous people had to say and read some articles? That's not woke, that's just not being a horrible person and living my life. What have I done for these people we royally screwed over? Nothing. What can I do? It's not my story to tell and I do not want to be like Curtis, appropriating another culture with a white face at the head of a movement and dealing with things I don't understand resulting in more misconception and stereotypes.

If I hear one more person mention that Native Americans do not pay taxes I am going to scream in their face! First of all, all these "privileges" Native Americans supposedly get only go to people living on their sovereign land within reservations. Secondly, not all tribes were formally recognized so not all Native people actually get those privileges. Thirdly, we wiped out ENTIRE TRIBES of people. Fifth, ONLY SOME NATIVE AMERICANS ON RESERVATIONS DO NOT PAY AMERICAN TAX! Of course they don't! They are their own country! We are living on their stolen land! They have their own government! One wouldn't visit Canada and be upset that they are not paying American Tax so WHY THE HELL would we expect that of Native Americans. Lastly, THE DAKOTA PIPELINE AND STANDING ROCK PROTEST ARE PROOF THAT WE ARE STILL STEALING THEIR LAND! HOW DARE ANYONE SAY THAT THEY ARE PRIVILEDGED! Most don't get free school, they don't get free government aid, they do not live on their land care free; and you know what? After everything we have done to them, they absolutely should get all that. It is the very least we could do and we STILL cannot even keep the promises we have made to them.

I need to figure out a way to give these people a platform and get us all to listen so that they can get this power and identity, which we robbed them of, back for themselves. As part of a marginalized group myself I can understand their plight but as an outsider I can only understand to an extent. I need to make sure I educate myself as much as I can, stop as much misinformation as I can and find a way to help give these people a voice. 



There were 4 descriptions given to us for our assignment. I may have come up with something WEIRD if it were not for the fact that we were told in class that these were actual historical texts. Now, I DID NOT look any of these texts up but I figured that they had to be creatures that actually exist if these were real descriptions and I made educated guesses. Creature 1 sounded like a Hippo to me. Creature 2 had me absolutely stumped. It could be an eel, an aquatic lizard of some sort, a slug, a frog, a sea cucumber, Lord only knows. Other 1 was so racist I was shocked. It could have been any number of indigenous peoples. My thought was something related to the United States and my initial reaction was to think of the people of Hawaii. That did not seem to quite match the description and I have heard "red skins" as a slur for Native Americans almost my entire life. There's even a sports team named after that so I assumed it was referring to a Native American tribe right after Christopher Columbus invaded America. (We as a country really need to address that.) Creature 2 also had me stumped for a bit because of the diction used. Being from Florida, my initial guess was alligator but reading it a few times and knowing limited history I thought it could be something more lizard like such as a Komodo Dragon.

I went with Creature 1: The assumed hippo.

 

References used: (I did more research but these were the main 2 I used)

 

These were my sketches.

 

I decided to just go with a more normal Hippo. I used a non-photo blue to do the initial sketch on Bristol paper and then did a wash and some layers in water color before going over with some crappy color pencils. (My art materials are mysteriously disappearing so I was forced to use my brother's Crayola color pencils - I hate Crayola with a passion.) Forgive me, as I seemed to keep forgetting to take photos of my process which you will see below.

 

 

 

 

 And I went with other 1: The assumed racist description of Native Americans.

I initially was going to use my Original Character (OC) Nathaniel - the restless one. I had originally created him because I wanted more diversity and representation in my characters but I hardly do anything because I am absolutely terrified of offending people. I thought this would be a good opportunity to use him so I did a few sketches.

 

(This is a commission I got of my character so that you have a better understanding of what he looks like - I use it as my phone wallpaper because I love it so much)

 Then I thought better of it. I decided that it would be problematic or at the very least not be appropriate to use this OC I created before the knowledge I have now so I thought about how else I could draw something without offending an entire group of people while only using a racist text. Then I remembered that historically Native American tribes had multiple genders, the most common of which is known as TWO SPIRIT. This was something I had some minor knowledge about because of research I did when I was first coming to the realization that I myself am non-binary transgender. So I did extensive image searches and read a bunch of articles (screen shot-ing and printing out the ones I found most useful) and came out with the sketch you see below. (Unfortunately I spend the most time thinking about and researching this topic and I think this sketch turned out better than the following attempts.)

 

Research and Inspiration:

I spend the entire time I did this listening to "A Tribe Called Red" on my Spotify (I thought it appropriate).

I researched articles on Two Spirit meaning, traditions regarding Two Spirit individuals, and prominent Two Spirit figures. Here are the 3 I printed and found most useful.

 

Here are some of the Images I used as reference, including We'Wha - the Two Spirit political representative of her Tribe who met with President Grover Cleveland who did not realize she had been born a man, as well as other two-spirit individuals and other female Native Americans in "traditional" garb.

 

 

I had intended to draw some Jewelry or some Floral hair pieces but the description did not mention any of that and that would go into where is this made up individual from and are they being accurately representational so I avoided it.

 

Again, I really dropped the ball on this one and kept forgetting to take photos.

I used non-photo blue again for the sketch, added some light brown color pencil in the areas I wanted to shade, and water color for a base start. Curtis made all the photos he took of Native people seem very stoic so I decided to make sure she was showing some form of expression not typical of the photos he had taken. She wasn't allowed to have eyebrows or eyelashes so I had to gave the impression through shading later on but she is lifting a brow at the viewer and lifting the corner of her mouth almost as if the viewer was the odd one out (that was the attempt anyways).

 The description mentioned "red" skin but no one actually has red skin so even though I attempted to add red tones into the image, I decided to use a red background as a contrast for what the color "red" actually looks like. Also I read an article about a two spirit woman cutting her inner-upper thigh and eating foods that would give her stomach aches in order to fake menstruation with the other woman and the red now had a story other than "red for blood" and it satisfied me.

 I went over the skin areas with marker. Unfortunately by brown skin tones (which I keep separate from my peach skin tones) have also mysteriously vanished and I am growing concerned there may be thievery going on in my home.... I was left with 3 shades of brown (which I had kept separate from my last use) and 2 were pretty similar in shade and the other was dying and several shades lighter.

I added several layers of color pencil in varying shades of red, brown, magenta, yellow, ochre, etc...

I added the words "Two Spirit" in 2 colors with marker (it created a shadow effect) and it was a direct reference to a gender the is specific only to Native Americans which I was trying to touch upon. 

I filled in the eyes and the lips. I feel like maybe I messed up on the shape of the breasts as well as the color in the cheeks and shape of the eyes. Though this drawing came out better, my coloring attempt fell a bit short. Opposed to questioning you with playful authority, she is now glancing at you almost shyly, putting the viewer in a position of power which I did not want. But I feel that even mistakes are important to show because even if this does turn out to be offensive (which I really hope it is not) then it means this is something that the class can point out to me and I will know exactly where it is I specifically messed up and how I could have addressed it differently or more appropriately and I can take this as a learning opportunity. (But if this does turn out to be offensive then I'm burning it.)

  I finished the hair with marker, color pencil, and water color in SEVERAL layers.

I added some white on a final layer as highlights over the hair, eyes, and nipples.