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ARTIST BIOGRAPHY/CURRICULUM
VITAE
Moses (Amik) Beaver
Moses (Amik) Beaver is a professional Aboriginal
artist from the isolated fly-in community of Nibinamik, (Summer Beaver) 500
kilometers north of Thunder Bay in Northern Ontario. He was born in 1960 at
Landsdowne House and relocated to Summer Beaver in 1975, when members of the
Landsdowne House community chose to break away and move into their
traditional territory. He spent much of his youth building his community and
working on his trap line with his family and extended family. He has lived
his life as part of a land based organic and holistic culture that in many
respects has remained unchanged. His uncle first suggested that he express
himself through drawing and painting as a way of sharing his response to
being alive, in his time, when he was fifteen years old
Moses is self-taught, his use of colour revealing. He works with acrylic on
canvas, Indian Ink on paper and watercolour. He is well known in the region
for his innovative representation of an interconnected world based in the
natural environment. While Moses’ work reflects the black lines of
traditional Woodlands art, he embraces his own unique style of embedded
images of spirits, human faces and animal forms, transcending physical
boundaries to the outer dimensions of the spiritual realm. In this his work
reflects symbolism, realism and abstract imagery. The images tell stories,
represent ancient teachings of his people and remind those who gaze on the
work, we are all connected to each other and the natural world.
Stories for the First Nations People have always been a major tool of
cultural transmission, holding the history, values, beliefs and spirituality
of the people. Through his paintings, Moses transcends the verbal
storytelling history of his People and enters into the realm of visual arts.
In this, he hopes his work will resonate and awaken an awareness that is at
once exciting and empowering, a way for all people to understand an
Aboriginal worldview. Within this context, story telling through colour and
imagery, he contributes to cultural revitalization, an awakening that
continues to gather strength among the people to express and share the
experience of being in and with the world, not masters of it.
Moses has worked as an artist on many projects, completing his first
commissioned work on his own reserve for the Nibinamik Educational Centre in
1996. To date this image is used on the schools letterhead. He also worked
for the Health Centre in Nibinamik in 2000, and at various of the annual
culture camps hosted on the land in the traditional hunting areas
surrounding the community. In 2004 he was commissioned to work with students
at the local school, completing murals on the walls. In June 2005, with
funding in part from the Ontario Arts Council, he again worked with students
completing a mural commemorating the history of Summer Beaver and its recent
move from Government to Band run education. In August, 2005 he was
commissioned by the Band to design a painting/logo for Nibinamiks new
tourist fly-in camp at Fish Basket. Moses was also commissioned in August
2004 by a division of the Thunder Bay Community Arts and Heritage Education
program to conduct a mask-making workshop with local youth from the Boys and
Girls Club. The youth danced with their masks on the final day and the masks
were put on display for a month at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery. He also
worked with youth through the same programming in August, 2005. Also in
August, 2005 Moses was commissioned to work with in-patient youth and design
a massive mural on the wall for Ka-Na-Chi-Hih, a specialized solvent abuse
treatment center in Thunder Bay funded through Medical Services Branch,
Health Canada.
Moses has worked extensively in schools with youth, both mainstream and
special education, aboriginal and non-aboriginal. These initiatives were
funded for the most part by the Ontario Arts Councils Aboriginal Artists in
Education and Artists in Education Programs. He has completed projects over
the past few years with the theme “story telling through colour and imagery”
with paintings, murals and masks in King Fisher, Pikangikum, St Catherine’s,
Fort Hope on a few occasions, Summer Beaver, twice in London, Ontario, Fort
Severn and Peawanuk, Grimsby, Ontario, Rocky Bay and also in various Thunder
Bay schools. Masks and murals from Moses’ mask making workshop with
aboriginal youth at Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School in Thunder Bay were
on display at Definitely Superior Art Gallery for the month of November and
December, 2004). Masks from the mask-making workshop with Grades 6 English
and French students at Agnew H. Johnston School in Thunder Bay were put on
display at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery for February 2005. The Thunder Bay
and District Catholic School, St. Thomas Aquinas, independently commissioned
Moses to offer three half-day art/culture courses to Grades 4, 5, and 6
students, as did Five Mile School in Thunder Bay. He also worked
independently with grades 5 and 6 students at Algonquin School for two days
in April, 2005. Projects funded by the Ontario Arts Councils Artists in
Education and Aboriginal Artists in Education for the 2005/2006 academic
years will begin in Ottawa.
Moses has worked in collaboration with a number of artists and art
organizations. He has, and continues to, work with Toronto’s Red Pepper
Spectacle Arts on a variety of community projects in Toronto, Nibinamik and
other communities. In Dec. of 2001 he participated in Red Pepper’s annual
“Festival of Lights” in Toronto . This festival is a joyous blend of visual
spectacle, popular theatre and celebration, annually uniting hundreds of
artists, musicians, volunteers, merchants and community members, creating a
Winter Solstice celebration in Toronto’s culturally rich Kensington Market.
Moses has also worked along side De-ba-jeh-mu-jig Theatre Group from
Wikwemikong. This group is a community based professional touring company,
which creates and produces works by and about Aboriginal people. Since 1995
the Company has been providing an outreach program to youth on reserves,
with a special focus on Northern isolated and remote communities where
opportunities for creative development are limited. Moses has been involved
with designing stage and set elements for the Company’s millennium project,
“New World Brave”. In the summer of 2003 he was involved in the training of
a group of 8 youth from the James Bay Lowlands, supporting a collective
creation with visual elements “Dreaming” at De-ba-jeh-mu-jig Theatre. He has
collaboratively led three community spectacle projects in Nibinamik over the
years, with Red Pepper and De-ba-jeh-mu-jig, providing workshops in mask
making, large puppet making, stilt walking and clay pit firing. The third
annual “Under the Big Sky” festival/parade was held in collaboration with
artists from Debajehmujig in September 2004, with that year’s festival
featuring a short drama inspired by the local legend of Windigo as depicted
by Moses in his artwork. In the spring of 2004 he collaborated with
Aboriginal musician Julian Nowgabow and together they did a flute/bone
making workshop with community members in Nibinamik, funded by the Ontario
Arts Council. In July, 2005 Moses received funding by the Ontario Arts
Councils Aboriginal Arts Projects to attend a two week Artists in Residency
program at Pukaskwa National Park. Here he had the opportunity to interact
with other Artists and completed a mural which was donated to the Park. As
well, he conducted three workshops building canoes from spruce roots and
other natural products.
Moses donated his time painting/overseeing a massive mural on the wall at
Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, for the Aboriginal Awareness Center during
aboriginal awareness week, March 15- 20, 2004. On June 21, 2004 Moses
participated in National Aboriginal Day at Old Fort William Historical Park
in Thunder Bay, painting on stage to songs by local Aboriginal singer Alice
Sabourin. He presented the painting to her as a gift. He also donated his
time to work with children of all ages building rock sculptures at the
Thunder Bay Pass Lake Fall Fair in August, 2004. On Februry 17, 2005 Moses
was invited to celebrate First Nations Public Library Week “Proud Past,
Proud Future” at the Waverley Resource Library. A grassroots initiative
started in 2000, citizens of Thunder Bay were invited out to celebrate and
“Paint with the Artist”. While recognizing the vital role of reading and
writing especially in today’s society, this workshop explored the Aboriginal
history of storytelling as one of the oldest forms of communication.
Following, a painting was created by Moses, with the assistance of workshop
participants, transcending the verbal storytelling history into the realm of
visual arts as a form of communication. This painting was donated to the
library as a permanent piece. In August 2005 Moses was invited to
participate in the three day Barrie 35th annual Kempenfest Festival, by the
MacLaren Art Center, with travel assistance from the Canada Councils
Aboriginal Peoples Collaborative Exchange. Along with Toronto’s 7th
Generation Image Makers, an interactive mural with local and international
visitors was completed and put on permanent display in the courtyard at
MacLaren Center.
Moses had some of his artwork on display at the Health Unit in Nibinamik
from 1997 to 2000, and at Toronto’s Red Pepper Spectacle in early 2001 to
2003. He has also displayed his paintings for short periods at numerous
venues across Ontario over the past three years while teaching art related
workshops with youth in schools. In August, 2003 Moses had his first solo
art show at GrannArt Gallery Inc. Thunder Bay, Ontario, where he continued
to display for another year. Moses’ also displayed in a group exhibition at
the same gallery, for the first annual, Black and White night in 2003,
followed by two group exhibitions with various local visual artists at
Mercedes Benz, Thunder Bay, Ontario. He had two paintings on display at the
Woodlands Cultural Center for both the 2004 and 2005 First Nations Art
Exhibitions. He was also featured in their Exhibition catalogues. Moses work
was also selected to exhibit in the “Dancing Through Time Fine Art
Exhibition” from Dec. 2004 – March 2005, at the MacLaren Art Center, Barrie,
Ontario, featuring 21 Great Lakes Region First Nations Peoples artwork. He
attended the opening ceremonies December 10, 2004, donating his time to do a
rock-sculpturing workshop on Dec. 10 at the Center for local youth. He also
spoke at the Barrie Area Indian Friendship Center to other Aboriginal
artists about the importance of collaboration. The Thunder Bay Chamber of
Commerce and Mayors Office have also had select paintings of Moses’ work on
display throughout 2004. On January 1, 2005 he was invited to display his
artwork at the Lieutenant Governor’s New Years Levee held in Thunder Bay at
the local Armory. It was with great pleasure that he created and presented
to the Lt. Governor a painting titled “Inheritance”. For the month of
February, 2005 twenty-five pieces of Moses’ work were on exhibition at
Definitely Superior Art Gallery in Thunder Bay, Ontario. In June, 2005 –
July 2005 one of his works were display at Definitely Superior Art Galleries
Members Exhibition, which featured works that investigated social, political
and critical issues of importance. From June 2005, until present, over 20 of
Moses paintings are on display at Thunder Bay’s Ahnisnabae Art Gallery (ahnisnabae-art.com),
in memory of renowned Aboriginal Artist Roy Thomas, this gallery features
his artwork and the artwork of a select group of other Woodlands artists
including Moses. Many of Moses paintings and pictures of projects he has
completed in the past couple of years are featured on his website at
www.mosesbeaver.com Also, www.lakesuperiorstore.com features the artwork of
Moses and crafts/flutes/carvings from the land of Nishnawbe Aski Nation.
Moses has been supported by various grants over the past three years. He
received an Emerging Artist Grant from the Ontario Arts Council (OAC) in
2002 and again in 2004. He was the recipient of numerous Aboriginal Arts in
Education Grants from the OAC over the past three years, including grants
from the Arts in Education Division, Aboriginal Arts Projects and Artists in
the Community. He was also the recipient of a Recommender Grant,
administered through the OAC in 2003. In June 2004 Moses received a grant
from the Aboriginal Arts Projects Department of the OAC to complete a series
of 6 paintings “At The Apex of Change”. These works explore the relationship
between a natural land based way of seeing informed by the dependency of the
urban environment and its resources from the perspective of past, present
and future. They will be on exhibition in select locations from September –
December 2005. Moses also received a travel grant from the Canada Council
for the Arts in 2001 and through the Aboriginal Peoples Collaborative
Exchange fund in August 2005.
Moses hopes to spend more time in Thunder Bay in 2005, working with youth in
the local schools and in various community projects, while continuing to
develop his own talent as an Artist. Since becoming actively involved in the
Thunder Bay arts community, he has had the honor of interacting with many
local artists and galleries, sharing life experiences, techniques and the
love of Art. He will continue to be involved in the development of the arts
in his own community and in other Northern Reserves, a task that is already
well under way. He is currently working as Illustrator for a series of 23
legends in a Legend Book with American writer Tamarack Song, which will be
published and distributed across Canada, America and overseas in 2006.
Following this, he hopes to illustrate a series of children’s books.
Moses has received a great deal of media attention surrounding his artwork
over the past three years, particularly in regards to his community and
educational work with Youth. He has been featured on a number of occasions
in the Wawatay, Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal, Anishinaek News, Ontario
Birchbark, London Star, Toronto Star, Niagara This Week, Sagatay (Wasaya
Inflight Magazine 2004/2005), The Hamilton Spectator and the Thunder Bay
Source. He was interviewed on CBC Radio in August 2003, and was featured on
Thunder Bay Television News for his Artists in Education work on October 6,
2004 as well as the local television news in Grimsby, Ontario in April 2005.
He was featured in the September 2004 edition of Transcending Boundaries, an
International Journal of Creativity and Connection (www.transformingboundaries.com).
Maggie Milne titled the article “The Art of Collaboration, The Man Behind
the Bird’s Eye”. Also, a portion of the mural he assisted students to create
at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay was on the January 2005 cover of
Transcending Boundaries.
Moses attended a training program March 26 – 28, 2004 on Art Means Business,
a 3 day career management training program for visual artists presented by
Visual Arts Ontario and Algoma University College in Sault St. Marie. He has
also attended numerous information sessions in Thunder Bay put on by the
Ontario Arts Council regarding their strategic plan to develop their
presence in the North. On September 25, 2004 he participated in the Thunder
Bay Community Arts and Heritage Education Project Trade Show at the Thunder
Bay Art Gallery. This show was an opportunity to bring together arts and
heritage organizations and individual artists with educators, business and
the community for programming in the arts. In February of 2005 Moses
attended the Ontario Art Councils Arts Education Professional Development
Day in Toronto, titled Legacy and Evolution; An Exploration in Creativity.
Moses would like to be involved in 2006/2007 in a National and International
Artists in Residency program.
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