BASE to feature paintings by Yellowstone’s Indigenous artist-in-residence

EBS STAFF

Twenty paintings of artist DG House that tell the stories of the Yellowstone and Grand Teton ecosystems will feature in “In That Still Moment,” a show at the BASE Art Gallery that opens June 18. The show is presented by the Arts Council of Big Sky and runs through Aug. 3.

House, of the Alabama Cherokee NE tribe, has been painting for 27 years and has been Yellowstone National Park concessionaire artist-in-residence for 17 of those years. All of her pieces portray a lesson or an homage and feature a palette of vivid colors that endow each painting with a certain gravity, according to an Arts Council press release announcing the event.

“After 27 years as a painter, I’ve never run out of ideas. Each piece I create is based on a real-life encounter with perhaps a grizzly walking on a trail, a wolf hunting in a valley, or a moose feeding in the river. Whatever the interaction, each painting is a story,” House stated in the release.

House’s work uses several mediums: oil, acrylic, colored pencil, and more to show her reverence for natural life in the national parks, the release states. The colors House uses also honor indigenous art practices—she uses shades based on land-derived paints of the First Peoples of the Northern Rocky Mountains. 

Aside from living in Yellowstone, House has also been part of the Guest American Indian Artist Program for Grand Teton National Parks for her entire career. 

“Every artist is an educator. As a native artist, I believe I have my personal ancestors and all people who came before in my workspace with me. My heart beats a little faster every time I walk through the door of my studio. I never take my career and opportunities to make art for granted,” House stated in the release.

In addition to a number of different museums, House’s work is in permanent collections worldwide including Grand Teton National Park, Devils Tower Monument, and in the collections of musicians Sir Elton John and Sir Paul McCartney.