The Watermark of the Artist Tom Gatash is remembered and re -imagined Eugeboy Luvayez

For one artist from North Minnesota, the painting is a work to connect and evaluate both personal memory and traditional OJIBWE community.

Tom Grach said his last work, “Wild Rice Manoomin Moon”, began a plate aimed at helping people understand the importance of wild rice harvest. Gamache grew up harvesting the same rice, first with his father, and then with his best friend.

"Gamache said: “I was still trying to convey that this had done before colonialism.”

This painting is part of the “13 Moon Series”, a group depicting the roads that the Anishinaabe people were supposed to gain before the European and American settlement. Along with its “DOOODEM Series”, more than twenty work is now exhibition within the Miikanan exhibition at the Watermark Art Center in Bemidji.

Gamache, a member of White Earth Nation, grew up in the town of Cass Lake – East Bemidji. He graduated from Bimidji State University with a certificate in technical clarification and commercial art. It was after his retirement from a long profession, he turned to his work that depicts Oujiboy.

Gamache described “13 Moon series” as a “big calendar”.

In one plate, a small group of people put a hunting network under a layer of ice lake. Another plate shows a child whose cheeks swell from eating a lot of berries. In another, a man stands in reverence looking at the northern lights. In every scene, the same time is abundant.

While his work reaches hundreds if not thousands of years in the past, Gamache is struggling with his short -term memory.

A decade and a half ago, Gamache suffered from severe heart pain, followed by Stroke after days.

Gamache’s wife has become a spokesperson for her husband. The couple has been married for 47 years. She described her husband’s experience in a statement she read at the opening of the exhibition in mid -June.

“A few years ago, Tom drew the” Wild Rice Manoomin Moon “painting.

I went to describe how the drawing and drawing helped him to recover.

"He had to learn to read and write again," Lori Gatash said. “His ability to draw was not affected, and he has already used this ability to communicate with us while his speech was distorted,” said Lori Jamash.

She said that her husband wants to honor the people who knew her growth, regarding a story about an elderly man, Oujepy, whom Jamach reminds of his youth in the fifties.

“When the night came, you can find it in the mail office that bombed the large mailbox abroad using it as a drum. He was singing the songs in Oujiboy,” Lori Jamech said. “Tom thought about how to lose language and culture. I motivated him after years to draw” Manoomin Moon “.

Gamache said that remembrance and paint are mutual works; One tells the other. The more he is drawing, the better his memory.

Gamache said: “Repetition. I look at it and I must talk about it.” “Then it comes to me somewhat. On some days, it is better than others. I will remember it directly outside the bat, but the next day, I think,” What was this word again? ”

Gamache said he does not feel any resentment when it comes to struggle with his memory.

"Feeling sorry for yourself only makes you hold on everything inside, and all you do is to harm you more. Gamache said: “I am grateful because I am still alive and enjoy things.”

Gamache says his work seeks to portray the respect of society and participation, and practices that date back to many generations.

"Gamache said: “It was difficult,” I am sure … I can imagine it is a difficult life, but a really good life, “Gamache said.

“GEKENDAMAANG: What we know” is open until early September.