Image of artist Ceara Lewis, with her artwork.
Date and time: Thursday, April 17, 2025. 6:30 pm PST
Location: Multnomah Arts Center (7688 SW Capitol Hwy, Portland, OR), Room 30. And online via Zoom
Cost: Free.
Note: Guild members will receive a Zoom link via email prior to the meeting. This meeting is intended for Guild members only. If you are not a member, but would like to become one, we welcome you. Click here to become a member.
Description: For the Guild’s April General Meeting, Aleut artist Ceara Lewis will share her art journey - where she started and how she continues to grow and learn new art practices. She will start with how she learned to weave from Connie Graves and later Greg Archuleta, both members of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. This led to an apprenticeship under respected carver Greg Robinson, Chinook. She also will talk about her jewelry. She learned from artists such as Denise Wallace, her uncle, and her own experiences. Finally she will share her digital art, learning from Christi Belcourt, Metis international visual artist.
Says Ceara: “I’ve always had a fascination with basketry, carvings, and jewelry. I grew up around the art my mom collected over the years, smelling the baskets and wondering about the different materials that were used; looking at her masks and thinking about the stories they were telling. And lastly, I love to dress up and the best part of dressing up was putting on jewelry.”
Artist Bio: I grew up in Cannon Beach, Oregon, but spend my summers commercial fishing with my family in Bristol Bay, Alaska, where my mom is from. Currently, I live in Oregon working on art during the winter, and continue to return to Alaska to fish with my family every summer. I graduated from Willamette University with a degree in Cultural Anthropology. As an artist I enjoy weaving, carving, and jewelry making. For my art I use natural resources from my two homes, Oregon and Alaska. Some of the materials I use are cedar, dentalium shells, porcupine quills, ivory, jade, copper, silver, and other natural stones. Creating art enables me to learn more about my own heritage, the history and rich culture that flourishes today, as well as pay homage to my family and our ancestors. As someone with a strong relationship to red salmon and the water, my art honors the beauty of Alaska, the salmon, power of water, and the strength of the Aleut people by bringing together traditional and contemporary art forms. The melding of traditional and contemporary art forms is a metaphor for resilience of Native people in their ability to honor their traditional practices and values while adapting to Western lifestyles. I am proud to be Aleut and feel blessed to have found a way to express my pride as an artist as our ancestors have done for generations. My art is an extension of my Aleut heritage and the final products of my work are the stories and lessons from my relatives and ancestors that I wish to share with the world.
Images above: artwork by Ceara Lewis, images courtesy of Ceara Lewis.