Seventeenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

J. D. Challenger was born in Oklahoma and essentially “raised” by his step-grandfather, “a full-blood Choctaw, who first introduced the young J. D. to the culture and spirit of the Native American people.” This Performance Piece—featuring PowerPoint Narration/Original Modern Dance Choreography/Original Jazz Music—will assess J. D. Challenger as ‘the dreamer’ facing his growing number of Native American friends and the urgency welling deep within the artist of ‘sketching’ their stories, their histories, their vision but not the white man’s range of view! From his studio in Taos, New Mexico, J. D.began to paint the landscape of Northern New Mexico for his clients, but privately, J. D. painted his Native American friends and they shared their stories. J. D.’s style began to emerge within acrylics/oil on canvas/watercolor processes as his inner visions became more and more clear following his witnessing a Ghost Dance. This performance piece assesses J. D.’s initial reluctance to show his ‘private’ portraits to the general public for fear of “offending the very people he so admired.” Denise encouraged J. D. to show his portraits to his Native American friends for their opinions. “A Kiowa holy man told him: “There need to be messengers; your path is to tell the stories of the native people to those who do not know what has happened in the past or what is still happening today. You make them see who we are, that we are real living human beings and that we are still here.”