When I was a child I lived on numerous
reservations across the United States.
I would always go to dances and I would always watch, would catch like a glimpse
here and a glimpse there, and as soon as
they danced I would go home and I would
draw them.
The vibrant colors
and the sudden movements and the
pace and the flow of the materials.
I would try to capture the motion.
What Indigenous people have to do is
they have to operate in two worlds from birth.
They obviously have to operate in
their world but then obviously in the
mainstream America as well.
My name is Eric Tippeconnic
I'm a professor of history at California
State University Fullerton and I'm also
a professional artist.
The overwhelming majority of the subject
matter in my paintings is
predominantly Comanche themed.
I use a lot of red and I like the bright yellow,
and the blooms of those
colors figure predominantly into many
of my pieces.
Movement, color, all of these
things are metaphor for me for a very
rich, vibrant, living, and breathing
culture.
[music]
Horses were extremely important to Comanche people.
We procured them from the Spanish
and then we ended up
breeding them and then we controlled the
entire trade through the southern plains
all the way up through the
northern plains.
Comanche children were taught to
ride the horse beginning at age three.
Comanche women were just as proficient
as the men on horseback.
I like to feature parts of traditional
Comanche culture
mixed in with contemporary imagery.
You'll see Comanche men with headdresses wearing
suits and ties. And once again the
whole idea here is that we're not a
remnant of the past, we're not from some
bygone historical era.
We're doctors, we're lawyers, we're professionals.
We're professors as well.
Painting to me is just another form of
storytelling.
It's another form of teaching.
Eagle feathers were awarded and
given to an individual for accomplishing
something great.
This one, for example,
was given to me when I earned my doctorate in history.
I want people outside to use my work as a way to
step off into a story
about who the Comanche people were,
and who we currently are.
So that was the same as this suit
over here on this modern day Comanche.
That is more Comanche than anything else.
Taking things outside of the culture, making it our own,
while retaining our language and our songs.
The story that a museum can tell, the story
that I can tell in class,
the story that my paintings can tell just by sitting there,
I think they all serve a similar purpose.
And they all start conversations.
People are essentially the same.
They want the same things.
They want a good life for themselves and their children.
I think something like art
is just in a way to attract people
to begin that conversation.
