A Very Deep Conversation With Artist Anita Fields

Jeff sits down with artist Anita Fields to hear her perspective about the intersection of indigenous art, culture, and language. She also reflects about the significance of Speak: Speak While You Can, the recently closed exhibit at Living Arts.To learn more about Anita and her art, visit https://www.anitafieldsart.comBorn in Oklahoma, artist Anita Fields creates works of clay and textile that reflect the worldview of her Native Osage culture. Her practice explores the complexities of cultural influences and the intersections of balance and chaos found within our lives. The early Osage notions of duality, such as earth and sky, male and female, are represented in her work. Heavily textured layers and distorted writing are elements found in both her clay and textile works. These reference the complex layers and distortion of truths found in the written history of indigenous cultures. Fields creates narratives that asks viewers to consider other ways of seeing and being in an effort to understand our shared existence.The power of transformation and transformative actions are realized by creating various forms of clothing, coverings, and figurative forms. The works become indicators of how we understand our surroundings and visualize our place within the world.Landscapes, environment, and the influences of nature are themes found throughout the work of Anita Fields. They reflect time, place, and how the earth holds the memory of cultures who once called a specific terrain home. Fields is currently a 2017-2020 fellow with the Kaiser Foundation Tulsa Artist Fellowship. Fields’ work has been featured in American Craft, Ms Magazine, American Style, and First American Art. Her work can be found in several collections, such as the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Museum of Art and Design, New York City, Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona, and the National Museum of American Indian, Smithsonian, Washington, DC.