TC Cannon was a Native American (Kiowa/Caddo/French) painter, poet, musician, and Vietnam vet. His Kiowa name was “he who stands in the sun”, he trained in the Southern Plains style of painting at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, and he passed away in 1978 at the too young age of 31. During his lifetime his work was often interpreted as political and subversive; now it’s clearly so much more: earnest and insightful portraiture; aesthetically emblematic of its era; plaintive and relatable on a personal level. The feeling strongly impressed upon me by his work was patience.
I care deeply for the preservation of indigenous American peoples and their cultures. It has taken so long for mainstream perceptions of colonization to change from ‘a fight they lost and we won’ to . . . .the genocide it was. Going to the annual Bear Mountain powwow with my grandfather (who also snail-mailed me related anthropology and archaeology articles, yup, I’m old) helped me learn the difference between considering a cultural outgroup and consuming it. Decades later, as the cultural appropriation debate rages, I find myself reaching back for clarity in the distinction.
I’ve never visited the Southwest or the Plains but hope to someday. In his work I see a lot of Gaugin, a very little Catlin. I’d love to see the settings.
His sister still sells his work and manages his estate: http://www.tccannon.com/
Support the Native American Rights Fund: https://www.narf.org/
Go to the Powwow I went to as a little girl: https://www.crazycrow.com/site/event/bear-mountain-powwow/