Lindsey Bark
Cherokee Phoenix
TAHLEQUAH – Cherokee National Treasure Harry Oosahwee has studied and created art in different mediums for nearly 50 years, creating drawings, paintings, wood carvings, stone carvings, and more recently, sculptures.
Oosahwee is locally known as an artist and an educator of the Cherokee language. He melds Cherokee culture into his art for the purposes of education.
He never had any formal training in art until he attended Bacone College in Muskogee. His early influences came from his mother who demonstrated how Cherokees utilized clay and drawing Native-inspired sketches as a young child.
“I drew some Native pictures when I was in high school, but I never really knew that such a thing as art existed at that time, calling it art, until I got to Bacone,” he said. “It was eye opening for me because I never painted before, and I never had any formal instruction in art. So, when I got into the classroom, man, I met some artists, and they were pretty well-established at the time.”
After selling his first pieces of art to Nettie Wheeler, a former Muskogee business owner, he realized that maybe he could continue pursuing art.
“She bought my first ones you know, and that kind of brought me to think that I could probably do this,” he said.
From there he started entering art shows and his work became recognizable, winning several awards, and his art was sold to private collections across the nation and abroad.
After retiring from teaching at Northeastern State University about six years ago, he dove into sculpturing, taking classes with fellow Cherokee National Treasure and sculpture artist, Bill Glass.
“He’s the one that actually got me into clay sculpture because of his class I took,” Oosahwee said. “I enjoy working with clay more … it’s more forgiving than stone and wood. Once you cut into stone and it chips, it’s hard to work around that. But with this you could maybe manipulate it more and get exactly what you want.”
Oosahwee uses Cherokee symbolism in his sculptures from the hairstyles, tattoos and piercings, down to the texture of skin, to accurately portray historical Cherokee people.
“I kind of make the skin in some places real smooth and the other places a little rough and rugged, and that’s just the way skin is sometimes,” he said. “(Historically), they didn’t have the luxury of all the things we have today like oils and lotions. So, we were just a rough and tumble people. That’s what I like to project in my work.”
Using his work as an educational tool is why he likes to create more traditional-style sculptures.
“I try to educate the public on art and make sure they at least have an idea that this is Cherokee art and a Cherokee subject. They can start thinking about their own history or their own culture and whatnot because at this point we’re losing it pretty fast,” he said.
Oosahwee said at one point earlier in his career, he used art to express his anger and frustration from growing up in a society “that was not our making but we’re a part of it.”
“I think I had a chip on my shoulder. In fact, I know I did,” he said. “I used to put U.S. government somewhere in my paintings, just a little sign, ‘U.S. GOV,’ somewhere in the painting. That was my way of saying ‘hey, you need to pay attention to Native Americans, and we got treaties that were never acted on.’ But I used to do that and just to show people that the government had a lot to do with where we’re at today. They didn’t live up to their obligations.”
Oosahwee said getting back into painting, he is moving toward more contemporary and abstract styles but still using traditional ideas to keep the educational aspect at the forefront.
“That’s part of our contribution to our society, I think, is to make people aware,” he said.
Oosahwee’s art can be viewed at the Spider Gallery in downtown Tahlequah.
