Comanche/ Kiowa (Numunuu/ Khoiye-Goo)
Contemporary painter J. NiCole Hatfield (Nahmi-A-Piah) is a Native Oklahoman who draws her inspiration from old historical photographs of her proud tribal women.
By painting them she feels she not only acknowledges them as well as honors them by giving them a voice in our contemporary world. She frequently incorporates tribal language into her paintings to teach as well keep Native languages alive.
A self taught artist who refers to painting as ‘her voice’ uses her preferred medium of acrylic to translate her bold colors to canvas. She attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe for one semester, which transcended her art into a range of different mediums.
“My indigenous goddess series is based on positive indigenous women of today of all walks of life. This is an ongoing series, these are mainly women that I look up to and am inspired by, but also want our youth to see them as well, so they too can have someone to look up to. So far we have Artist April Holder (Sac and Fox/Wichita/Tonkawa), Model/Indigenous studies student Darian Lonechild (Plains cree/Saulteaux), And Native Rights Activist Kim Smith (Dine).I want people to see the inner beauty of our women, not just the physical appearance. The colors represent my emotions and emotions around me. We carry all of these beautiful colors within ourselves and I want them to resonate with each portrait. Without me having to speak about it. I hope this makes sense, I am not a writer nor a speaker, my voice is the paints.”
— J. NICOLE HATFIELD