John Pepion, Piikani artist who lives in Browning, once attended East Glacier Park school. He says he is trying to visit every school on the Blackfeet Reservation as a gesture of gratitude to the place where he's from. Here he holds his piece of Ledger Art, titled "Native Superman."
On April 19, I traveled to East Glacier Park school. A gorgeous school on the east side of Glacier National Park, it has an enrollment of kindergarten through 8th grade. John Pepion, whose piece "Native Superman" is a part of our 2016-17 exhibit, came from Browning to present to the students and help with the art lesson. We learned about his notion of Native Graphic Art, a modern take on the traditional ledger drawings. He insisted that ledger art can be "whatever you want it to be, you can draw whatever you want to draw." Ledger drawings can be a hope for the future or a drawing of your past. This, he said, is part of the modern period of ledger art.
Here, I hold Lauren Monroe's contribution to the exhibit, which is also an interpretation of ledger art. John offers insight to some of the symbolism in the painting.
For the last few months I have been using John's work as the inspiration for a ledger art project. One early group at this school had the opportunity to be taught by John himself. He encouraged the kids to draw "anything you want," when they did their own versions of ledger art.
John Pepion gives students at East Glacier Park School a step-by-step tutorial on drawing his stylized buffalo.
John with the East Glacier Park 5-6th graders, the class he taught that day.
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Robert Bitsui from the 2-3rd grade class drew this beautiful buffalo inspired by John Pepion's example.
 This impressive first grade did an spot-on rendition of John's buffalo example. |  Mason, a kindergartner, drew this picture of his family. When he pointed to his drawing of himself, he said, "This is Mason, I'm a big boy now." |
Kindergarten and first graders at East Glacier Park School drawing their very own ledger art.
All in all, it was a successful day at East Glacier Park School. Thanks to John Pepion for the support!
