Faron Blakely

About me:

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..p style="visibility:visible;">Faron Blakey, White Earth artist, lives in West Fargo, ND in an apartment development that encroaches on wheat fields. This world differs starkly from Phillips, the inner city Minneapolis neighborhood where Faron literally died, in l991, under the Franklin Avenue Bridge. Brought back to life, he feels blessed to get a chance to do his art. He considers art his way to heal, be a family man and be strong Blakely’s work, pen and ink drawings, acrylic painting, and poetry, comes strictly from his heart. His work is full of color--portraits of Native men and women, regalia, eagles, with powerful titles like “We are not Conquered my Child,” “Dance Proud,” and “Native Vision in my Head.” He feels it doesn’t fit into any one category. For instance, most of his drawings include poems. Since leaving the Cities, he has dreams of dancing and drumming, which helps him visualize what to put on paper. Although Blakely creates “Native American stuff,” in part because that’s what he feels he is supposed to be, music and his street side also continually influence his work. His also draws inspiration from his children. In Fargo he parents during the day while his wife attends school, creating art in the evenings and when his children nap. He always used art as a way to relax and still turns to it when he becomes frustrated as a parent. Being away from the inner city helps him learn his culture and teach it to his children. When he lived in the city, he had no focus and no one to look up to. He says, “I didn’t think towns like this, ‘Pleasantville,’ existed. We are safe here. In the city you had to watch for your life going to the corner store.” Blakely considers himself self-taught. He gets his talent from his mother’s musical side of the family and his artist father, Irvin Bonga. Blakely remembers his father, who passed away from alcoholism, constantly doodling. His art teacher, Gary Wolf, always provided encouragement. “He must of known I had something. But I never listened to what he said.” Blakely never had the chance to go places like the Walker Art Center, but grew up watching painter Bob Ross on PBS. He felt like he knew Ross and imitated his work. Blakely turned to art as a way to shut out the alcoholism and inner city violence, including murders of family members, going on around him. When invited, he shares his life story and art with younger people. He tries to show he has been where they are and the beauty of native culture. He also encourages other Fargo artists struggling with alcohol, but notes, “they have to do it themselves.” In the last four years, Blakely started focusing on getting his art out to the public, a challenge for him. “I have a big fear of success, I was terrified when I first started to put my art out there. I was so used to hearing negative all my life.” He’s had help along the way. Native Christian Ministries in Fargo invited him to work in their studio. And Blakely says Sandy Berlin’s Sweet Medicine meetings, “will do anything you need to get you on your feet. They helped me find gigs at MSU and NDSU for song and dance performances.” Artists Blakely meets through powwows offer support and advice—lists of names, encouragement to make prints. Overtime, Blakely figured out where to sell and how to market. He hated his first couple experiences selling at powwows. He didn’t sell anything, he thinks because he didn’t feel good enough about himself. Then at the Fargo-Moorhead Powwow, his work started selling. Since then, he has sold at many more powwows, out of his mother-in-law’s garage, at other garage sales and on his website. Juanita Espinosa has some of his prints at Two Rivers Gallery and told the Mille Lacs gift shop about his work. He has mouse pads, coasters and plaques for sale at the Anishinaabe Center in Callaway. Other Native people make up Blakely’s biggest market. One space that seems to be closed to him is Fargo. He says, “Its hard in Fargo to be accepted as a Native artist.” Outside of a 2004 street fair, Blakely hasn’t sold in Fargo. Although he took the blue ribbon at that fair, he barely earned back the $500 he paid to setup, even though 30,000 people attended. He says, “It made me want to start drawing other cultures, but I’m drawing from my heart. I don’t want to draw just to make other people happy. I am patient and wait for people to come to me.” Blakely traveled far from his youthful self in Phillips, when he didn’t want to be an artist and feared he would die young, an alcoholic. Currently, he’s creating a drawing for Veterans, dedicated to his uncle, and hopes to make a mural at his daughter’s school. He has a collection of signed prints and selling those on the powwow trail is his main goal. He also explores new media, since prints are expensive and people have limited wall space. This year for the first time,the Plains Art Museum and the gallery at the Mall, expressed interest in his work. Blakely says, “There is no limit to what I can do now. Now that I am sober, I’m not just talking about it, but doing it. When it happens, it will happen. All the eagle feathers that came to me enabled me to start dancing. Right now, my focus is on my kids.” Someday he would like to talk more with youth. Given his life experience he would share with them about his life, culture and art. As scared as he is of success, watching his wife work towards her degree and earn a 4.0 has given him the courage to dream of going to school himself so he can achieve those dreams.