Marcus Amerman’s work recently appeared in an issue of Sports Illustrated – Courtesy photo.
Marcus Amerman (Choctaw-Hopi) is a very well known artist in Indian Country, and he’s been commissioned to do a series of beaded portraits in a national media campaign to promote the American Indian College Fund. The originals will be auctioned at their next gala fundraiser. ICTMN has a great interview with Marcus.
Amerman: Wieden + Kennedy, an international ad firm with an office in Portland, OR, contacted me about doing beaded ads for the AICF. They send me photos of current students who benefit from the AICF and I choose which ones I want to do based on their potential visual impact and bead-ability. They would run as full page ads in a number of national magazines such as, but not limited to, Sports illustrated, Harper’s Bazaar, Native Peoples, etc. They have just finished shooting photos of current students in New Mexico and Montana. I should receive them in two weeks and begin the third in a series of five 6.5″ x 8″ portraits which are enlarged to a full page bleed (8″ x 10″). This first image is Akisa Milk and he’s Oglala Lakota from Pine Ridge, South Dakota. The AICF will retain possession of all the pieces and auction them off at their gala fundraiser, I believe. I don’t know when it is.
The ad firm gives me 4 weeks to complete a 6.5” x 8” portrait and I use that format all that time. I only work on one piece at a time because of the time it takes to configure the trays full of separated beads specific to each project.
Marcus Amerman – Courtesy Photo.
Marcus is also busy making bracelets and other wondrous works for the Indian Market in Santa Fe. http://www.marcusamerman.com/
This is the most amazing thing.
Those 4 small framed images, the blues and the reds…
Is it bad that part of my brain goes “how can I make this???”
Giliell @ 1:
Not at all. I’ve seen Lakota beaders at work, and their work up close, I know how to do it, but I couldn’t do it. It’s beyond art, it takes serious skill to do it at this level. Most of the bead artists I know started as tiny kids.