The following interview excerpts feature Jeanne Rorex Bridges, Merlin Little Thunder, Skip Rowell, and Anita Caldwell Jackson as they share insight into their life and work as part of the Oklahoma Native Artists Oral History Project. Raised on a farm outside Oktaha, Oklahoma, Jeanne Rorex Bridges was the youngest child in her family. Her only exposure to art, aside from her uncle’s sculptures, was the occasional elementary school art project. Then, in her late twenties, she took a tole painting class; a decade later, she enrolled at Bacone College. Working under Dick West, Jeanne adopted a flat-style technique, to which she added her own love of shading, particularly on apparel and blankets. Merlin Little Thunder is an enrolled Cheyenne artist, who grew up in the Southern Cheyenne community of Fonda, Oklahoma. Little Thunder is perhaps best known for his miniature work; but he also has a wide-ranging oeuvre that encompasses three distinct styles. A spiritual experience triggered Little Thunder’s early interest in drawing which soon became an obsession for him. Scrimshaw artist Skip Rowell, of Choctaw descent, was raised around Stringtown and Atoka, Oklahoma. His early interest in art was encouraged by a Native schoolteacher but frowned upon by his father. As a result, he set art aside until he entered the Army, eventually earning a degree in commercial art and advertising from Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology. Rowell worked in a variety of fields from commercial art to professional rodeo before he began to devote himself full-time to art. Three things have grounded Anita Caldwell Jackson: living close to McAlister, Oklahoma all her life; teaching art in the Kiowa public schools; and painting Native subject matter. Jackson got her BA in art and her MA in Counseling at Southeastern State University in Durant. After she started displaying and selling her work at local festivals, she discovered Native art shows, and soon she was entering and winning awards for her acrylic paintings at the Five Civilized Tribes Museum and the National Cherokee Museum’s Trail of Tears show. For more information, visit www.library.okstate.edu/oralhistory/ona © 2015 Oklahoma State University

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