I felt the need to share my art space with this important artist, Nayana LaFond
I was deeply moved and chilled by this exhibit by Anishinaabe Abenaki Mi’kmaq and Metis artist Nayana LaFond, called “Portraits in Red” at the Pacific Maritime Heritage Center in Newport Oregon. Forty of Nayana’s portraits will be on display from Feb 2- May 7. All are of missing, murdered or activist Indigenous People. Nayana says, “I want to paint them the way the spirits would see them”. Each portrait is painted in black and white with red being the only visible color because spirits can only see red. According to the National Crime Center, 5,712 Indigenous women were reported missing in 2016.
“Right now, my mission is to paint all that are sent to me. I want to really have people connect with the subject matter and to honor each of these people, to elevate them to a status of someone who is important and worthy of being remembered. A lot of these cases are just forgotten and treated as if these people are not worth remembering. So, I really want to give them that time out of my day, that energy and say, you are worth that” – Nayana LaFond