Welcoming this guest speaker is an example of how SIATech high schools work to help SIATech students be “curious” and “critical and creative thinkers,” two key elements of our SIATech Portrait of a Graduate.
Tippeconnic is currently an American Indian Studies professor at California State University San Marcos. However, he is also a renowned artist and is an enrolled member of the Comanche Nation. According to the bio on his website he developed a passion for painting and the arts by growing up on various reservations and traveling to Denmark every summer to visit his mother’s family.
“Using bright, rich and vibrant color combinations, Eric utilizes his artwork to capture movement that serves as a metaphor for the viewer which boldly states that Indigenous American cultures while intimately connected to their history are in fact contemporary, alive, and constantly evolving.”
Tippeconnic shared about the history of his people but also spoke about his own life. He shared with students about his journey of being an At-Promise student to persevering and becoming not only a professor but a celebrated artist as well. One notable piece of his work is, Our Existence is Our Resistance, a collection of paintings which “tells the story of resiliency and pride in multi-layered Native American cultures that are deeply rooted in honor and tradition, but it also challenges the clichés of conventional understandings and representations to show contemporary and evolving Indigenous communities.”
Students were inspired by his story and were eager to learn more.
“Students and staff were absolutely enthralled. He brought awe to my students and staff. So many engaged with him before, during, and after his presentation. Students who don’t usually speak, talked to him, and could hardly stop talking. He honored us today. We won’t stop talking about him. He was deeply authentic, inspiring, and so approachable to students and staff. I could go on, but his art tells a better story than I ever could,” said Lewis.
It is important and encouraging for our students to hear about the journey of past At-Promise students and how they took their future into their own hands and achieved success.
You can see more of Eric Tippeconnic’s work here. Thank you to Eric Tippeconnic for generously giving our students a new outlook on indigenous peoples, art, and their potential as at-promise students!
