Carrie Moran McCleary

Boozhoo! Anishinaabe indaaw. My name is Carrie Moran McCleary. I am a proud member of the Montana Little Shell Chippewa Tribe and the owner/artist of Plains Soul, an Indigenous art, fashion and home goods business based on the Crow Reservation. My art endeavors include beadwork, the Fierce One Doll Collection, upcycled and western vintage-inspired fashions, rawhide work and creating print merchandise utilizing photographs of my work.

My work reveals my Anishinaabe roots. My love of florals crosses over all my art. I'm obsessed with juxtaposing the old and new; the upcycled and worn with the luxurious items of modernity. Despite the long hours required I can think of no better place to be, then surrounded by the trapping of art construction, morning to afternoon to the new dawn beading a new creation, seeing my family dressed in my work or watching a child with a Fierce One Doll.

The multiple mediums I create are bound by a definitive color palette, a mixing of patterns and the need to push boundaries to produce something traditional and innovative all at once. When I make art I reflect on my mother and her mothers before her.