A Native Artist’s Determination for Quality and Excellence

Joanne Brings Thunder is an enrolled member of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe located on the Wind River Indian Reservation where she grew up in central Wyoming. She started learning traditional arts at age 5 from her mother and from her maternal grandmother Eva B. McAdams, a respected international beadwork artist.

An award-winning architect and interior designer for over 25 years, Joanne attended the Colorado Institute of Art and received her undergraduate degree in interior design. This was soon followed by a graduate degree in architecture from the University of Colorado. In 2012, she rediscovered her passion for traditional art and its healing properties. As a result, her day-to-day work reflects her love of culture and traditions mixed with a contemporary outlook. With her husband’s work, she currently splits her time between North Dakota and Wyoming.

When creating three-dimensional models for buildings, Joanne uses polycarbonate in the center of the foam core to straighten and strengthen the walls. It was when she was working on a 3D mock-up she was creating for a development group in Arizona, that Joanne suddenly started to view the architectural materials in a very different way.

At that moment, her jewelry art changed.

“I thought, ‘I wonder if I could use that [polycarbonate] as the backing for my earrings,’” she says.

After much frustration using parfleche and aspen wood for backings on her earring creations, Joanne switched to the new material three years ago.

Gripping a pair of aviation snippers, Joanne would cut the polycarbonate into chunky pieces, then use a utility knife to carve out her design.

But the toll on Joanne’s wrists and elbows quickly became evident; she developed carpal tunnel syndrome from hand cutting the polycarbonate.

The solution came through Greg Bellanger (White Earth Ojibwe), who owns Northland Visions in Minneapolis, Minn. where he promotes and mentors a multitude of artists. Greg showed Joanne the work of an artist in his shop who cuts sculptures with a laser. That was the beginning of yet another alteration she would make in her art making. And one that would ultimately introduce her to First Peoples Fund and its fellowship programs.

“He said, “You need to apply for that First Peoples Fund grant and see if you get it,” Joanne says. “And I did!”

Joanne applied for and was awarded a 2020 First Peoples Fund Artist in Business Leadership fellowship that will go toward purchasing a home-based 3D laser printer.

“The grant is such a godsend, and is going to help so much,” Joanne adds. “I no longer will be injuring myself by cutting jewelry by hand.”

The origin of Joanne’s art and determination for excellence goes back to when she was five, beading with her grandmother, who helped raise Joanne in the traditional way of their people.

“My grandmother was such a commanding force in who I am today,”

“My grandmother was such a commanding force in who I am today,” Joanne says. “She gave me such a good foundation of composition and color theory at a young age. Looking back, I know I was very privileged to grow up the way I did.”