Fusion of Culture and Legacy – Bryan Waytula

We meet with Bryan Waytula and how he expresses his culture through various art forms such as pop, portrait and pointillism. He comes from a family that is filled with Cherokee artists who have passed on cultural knowledge.

Both his sister, mom and grandma would weave baskets and teach me how to do the same. His grandmother, Betty Scraper-Garner, and mother, Vivian Cottrell, are both Cherokee National Treasures in the art of basketry.

A citizen of the Cherokee Nation, he was raised in the culture, at an early age of 5, Bryan was introduced to the art of traditional basket weaving with honeysuckle. He never could quite get the hang of it like his sister or mother, so instead his grandma gave him crayons and paper to be creative. The 2-D world soon became his favorite place to play.

Bryan’s range of media includes colored pencil and charcoal, and he is known for combining traditional culture with contemporary art.

Recently he has had his limited edition, original resin cast “Yona” (which means “bear” in Cherokee) sculptures, that are only available for purchase in person.

His ability to paint portraits with pointillism, which is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image, create awareness of Native appropriation in graphic designs and fuse Indigenous culture with contemporary art, makes his work both riveting and inspiring.