Marcie McIntire P.O. Box 201 Grand Portage MN 55605 (218) 475-2507 Work Samples Images: (select to enlarge) To hear the work samples, Windows Media Player is required. If you do not have it installed, you can download it for free here: Download Windows Media Player

Marcie McIntire Native American Ojibwe beadwork, appliqué, ribbonwork, clothing, baskets Over the generations, beadwork has enlivened the lives of Ojibwe people. Floral Ojibwe designs have been used to decorate items great and small, from dance outfits to small personal items. Beadwork is widely practiced at Grand Portage, and many of my relatives have been beadworkers. I learned by watching my mother. Today, I am a traditional artist specializing in floral-based Ojibwe beadwork, and I have been doing it for almost 40 years. I have made smaller beaded items and also have been commissioned to do wall hangings using a multitude of materials such as beads, fabric, leather, feathers, wood, and stones. I also make traditional clothing and accessories, as well as black ash and birchbark baskets. Available: Year-round; no mileage restrictions Space: Lecture hall with seating for from 50 to 100 persons Fee: Negotiable

Additional Information:
Marcie McIntire is an Aniishiinabe beadworker. She was exposed to beadwork from a young age not only from attending pow wows, but because her mother, Ellen Olson, is a well-established beadworker. Marcie's grandmother was also a beadworker, and Marcie believes that beading was a family tradition at least back to the 1850's. In 1969, an early point in her artistic career, Marcie took a tour of a Red Lake museum. It was only a fifteen-minute tour, but the beadwork covering the museum walls made a lasting impression on Marcie. In addition, the beadwork and birch bark work at the Grand Portage Nat'l Monument served as an inspiration. However, Marcie's beadwork has also benefited from her wide interests in visual arts. She has always been interested in abstract art, even if she does not really know why. Although based in Grand Portage, Marcie is widely traveled and has been influenced by artists in places such as Florida and Minneapolis. As a result, to Marcie, beadwork is more than replicating old designs. Marcie simply says that she has a type of artistic vision and uses beads to express it.

Marcie has extensive knowledge not only about traditional beadwork, but the forms which preceded it. She studied at the Peabody collections of Algonquin tribes. There she learned that beadwork of the Aniishiinabe, originally an Algonquin tribe, actually derives from moosehair embroidery and porcupine quillwork. In her research, she saw centuries-old lines, diamonds, and squares, and she observed the progression in color options for beadworkers, as well as the progression in stylization of foliage. According to Marcie, Aniishiinabe flowers are never realistic, and always abstract. Other design elements such as deer, the four ages of main, wildcats and thunderbird designs are also abstract. The tendency away from realism is why Marcie considers Algonquin art to be among the first abstract art in human history.

Marcie sees herself as a contemporary artist working within a great tradition. Her inspiration comes from her heritage, but she makes up her own designs within the tradition. When one sees her beadwork, one senses both Marcie's unique vision and the obvious connection with old beadwork.

Marcie has created bank wall hangings, key chains, cigarette lighter holders, beaded jewelry, bank wall hangings. The plant life she likes to use as a basis of design: red raspberry, also known as thimbleberry, and other berry plants. There is a signature motif of hers, a blanket design that Pendleton Mills is using. However, with all this, Marcie's favorite projects are the ones she has yet to make.