Virginia Alice Stroud (born 1951)"Virginia Alice Stroud (1951-)."
''AskArt.'' (retrieved 1 June 2010) is a

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...

Muscogee Creek The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language), are a group of related indigenous (Native American) peoples of the Southeastern WoodlandsUnited Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians The United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma ( or , abbreviated United Keetoowah Band or UKB) is a federally recognized tribe of Cherokee Native Americans headquartered in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. According to the UKB website, its member ...

Early life

Virginia Stroud was born on 13 March 1951 in

Madera, California Madera (Spanish language, Spanish for "Wood") is a city and county seat of Madera County, California, Madera County, California. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 66,224. Located in the San Joaquin Valley, Madera i ...

. Her mother died when she was eleven, so Stroud moved to

Muskogee, Oklahoma Muskogee () is the thirteenth-largest city in Oklahoma and the county seat of Muskogee County. Home to Bacone College, it lies approximately southeast of Tulsa. The population of the city was 36,878 as of the 2020 census, a 6.0 percent decrease ...

to live with her sister. She sold her first painting at the age of 13. Stroud graduated from

Muskogee High School Muskogee High School (MHS) is a three-year public high school in Muskogee, Oklahoma, U.S.. It is accredited by the Oklahoma State Department of Education and the Oklahoma Secondary School Activities Association. Muskogee High School is pa ...

in 1968. From 1968 to 1970, she attended

Bacone College Bacone College, formerly Bacone Indian University, is a private tribal college in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Founded in 1880 as the Indian University by missionary Almon C. Bacone, it was originally affiliated with the mission arm of what is now Americ ...

and studied art under

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enroll ...

painter

Dick West Walter Richard West Sr. (1912–1996, Southern Cheyenne), was a painter, sculptor, and educator. He led the Art Department at Bacone College from 1947 to 1970. He later taught at Haskell Institute for several years. Jones, Ruthe BlalockWest, Walte ...

, who made her his studio assistant. She then attended the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...

. In her late 20s, Stroud was adopted, following

Kiowa Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and eve ...

tradition, as a daughter of Evelyn Tahome and Jacob Ahtone, a Kiowa couple.

Pageants and the Tear Dress

In 1969, Stroud served as Miss Cherokee Tribal Princess. She went on to win the title Miss

National Congress of American Indians The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) is an American Indian and Alaska Native rights organization. It was founded in 1944 to represent the tribes and resist federal government pressure for termination of tribal rights and assimilati ...

in 1970, and in 1971, she was crowned

Miss Indian America Miss Indian America was a pageant from 1953 to 1989 that was part annual All-American Indian Days festival in Sheridan, Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Monta ...

XVII.Conley, 229 When Stroud competed for the title of princess in 1969, Cherokee women wanted her to represent the tribe in a "traditional" Cherokee outfit, which was problematic since Cherokee women wore contemporary mainstream fashions for at least two centuries and wore very little clothing before that. A committee of Cherokee women, appointed by Chief W. W. Keeler designed a dress based on a hundred-year-old Cherokee dress owned by a Cherokee lady, Wynona Day, and from surrounding Southeast tribes' formal regalia, and they created the " Tear Dress." Elizabeth Higgins (Cherokee Nation) sewed the first tear dress for Stroud.

Art career

Stroud paints with tempera and gouache and is a fine art printmaker. She also has written and illustrated several children's books. She draws inspirations from ancient

pictographs A pictogram, also called a pictogramme, pictograph, or simply picto, and in computer usage an icon, is a graphic symbol that conveys its meaning through its pictorial resemblance to a physical object. Pictographs are often used in writing and gr ...

and historical

ledger art Ledger art is a term for narrative drawing or painting on paper or cloth, predominantly practiced by Plains Indian, but also from the Plateau and Great Basin. Ledger art flourished primarily from the 1860s to the 1920s. A revival of ledger art be ...

. Over her career, Stroud developed a narrative style with minimal facial details in her people and lavish floral backgrounds.Power, 199 She also paints kinetic wooden sculptures and fine art furniture. Her work is in such public collections as the

Gilcrease Museum Gilcrease Museum, also known as the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, is a museum northwest of downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma housing the world's largest, most comprehensive collection of art of the American West, as well as a gro ...

Millicent Rogers Museum The Millicent Rogers Museum is an art museum in Taos, New Mexico, founded in 1956 by the family of Millicent Rogers. Initially the artworks were from the multi-cultural collections of Millicent Rogers and her mother, Mary B. Rogers, who donated ...

Philbrook Museum of Art Philbrook Museum of Art is an art museum with expansive formal gardens located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The museum, which opened in 1939, is located in a former 1920s villa, "Villa Philbrook", the home of Oklahoma oil pioneer Waite Phillips and his ...

Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art is an art museum on the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman, Oklahoma. Overview The University of Oklahoma’s Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art holds over 20,000 objects in its permanent collection. The museum c ...

Cherokee Heritage Center The Cherokee Heritage Center (Cherokee: Ꮳꮃꭹ Ꮷꮎꮣꮄꮕꮣ Ꭰᏸꮅ) is a non-profit historical society and museum campus that seeks to preserve the historical and cultural artifacts, language, and traditional crafts of the Cherokee. ...

, and Cherokee Nation Entertainment. Of her work, Stroud says, "I paint for my people. Art is a way for our culture to survive... perhaps the only way."

Honors

In 1970, Stroud became the youngest Native artists to win first place in the Woodlands division of the Philbrook Museum's annual juried art show. In 1982, the Indian Arts and Crafts Association honored Stroud as Artist of the Year.Power, 199 The

Five Civilized Tribes Museum The Five Civilized Tribes Museum in Muskogee, Oklahoma, showcases the art, history, and culture of the so-called "Five Civilized Tribes": the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole tribes. Housed in the historic Union Indi ...

declared Stroud a Master Artist in 1986. In 2000, she was given the Cherokee Medal of Honor.

Published works

*''Doesn't Fall off His Horse: A Cherokee Tale.'' Dial, 1994. . * ''A Walk to the Great Mystery: A Cherokee Tale.'' Dial, 1995. . * ''The Path of the Quiet Elk: A Native American Alphabet Book.'' Dial, 1996. ."Virginia A. Stroud: Bibliography."
''Amazon.com'' (retrieved 1 June 2010)

Notes

References

*Conley, Robert L. ''A Cherokee Encyclopedia.'' Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2007. . * Lester, Patrick D. ''The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters''. Norman: Oklahoma University Press, 1995. . *Power, Susan C. ''Art of the Cherokee: Prehistory to Present''. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Stroud, Virginia Cherokee artists Native American painters Painters from Oklahoma 1951 births Living people Bacone College alumni 21st-century Native American writers 20th-century Native American writers American women painters United Keetoowah Band people Native American women artists 21st-century American writers 21st-century American women artists 20th-century Native American artists 21st-century Native American artists 20th-century Native American women 21st-century Native American women 20th-century American women painters 20th-century American painters 21st-century American women painters