Blair Treuer I am a storyteller who paints with fabric and draws with thread. My work explores the role Native American traditional cultural and spiritual beliefs plays in shaping the way my family sees itself, how it shapes the personal identities of my husband and my nine children, and the effect it’s had on my own personal identity. As a white woman, the only non-Native American in my family, my work is about my reflections as an outsider and about the emotional rollercoaster I often ride as I stand fixed on the outside, but privileged enough to look in. It's about the pieces of Ojibwe culture I’ve been allowed to see and what it’s allowed me to see within myself, and even to recognize what cannot be found there. My children’s participation in a traditional healing ceremony required me to make blankets as an offering. The process itself was spiritual for me. It was the only way I could contribute as a non-native. I poured everything I had into them. I taught myself this art form and I cannot let this love affair with fabric go. Though my work is no longer ceremonial, it’s very spiritual for me. An image comes to me first. Visions that haunt me, like a dream you've had that you can’t stop thinking about. I nspiration channel s through me faster than my fingers can move. Only when piece is finished do I ask myself :“What does this mean?”