"Although I sell regularly and have done so for over twenty years, I decided to join EBSQ because I wanted to expose my work to a new audience. I sell my paintings so quickly it is difficult to accumulate a body of work these days. But I think it is important to always keep reaching out to new people who may find your work meaningful and beautiful. I also think there is something magical about original art...I feel art needs to get to those who need it, especially those who may not always have all the resources to buy such art. I feel it is the duty of the artist, to pass on this gift of Our Creator, to get original art to the one who needs the art the most. To that end I look forward to doing some pieces expressly for folks who buy from EBSQ...I believe in what EBSQ is doing!" -Lance Michael Foster
Lance Michael Foster is an enrolled member of the Iowa Tribe of
Kansas and Nebraska, and is inspired by his heritage in both Native American
and EuroAmerican traditions. He has been an active painter since 1978. Foster
is an alumni of the Institute of American
Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico (1980-1981), and has graduate degrees
in anthropology (M.A.) and landscape architecture (M.L.A.). He is a noted
and published artist and scholar of traditional Native American languages,
arts, and cultures. He was raised in Montana where his family still lives.
His art reflects his tribal heritage, with a deeper understanding of
the traditional culture, aesthetics, and approach to life. He approaches
the traditions of other people in a similar way to find the common ground
of experience and respect. During the summer of 1996, he painted a mural
in a village in Nigeria, Africa, as a token of international friendship.
Most recently he has been commissioned to do a series for the Interpret
Hawaii program of Kapiolani College.
Foster's work shows particular depth in color symbolism and structure,
and is masculine, confident, and solid in those aspects. The work also features
exuberant movement in seeking to translate these explosive and mythical
images. Traditional memory is honored through the integration of Native
language on the canvas as mysterious inscriptions much like pictographs
or petroglyphs. Recently he has also been exploring the incorporation of
medieval Christian art with Native traditions.
Foster's exuberant, solid, and colorful style is confrontational and
life-affirming. Many have remarked upon sensing a magical presence in them,
as if a spirit of protection and guardianship dwells there. For those who
own a Foster painting, what can be at first unsettling in its boldness becomes
a protective aspect of everyday life. Many have remarked how they sense
protection from his paintings.
Foster is represented in many collections, including the Ted Turner ranch
in Montana, the Institute of American Indian Arts, the University of Iowa,
and several private collections. He is listed in "The Biographical
Directory of Native American Painters." Foster's artwork and essays are in his
new book from the University of Iowa Press, The Indians of Iowa, as well as in
several other books, such as "The Worlds Between Two Rivers"
and "Recovering the Prairie."
Currently, Lance Foster lives in his hometown of Helena, Montana, with his wife Lisa.
