An explosion of
Color by Maggi Fellerman in
Bemidji staff
photos by Annalise Braught
Kent Estey captures nature, honors heritage through art
A
round seven years ago, Kent Estey was visiting an art exhibit in Fargo when he saw a painting by Ojibwe landscape painter George Morrison hanging on the wall. Shortly after, Kent made his way into the gallery’s gift shop and picked up a book about Morrison and he bought it. Little did he know that decision would change his life. Fast forward to a few years ago, he took a long shot and entered one of his pieces into a selection process for a George Morrison appreciation exhibit in Minneapolis. “I thought, ‘you know, I’ll try it. Nothing is going to come from this, there are way too many artists,’” Kent said of his thought process on entering the exhibit. In contemplating what type of piece to enter, he recalled how Morrison — who hailed from Grand Portage — always incorporated a horizon in his paintings, so Kent did so as well to pay homage to his mentor. “I went to Grand Portage and I found a rock on the shores. I hung it in my painting and that was the piece I submitted,” he explained, “and sure enough, I was selected to be in a George
Morrison exhibit.” Kent walked into the gallery where his submitted painting was on display. To his shock and awe, on either side of his painting hung a George Morrison piece. “To be selected was amazing, but to also have my work hanging on the same wall as some of his work – that’s when the tears came,” Kent detailed. ‘I JUST WANTED TO PAINT’ A White Earth Nation member, Kent has spent his 62 years living on the same piece of land in the small community of Naytahwaush. He is the youngest of seven siblings and was raised in a family of black ash basket weavers and musicians, but he always knew he was different. “Growing up in Naytahwaush, all of our resources were right here in these woods and in our home. We’d gather birch bark and my family made these beautiful baskets,” Kent said. “But I was different, I was a painter in my heart. I didn’t want to make baskets, I didn’t want to play the piano, I just wanted to paint.” Sitting on the back porch of his current home, Kent pointed down
the road to an old barn, the walls now collapsed, and detailed how his passion for painting was developed as a child. “As a kid, I would be over by the barn and I would be making my own paint out of gravel and dirt. We grew up really poor and with six other kids, there were other priorities,” he said. “There just wasn’t enough money for paints, brushes or canvases. I remember painting on the side of our barn with mud — that’s all I had — but I could see the color.” Kent noted how he left the true painting’s color up to his imagination and was perfectly content, but also remembers wondering if he’d ever be able to see real art in his lifetime. “Living in Naytahwaush on the White Earth Reservation, there’s nothing here,” Kent said. “I thought about that a lot and I couldn’t really see beyond that, I believed I wasn’t going to have any opportunities.” Now, more than 50 years later, he’s going to museums and galleries to see his own art. “Sometimes I’m still that 6-year-old boy who’s painting the side of the barn and thinking I wasn’t good enough,” Kent pondered. “Now I know I am good enough.” FALL 2022
in Bemidji | 13