Louis Still Smoking
Native Fashion Mural
Opening reception
July 8, 4:30-6:30pm
in front of “Building G” on Cottonwood, between N. Wallace and Ida.
A mural by Louis Still Smoking (Blackfeet) will grace the façade of an old grain storage building on the Tinworks Art campus, the structure we affectionately call “Building G.” It celebrates Native creativity as expressed through fashion, and depicts two figures: the first, Christian Parrish Takes the Gun (known professionally as Supaman), who is a successful Apsáalooke rapper and fancy dancer. The second figure is Acosia Red Elk, a champion jingle dress dancer and yoga teacher from the Umatilla people of Oregon.
Digital sketch of mural proposed by Louis Still Smoking, for Tinworks Art, Bozeman MT, 2022
About the Artist
Born and raised in Browning, Montana on the Blackfeet Reservation, artist Louis Still Smoking (Blackfeet) has art in his veins. Inspired by talented family members, Still Smoking started drawing and painting at a young age, and found art to be therapeutic. He graduated from Flandreau Indian School in Flandreau, South Dakota in 1998, and then worked as a stone sculptor for 11 years before returning to college to further his studies in art at Montana State University in Bozeman. With a sculptural mind, he took on an emphasis in painting to expand his skillset.
Louis’ artwork is influenced by the Impressionists, Lucian Freud, and research on the history of the AIM movement — which he finds inspiring because of what this movement accomplished while making a difference.
Louis’ work is always evolving and growing. “I try to convey a message that is relevant to all Native peoples, whether that be social or political. My work expresses my own personal beliefs and struggles as a modern Native American.”
Louis is co-owner of Still Smoking Designs. In 2021, Still Smoking participated in a group exhibition “Ancestors of Their Future’s Past” at the John Clymer Museum and Gallery; had a one-man show, “Perseverance” at the Myrna Loy’s Jailhouse Gallery in September 2021, and was featured in the Bozeman Art Museum’s exhibit, “ReCouping Sovereignty.” Still Smoking and John Isaiah Pepion worked together on several mural collaborations in 2021 - at Heart Butte Elementary School, and Still Smoking and Pepion were selected by the KALICO Art Center and Rails to Trails of Northwest Montana for the Tunnel Vision 2021 mural project. In 2022, Still Smoking and Pepion are painting a mural for the Starr School gym. Still Smoking’s work has been featured widely publications such as Cowboys & Indians magazine, Lively Times, Native Max Magazine, as well as a featured artist in the 2015 MSU President’s Fine Art Series.
ABOUT The subjects
Acosia Red Elk (Umatilla) and Christian Takes Gun Parrish (Apsáalooke) a.k.a. Supaman are the subjects of Louis Still Smoking’s 2022 mural for Tinworks Art, located on building G. In 2015, Supaman and Red Elk collaborated to create this outstanding music video, “Why?”.
Acosia Red Elk (born 1980) is a jingle dress dancer from the Umatilla people of Oregon. A descendant of Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, she became interested in dancing at 16, when she taught herself to dance from videos of other jingle dancers. Red Elk began dancing professionally in 1998 with her then-husband, Paris Leighton, visiting up to 50 pow wows a year for ten years.
From 2004 to 2008, she won five world championships at the Gathering of Nations; she won again in 2011, 2014, and 2015. In addition to winning the championship in 2005 at Gathering, she won the Head Woman Dancer title. In 2015, she performed in Supaman's music video “Why?,” after meeting him on the pow wow circuit.
In 2014 Red Elk took her first Buti yoga class. She was so moved by the experience that she obtained a yoga teaching certificate so that she could guide others through the experience. Combining the movements and meditations of Buti yoga and the footwork of jingle dress dancing, Red Elk created pow wow yoga.
In 2020, she appeared in the music video for Portugal. The Man featuring "Weird Al" Yankovic song "Who's Gonna Stop Me."
Supaman / Christian Takes Gun Parrish (Apsáalooke) is a Native American dancer and innovative hip hop artist who has dedicated his life to empowering and spreading a message of hope, pride, and resilience through his original art form.
He has been the recipient of the 2017 MTV VMA award for “Best Fight Against the System”! He is also a Nammy “Native American Music Award” winner, “North American Indigenous Image Award winner, and 7 “Tunney Award winner. He was awarded The Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Award in Canada for best video and was voted MTV’s new Artist of the Week. His 2018 nominations brought him home awards for Best Hip Hop Album and Best Producer for the Indigenous Music Awards. His videos have received millions of views on Youtube and Facebook which has put him in high demand touring extensively throughout the U.S.A and internationally. He has performed for Google at the Google headquarters in San Francisco. He recently was asked to audition for America’s Got Talent and the Broadway play Hamilton. He is currently on tour around the country spreading the good medicine of resiliency, love, laughter, and inclusion.
Supaman’s one of a kind presentation combines Native culture, comedy, and urban hip hop culture which dazzles audiences and captivates listeners. For this he has gained the respect of his community and generation. The communicative talent along with the compassion that exudes from his music allows him to connect with people from all walks of life. His uncanny ability to motivate, encourage, and inspire through dance, and hip hop music keeps him at the forefront among his contemporaries which gives him a platform to educate on Indigenous issues.
