Art, Language, & Culture

How can language influence art? Award-winning Cherokee and EBCI visual artists share how the Cherokee language and syllabary inform and inspire their work.

Panelists: Roy Boney, Jeff Edwards, John Henry Gloyne, Keli Gonzalez

Roy Boney, Jr.
Roy Boney, Jr. (Cherokee Nation) is from Locust Grove, Oklahoma, and currently resides in Tahlequah. He is an award-winning multimedia artist and writer whose art has been exhibited across the United States and internationally. Roy holds a BFA in Graphic Design from Oklahoma State University and Master of Art in Studio Art from the University of Arkansas – Little Rock.

In addition to making fine art, he works as graphic novelist and illustrator. Some of his titles include Dead Eyes Open, Trickster: Native American Tales, Tales of the Mighty Code Talkers, and Moonshot. He has contributed articles on Indigenous art and culture to various publications including Indian Country Today, Native Peoples, the Cherokee Phoenix, and First American Art. Currently, Roy works for the Cherokee Nation Department of Language as a program manager where he works in making the Cherokee language useable in technology. An extensive list of his exhibitions, publications, and presentations can be found at www.royboneyart.com.

Jeff Edwards
Jeff Edwards of Vian, Oklahoma, is an award-winning Cherokee graphic artist who has worked for the Cherokee Nation for over 20 years. He is a language activist and has worked on numerous projects that have projected the Cherokee language into the global spotlight. Jeff attended Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas and received his associate’s degree in Liberal Arts and completed his Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah. Jeff’s artwork is almost exclusively Cherokee-themed. He prefers using the Cherokee Syllabary as opposed to English to promote the Cherokee language and likes using old cultural concepts but expressing them with modern electronic tools. His work is now on view in the exhibition A Living Language: Cherokee Syllabary and Contemporary Art, co-organized by the Museum of the Cherokee Indian and on view at the Asheville Art Museum from November 19, 2021 to March 14, 2022.

John Henry Gloyne
John Henry Gloyne (Eastern Band Cherokee/Osage/Pawnee) is an artist from the Cherokee Indian Reservation in the mountains of western North Carolina. Gloyne works in a variety of mediums having a foot in two different worlds: his Indigenous culture and the modern world around it. Walking the delicate line of the crescendo of culture and capitalism inspires him to create work that transmits his view of the universe. Tattooing, painting, drawing, and traditional Cherokee mask carving are outlets of his expression.

Keli ᎨᎳᏗ Gonzales
Keli ᎨᎳᏗ Gonzales is a Cherokee artist from Welling, Oklahoma. She merges pop culture and traditional Cherokee cultural images to make personal statements. She also incorporates the Cherokee syllabary into her work with the hope that it will inspire people to learn to read syllabary and possibly learn the language.