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"Turning Coyote" - 12" x 12"
Acrylic on canvas |
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"Sunset Mystery" - 24" x 48"
Acrylic on canvas |
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"Moon on Red Mesa and Red Mesa Moon"
Set of 2 Acrylics - 10" x 10" each |
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"Full Moon Tipi" -
Acrylic on canvas - 30" x 24" |
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Nocona Burgess is a Comanche from Lawton Oklahoma. He is the great-great grandson of Chief Quanah Parker, on his mothers side of the family. His father, Ronald Burgess, was also a former chief of the Comanche tribe.
Nocona was surrounded by art throughout his life. His father, who went to school for art and education and always painted while Nocona was growing up. His maternal grandfather, Simmons Parker, was an artist, as was his maternal grandmother, Ina Parker, a quilt maker of her own designs. His great-grandmother, Daisy Tachaco, who raised his father, was an accomplished bead worker despite being blind. Art was in Nocona's blood.
In 1989 Nocona moved to New Mexico and enrolled in the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe. Noconas art took off at IAIA. He learned a quite a bit about Native art and how the traditional forms had evolved into more contemporary styles. This evolution inspired Nocona. He had grown up knowing people like Doc Tate Nevaquaya, Rance Hood, Allen Houser, and reading about Oklahoma artists like Woody Crumbo and Kiowa 5. He loved their old style of art, but it seemed so distant. To this day Nocona enjoys painting old portraits and traditional subjects, but in a contemporary style. Nocona says, "In a way, when I paint them the subjects speak to me and I get to know them. After looking at them over and over for hours, how can I not receive something from them? My painting is a way of saying thank you to them for all of their sacrifices."
In 1991, Nocona graduated from IAIA with an Associate in Fine Arts degree, he then went on to the University of New Mexico where he continued and obtained a degree with an emphasis in both studio art and native art history.
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