Bio
Megan McDermott is enrolled Little Shell Chippewa, born in 1994, and first began her lifelong passion for visual art as a toddler. It was due to her maternal Blackfeet grandmother’s unconditional love and belief in Megan that she held onto art. Not unlike many Native people, Megan grew up in difficult circumstances. She has adverse childhood experiences as a result of generational trauma on both sides of her family, being a descendant of boarding school survivors and people displaced from their homes as direct results from colonialism. Much of her life she has seen those she loved face addictions, survived domestic violence, she lived in motels and shelters, starved, and lost many relatives who passed far too young like her grandmother who passed when she was a teenager. Her grandmother was a beadworker and avid lover of Native art, and it’s thanks to her influence that Megan's tumultuous life became positive. She often uses art as a tool to cope with pain and hardship, whether it be through beadwork, painting, large scale murals, or most recently with soft sculpture and mixed media. She has since chosen to use her skills to communicate narratives and demonstrate storytelling in visual ways in her own practice as well as with organizations. In 2023, she won awards during her first major juried Native market exhibitions in Arizona and New Mexico. Most recently in 2024, she won an Honoring Innovation award as well as the first and second place people's choice awards at the Washington State History Museum’s annual contemporary Native art exhibition, IN THE SPIRIT. She continues to exhibit her work when she can, with an upcoming group exhibition at the Colorado State Capitol building as well as another group Native exhibition in November at South Puget Sound Community College. Through her exhibitions, she hopes to express how vital contemporary Native art is within urban settings. She is currently training on a full scholarship at the Gage Academy of Art with an emphasis on painting while simultaneously pursuing a degree in fiction creative writing from SNHU.
Statement
So much of the teachings I grew up with delve into art being alive. This is present and expressed through my use of vibrant colors to demonstrate spirit and life, furthered through line and movement. Coming from three tribes, the Little Shell Chippewa, Blackfeet, and Cree, there are many cultural exchanges between them within my family because of the intertribal marriages. I continue to explore and hope to honor these connections and how they impact me through visual narratives and history found within symbolism of the subject matter and their context of each individual piece. Subject matter includes traditional stories of the spirit world, the grass dance as it found its way to each of my tribes, and an inclusion of past and present Native people in my life are still here and make their marks within rural to urban spaces.