Stage Fright, 1984

Acquired directly from the artist Private Collection, Winnipeg

Daphne Odjig's distinctive Woodland style execution acts as a direct response to the trend of exclusion or misrepresentation of Native and Indigenous culture in the dialogue of Canadian art. Opting for a style emphasizing strong line, bold colour, and lyrical movement, Odjig thrusts her Odawa-Potawatomi culture and histories into the visual culture of Canadian art. The artist used her practice to explore themes of bravery, courage and creative thinking through a series of illustrated children's books. The artist used story-telling to bond Native and non-Native cultures through the various adventures of Nanabush, the son of the West Wind and great-grandson of the Moon. With a gentle reference to cubist practices of flattening and rotating three-dimensional objects in a two dimensional space, Odjig's “Stage Fright” offers the viewer a layered image of three figures simultaneously viewed at various angles and stages of rotation in space thus shifting the viewer’s perspective of reality. The themes of bravery and courage can be inferred from the title of the painting, used as a vehicle for the artist to continue a dialogue between Native and non-Native cultures and narratives. These themes Odjig explores are universal, and thus strategic in continuing and furthering a greater mutual understanding and respect within a complex multicultural definition of Canadian identity and artistic practices.