Monica Gilles-BringsYellow


Monica Gilles-Brings Yellow is a self-taught Indigenous artist born and raised on the Plains of Montana. In Monica’s paintings she draws on her background of being an Indigenous Montanan to tell the stories of Native American women and the landscapes they come from. Monica incorporates her cultural knowledge with a layered amalgamation of various techniques combining inks, gold leaf, and resin with portraits to present the viewer with a visual history and connection between people and place. Monica hopes that her art provides Indigenous representation and tells the stories of Native American women’s resilience and brilliance.

Monica's paintings have been in numerous exhibitions and solo shows throughout Montana and the Rocky Mountain West including the C.M. Russell Art Auction, Radius Gallery (Missoula, MT), The Brinton Museum (Big Horn, WY), KALICO Gallery (Kalispell, MT), Emerson Center for Arts (Bozeman, MT), the ZACC (Missoula, MT), Missoula Art Museum Auction, as well as having commissions at the Montage Hotel (Big Sky, MT) and The Meadowlark, as well as several Traffic Signal Boxes in Missoula.

My painting is of Sackwoman (Mary Kaltomee) and is based of a photograph taken of her picking bitterroot at Rattlesnake Creek in Missoula back when Missoula had still had bitterroot growing on the valley floor. I picked Sackwoman as my subject for the portrait because she was a favorite subject of many stories from my husband's Sile (Grandfather) Louie Adams. She was a respected elder in the Tribe (Bitterroot Salish) and she was often in charge of disciplining children both related to her and otherwise. Sile would often tell stories of his memories of her when he was a small boy.

For me, personally, this portrait was a chance to feel connected to people that have since passed on and a chance to continue telling their stories.

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Monica Raphael