Luella Brien
Luella Brien
Creating for the Everyday
Brien’s daughter wearing the dress Brien made for her. Courtesy of the artist.
Luella Brien (she/her) doesn’t necessarily think of herself as an artist. Making regalia and jewelry for her kids and family members is just what she does. “It’s utilitarian,” she says, “like darning socks.” In some ways, making art really is like darning socks for her - it’s a part of her everyday life, and her family uses what she makes all the time, just as they would their socks. And still, in other ways, it’s hard to compare her intricate beadwork and innovative designs to something as mundane as a pair of old, worn-out socks.
Brien learned to bead at an early age, as young as 8 years old, on visits to her paternal grandmother’s house, which may be one reason she sees creating art as just one aspect of everyday life.
“My Grandma Joy, she was always beading. And if you ask around, everyone has something my grandma made. And I got real curious, so I would just sit there and watch her, and she would explain what she was doing and how she was doing it as she was working. And all of us [grandchildren] who were curious, we would get that lesson. And then she would do the design and, if we were curious enough and interested enough, she would let us do the fill. A lot of people’s outfits that she beaded, we all had a hand in it because we would do the background fill.”
“My Grandma Joy, she was always beading. And if you ask around, everyone has something my grandma made.”
In addition to lessons from Grandma Joy, Brien also learned to bead from her mother who, when she wasn’t working, was beading. Her mother’s beadwork was sold in gift shops at national parks across the west like those around Glacier National Park. As a result, some of her artwork ended up in museum collections, but is not attributed to her because of the nature of how it was collected. Thinking of her mother’s work in a museum somewhere unknown to her, Brien reflects, “it’s real frustrating because they act like we’re so anonymous.”
Just like her paternal grandmother, Brien’s mother would have Brien bead the background fill when she made earrings, leggings, and belts, and by the time she was in middle school, she was already a skilled beader.
Today, Brien is known throughout her community for her skill in making moccasins, a skill her mother learned from her grandmother and then passed on to her.
Beadwork by Brien. Belt beaded by Meigha Tsosie. Courtesy of Brien.
Brien started making elk tooth dresses in 2004, after her sons were born, when her maternal grandmother needed a dress to wear. Brien remembers, “she asked me to make it, and I was like…I don’t know how to make an elk tooth dress! But she said, ‘oh you’ll do fine.’ That’s really how a lot of us learn how to do stuff. They just put a lot of faith in us. They say, ‘this is how you do it’ and then you just do it.” From this exchange, it is clear where Brien gets her matter of fact “just darning socks” attitude about creating art. Sometimes it’s as simple as, someone needs a dress, so you learn how to make it.
Brien’s grandmother sent her the supplies and a dress that was already made and said ‘do it like this one’ so she studied the dress, cut out a miniature paper version, and then, she says, “I cut the wool and prayed that I did it right. And she still uses that dress today.”
Now, when Brien teaches others to make dresses, she draws on her own first experience, and has them cut out a paper version first. The second dress she made was a renovation project for her cousin. Her grandmother bought a dress for her cousin and all the teeth were leaning to one side: “I said, ‘Grandma, that elk tooth dress needs braces.’ She said, ‘I know but I don’t know what to do!’ So I said, ‘Give it to me, I’ll fix it.’” And she did. She describes it as an “extreme dress makeover.” After that she made many more dresses for her daughter, her niece, and other family members. She started making regalia in earnest when her kids told her they wanted to dance.
Progress photos of the elk tooth dress Brien made for her daughter. Courtesy of the artist.
In 2019, Brien taught a class on how to make elk tooth dresses to 25 people at the Boys and Girls Club in Lodge Grass. About 15 people ended up finishing the dresses that they made. Brien remembers seeing the dresses on young kids during Grand Entry at Crow Fair: “The little girls were all real proud because their moms and aunties and grandmas made their dresses.”
Joining bead night helped Luella realize how good she actually is at what she does. At first, she resisted McCleary’s invitations to join: “I didn’t even join bead night for a long time because I thought ‘Oh it’s for artists.’” And Brien had never thought of herself as an artist before. But before long, McCleary’s badgering paid off, and Brien joined the weekly beading circle. It ended up providing a forum for her to commune with other artists and slowly she started to understand her own creative process as an artistic practice. She says, “I always felt like I didn't know a lot about beading, and like I was kind of a novice. But when I got on bead night, I realized I actually know a lot. My confidence in beading has gone up a lot, and that makes me want to do more projects.”
Close up of imitation elk teeth. Courtesy of Brien.
Brien’s daughter wearing the dress Brien made for her. Courtesy of the artist.
Even though Brien doesn’t generally create work to sell like many of the other artists on bead night do, the other artists are incredibly supportive of her work and her practice, and she describes that support as invaluable. Reflecting on bead night, she notes “even now it’s still strangely difficult for me to think of myself as an artist. That’s still a journey. I think that I’m very dependent on the people in the bead night group to get that feeling of being an artist. I do feel more like an artist when I have that time with them.”
Luella Brien beads, sews, and constructs Apsáalooke style moccasins. She spends her time primarily producing items for her daughter, sons and nieces and nephews. Brien learned most of her craft as a youth observing her mother and paternal grandmother, as well as by taking items apart and reassembling them. Once she had children in 2003, her passion for creation was renewed.