Living near the lake is essential for Indigenous artist Rik Yannott, whose work often features a body of water. Yannott, 51, lives in Peshawbestown with Lake Michigan not far from home. Since he was in the seventh grade and started drawing, Yannott has taken inspiration from nature and his Anishinaabek heritage. Like in Anishinaabe teachings, water is sacred and gives life, and Yannott said it helps keep him connected with mother earth. His artwork isn’t just a form of creative expression, but is part of a healing process in life that he cherishes.
“The main thing about my art is the healing process. Some of my paintings are pretty deep — just having that time for myself, listening to my music and to powwow music, having that time, — that’s my healing,” Yannott said. “A lot of my paintings reflect where I’m from in Leelanau County. You’ll see lakes in my drawings and paintings… but I always try to include a body of water. I’ve tried to move away from here, but it’s always the water that’s brought me back — I have to be by the water.”
Yannott creates artwork depicting important aspects and traditions from his culture. From paintings portraying a sweat lodge, a sacred place of ceremony for cleansing and healing among indigenous people, to images of the Medicine Wheel/sacred circle, eagle feathers, lakes, and the Northern Lights across the night sky. He shares his art through various mediums including canvas, pen and pencil drawings, regalia, sculpture, birch bark and quillwork.
While multiple projects are usually underway in his household, Yannott is currently working to finish up a totem pole that he carved and painted depicting the Seven Grandfather Teachings — Wisdom, love, respect, bravery, honesty, humility, and truth. The pole is set to be mounted at the healing garden in Traverse City in the weeks ahead. He is also finishing illustrations for another project with Anishinaabemowin teacher/tribal elder Kenny Pheasant, who is putting together a language book. Their collaboration began more than 20 years ago when Yannott did the original artwork for Pheasant’s first language book.
“I do a little bit of everything, but I started with drawing… He (Pheasant) comes up with the story and breaks it down from the language to the English language. Then I have to take this and translate it into art,” he said. “My first freelance gig was in 1991. I did the grand opening poster for the Leelanau Sands Casino — At the time, I was in graphic arts so I printed it as well at the school up here at Career Tech Center. I was taking graphic arts and commercial arts.”
Much of everything else Yannott has mastered has been self-taught and from working alongside senior indigenous artists like Russell Noganosh, Fred Raphael, and Rob DeYoung. Yannott’s grandmother, Catherine Baldwin, was known in Peshawbestown and beyond for her quillwork on birchbark and black ash baskets, and he remembers watching and assisting her with the process, too.
“These guys (Noganosh, Raphael) are like uncles to me… It’s just picking it (art skills) up and sharing those different styles and techniques,” he said. “I’ve been given these gifts and these abilities from my grandmother… she (Baldwin) did a lot of quill baskets, so I had to sit with her quite a bit sorting quills and taking care of porcupines, things like that when I was young, so I’ve been around it all my life.”
Depending on the seasons, Yannott can be found working on different art pieces and with various mediums. Right now, it’s the season of him focusing on woodwork projects and spending time outdoors.
“In the winter time, I try to do a little bit more painting and drawing inside… It depends on the season and where your mind is at,” he said. “... I can’t just wake up in the morning and say I’m going to get at a painting because it depends on what’s going on in life. Sometimes I have to set that paintbrush down and not paint for a while. I haven’t really done a painting in four months because I’ve been doing the drawings and wood carvings.”
Yannott paints houses for Blackbird Painting full-time, but has always made a point to continue his art in his free time at home. He said if it was possible to make a living producing his art alone, he would, acknowledging the struggles many young artists face in following their passions.
“You have to have a full time job and that’s one of things I tell these younger artists. We have a few of them that are struggling with their art… they see what we go through and that we have to have a full time job, so therefore they fall into wherever,” he said. “Their gifts and their abilities that they were given from the creator, they just brush it aside — and that’s one of the saddest things. As Ottawa and Ojibway people, we have always been barters and we have always taken our crafts and gone off and traded with other nations and brought that back…” People have discovered Yannott’s artwork by word of mouth, but he also grew up on the powwow trail, singing and traveling with his art and connecting with those from different nations throughout the Great Lakes and other states.
“By singing and my artwork, I’ve been able to go coast to coast, you got to leave,” he said. “If you just stay here on the reservation, ain’t nobody going to know your name… I’ve stepped away from my singing to concentrate more on my artwork. At different stages in life, you have to set some things aside in order to grow.”
Little by little, Yannott said he hopes to get the opportunity in the future to teach the youth more about art and the techniques behind it, adding that it’s a passion he plans to never give up.
“My artwork is my life and where it takes me. It’s not done yet,” he said. “I’m still learning everyday, and that’s one of the things I try to tell my son. You got to try to accomplish and learn something everyday — try to be a better person everyday.”
To inquire about artwork with Yannott, people can email him at [email protected] or follow his art page “Richard ‘Rik’ Yannott on social media via Facebook.
