'Song' of Native California

Among works featured in a new exhibit at the Community Memorial Museum of Sutter County is a contemporary painter's take on Modoc tribe leader Captain Jack.

Artist Mike Rodriguez juxtaposed a distinctly Anglo-American, Warhol-like pop art style with a historic portrait of Jack — a tragic and iconic Native American hero.

The untitled painting is one of roughly 30 works that make up "Sing Me Your Story, Dance Me Home: Art and Poetry from Native California," which opened Friday at the Yuba City museum and continues through Nov. 16.

About 25 tribes of "California's first peoples," according to exhibit literature, are represented through the artists' works.

The sculptures, paintings, photos, poems and baskets were collected through the California Exhibition Resources Alliance, which organized the traveling, grant-funded exhibit.

"Teaching about the people who came before us is part of what we do here," said Julie Stark, the museum's director.

"We can learn a lot about their history by learning about their art," she said.

California native peoples, according to information featured among the artworks, "lived in 500 distinct nations." Artifacts collected from some of their ancestral home sites have been carbon-dated to 12,000 B.C.

The exhibit was an outgrowth of "The Dirt's Red Here," published in 2002 by Heydey Books, which features photographs of artworks as well as poetry by many of the Native American artists represented at the museum.

"She Comes Home," a poem by Janice Gould of the Konkow Maidu, describes a Native American mother's disturbing train ride home after medical treatment by white doctors in Quincy.

Judith Lowry's triptych, "Weh-pom and the Star Sisters," depicts a Maidu constellation myth in three giclee prints.

The artists' use of contemporary materials and styles to handle historic — or even ancient — subject matter is near constant through the exhibit.

Rodriguez's untitled portrait of Captain Jack borrows from Warhol's palette, including garish yellow, turquoise and pinked reds. The leader's timeless facial features cut through the dominant off-red, white and blue, and help drive home contrasts between style and substance.

Know and go

• What: "Sing Me Your Story, Dance Me Home" Native American art exhibit

• When: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Friday; noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; through Nov. 16

• Where: Community Memorial Museum of Sutter County, 1333 Butte House Road, Yuba City

• Cost: Free admission

• Phone: 822-7141

Contact Appeal reporter Nancy Pasternack at 749-4712 or npasternack@appeal-democrat.com