Artist Inspirations, part 10: What Drives My Inspiration as an Artist?

zhaawano
54 minutes ago
3 min read

Makwa-giizis (Bear Moon)/Namebini-giizis (Suckerfish Moon), February 26, 2026

Non-profit artist-jeweler Zhaawano Giizhik

As a jeweler and storyteller deeply connected to my Anishinaabe heritage, my motivation has always been to invigorate our storytelling tradition with new life and healing, while simultaneously challenging the boundaries of visual art and the jewelry-making art form.

What does being an artist mean to me?

I consider myself an artist whose creations serve as storytelling devices rather than commercial products. In addition, I seek more than just the creation of forms or design. I search for the essence of a piece, and in doing so, I seek the essence of life itself. For me, whether I am creating or simply observing life in a routine manner, the anima or animus of a being I depict or observe represents the core of the self. You can perceive the body, the outward manifestation or persona of a human being (or an animal, or spirit), but their vital essence might reside elsewhere, particularly when they are asleep and dreaming or on a spirit journey.

When aanike-mishoomisaabaneg, our ancestors, looked at a person, or a "relative" of the nonhuman class, what did they see? To them, in everyday life, this mysterious quality, which they called OJICHAAG, always revealed itself in the person’s disposition and temperament, his expressions and his gestures, and through the timbre of his voice. And since they were thought to be windows to the soul, ojichaag became particularly apparent through the eyes of a person – after all, was it not our older and wiser brothers the four-legged animals that looked right into a man’s eyes to see his true intentions?

Similarly, the aanike-mishoomisaabaneg believed that the ojichaag—the essence and consciousness of both humans and non-humans—manifested through what they referred to as jiiban (shadow): an often unseen element that shapes and governs a person's perception and intuition. They understood that, in certain situations, a person's shadow could mystically reveal itself as ojiibaaman (aura)!

While I hold these beliefs to be true, I am not oblivious to the fact that Western tradition encourages us to approach our relationships with the natural world in a purely technical and rationalistic manner. Are we not taught in school to make clear categorical distinctions between living organisms and so-called dead matter, the animate and the inanimate, the natural and the supernatural, the human and the nonhuman, and linear time and circular time? This is why I am increasingly aware that the essential key to understanding the essence and expressiveness of my art, and possibly even my observational skills as both an artist and a person, lies in the ancient worldview of the aanike-mishoomisaabaneg rather than in the classical paradigms of Western thought.

My visual art and jewelry are crafted as educative tools and are not available for purchase.