Lily Hope (born 1980, Juneau) is an Alaska Native artist, designer, teacher, weaver, Financial Freedom planner, and community facilitator. [1] She is primarily known for her skills at weaving customary Northwest Coast ceremonial regalia such as Chilkat robes and ensembles. She owns a public-facing studio in Juneau, called Wooshkindein Da.àat: Lily Hope Weaver Studio which opened downtown in 2022. [2] Lily Hope is a mother of five children, and works six days a week.
Lily Hope, also known as Lily Lalanya Hudson, was born and raised in Juneau, Alaska by full-time artists. She identifies herself as Tlingit Indian of the Raven moiety from her grandmother's clan, the T’akdeintaan. [3] [1] The clan originated from Snail House in Hoonah, Alaska. Her Lingít name is Wooshkindein Da.àat. [4] Her mother, Clarissa Rizal, and artist Kay Parker, [5] both well-known and also from Juneau, Alaska, taught her how to weave.
Clarissa Rizal (Tlingit, 1956–2016) was a weaver, painter, printmaker, carver, and sculptor. She was one of the last apprentices of the late master Chilkat weaver, Jennie Thlunaut (Tlingit, 1891-1986). In the 1990s, Thlunaut was one of few artists who still created Chilkat weaving. Thlunaut's knowledge of formline design was so thorough that she was able to create her own designs that followed those aesthetic rules. She taught this to Rizal, who in turn taught Hope how to weave in formline style. Hope's ties with her mother were strong to the point that they collaborated on an ensemble and won first place at an art show. Her sister, Ursala Hudson, is also a textile artist and fashion designer.
Hope studied communications and theater at University of Alaska Southeast from 2002 to 2007. Soon after college, she became a well-known Chilkat and Raventail weaver and teacher. She also acted and participated in the Alaskan Regional theater, [6] Perseverance Theatre, whose mission is to “create professional theatre by and for Alaskans." [7] [ better source needed ] They valued community engagement, cross-cultural collaboration, professional rigor, and regional voice. This ties in with Hope's commitment and dedication to her hometown.
She teaches weaving in Juneau, Yukon Territory, and down the coast of southeast Alaska. She is also a mother of five children. [8]
Copper Child (2012) was her first Ravenstail ensemble, in which she collaborated with her mother Clarissa Rizal. It is made from Merino wool, rabbit fur, sea otter fur, and copper cones. It includes a robe, headdress, and apron. It fits a child. Its intent is for celebrations. It contains standing at the top of the mountain pattern repeating across the body of the robe, with Hope's 2002 design, shaman eyes, and Rizal's traditional lightning and Haida spider web designs. [9] It had a run of exhibits and shows and won first place at Sealake Heritage Institute's Juried Art Show in 2012. It now holds a permanent spot in its collection.
Little Watchman (2014) is a child-size Chilkat ensemble that includes a headdress, leggings, a wool jacket adorned with epaulets, and a Chilkat face on the back. It exemplifies the mix of Ravenstail and Chilkat textiles. Chilkat robes used a modified Northwest Coast formline, and she weaves them by hand on an upright frame with no tools other than a tapestry needle to tuck in braids. And it is on display in the exhibition Reflections: Native Arts Across Generations at the Fralin Museum of Art. This exhibition's purpose was to bring together historic Native American art that was drawn from the collections of the Fralin Museum of Art with the work of several distinguished contemporary Native artists. [10]
Lineage Robe (2017) thigh-spun Merino wool, cedar bark, hand-dyed merino wool, beaver fur [11] is part of the collection of the Portland Art Museum. In the Northwest Coast, such as Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, the tribes believe in human and animal interactions were strong enough to the point that they could switch with each other. The Chilkat blanket is a woven cape, worn by high-ranking tribal members during civic and ceremonial occasions. Only the wealthy could make or own. Both men and women contributed to the process of creating the blanket. Men would design the pattern while the women would provide the cedar bark. It was considered a great privilege. The standard design is a white background with a bold black border and fringe on the lower portion. This also consisted of the formline style, which is a primary design from the Northwest. It consisted of darkly outlined shapes called ovoids. Ovoids are U or V-shapes. The blankets are in black, white, or red colors. But on this occasion, Hope mainly used the traditional designs of a Chilkat blanket but added in color to it to modernize it. [12]
Heritage Robe (2017) is her first adult-size Chilkat robe. It took her 17 months, from 2016 to 2017, and more than 1,700 hours at her loom. It is one of four robes in the exhibition at Portland Art Museum, in Portland Oregon that are connected by the same teaching lineage. It mainly holds the same outlined shapes and characteristics from the Lineage Robe. Hope worked on the robe at SHI's Delores Churchill Artist-in-Residence Studio. While she was working on the project, her mother, Clarissa Rizal, passed away. The intention of the robe, according to Hope, is to help build international awareness and recognition of Chilkat weaving. Tlingit children and grandchildren could learn more about their ancestry. [13]
Giving Strength Robe (2019) 5-inch-by-5-inch squares to create a traditional indigenous robe. This is a collaboration with many Chilkat and Ravenstail weavers from all over North America. The concept originally came from Heidi Vantrease, the project organizers include Hope, Deanna Lampe, and Ursala Hudson. Ursala Hudson is Hope's sister who is an artist and a graphic designer who photographs and paints. She is also a mother and contributes to society by working as president and one of the founders of Pagosa Peak Open School, the community's charter school. The intention is to bring weavers together to bring in strength and for survivors to be able to heal. The completed robe will be given to Aiding Women in Abuse and Rape Emergencies (AWARE), Juneau's gender-inclusive shelter for survivors of gender-based violence. [14] This project was mildly based on Clarissa Rizal's “Weavers Across the Water's robe”, which also brought weavers together to create a robe to fight for a cause. [15]
Lily Hope's work is included in the following public collections.
The Tlingit or Lingít are Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America and constitute two of the two-hundred thirty-one federally recognized Tribes of Alaska. Although the majority, about 14,000 people, are Alaska Natives, there is a small minority, 2,110, who are Canadian First Nations.
Sealaska Corporation is one of thirteen Alaska Native Regional Corporations created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA) in settlement of aboriginal land claims. Headquartered in Juneau, Alaska, Sealaska is a for-profit corporation with more than 23,000 Alaska Native shareholders primarily of Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian descent.
Nora Marks Keixwnéi Dauenhauer was a Tlingit poet, short-story writer, and Tlingit language scholar from Alaska. She won an American Book Award for Russians in Tlingit America: The Battles of Sitka, 1802 And 1804. Nora was Alaska State Writer Laureate from 2012 - 2014.
Louis Situwuka Shotridge was an American art collector and ethnological assistant who was an expert on the traditions of his people, the Tlingit nation of southeastern Alaska. His Tlingit name was Stoowukháa, which means "Astute One."
Northwest Coast art is the term commonly applied to a style of art created primarily by artists from Tlingit, Haida, Heiltsuk, Nuxalk, Tsimshian, Kwakwaka'wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth and other First Nations and Native American tribes of the Northwest Coast of North America, from pre-European-contact times up to the present.
Delores E. Churchill is a Native American artist of Haida descent. She is a weaver of baskets, hats, robes, and other regalia, as well as leading revitalization efforts for Haida, her native language.
Chilkat weaving is a traditional form of weaving practiced by Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and other Northwest Coast peoples of Alaska and British Columbia. Chilkat robes are worn by high-ranking tribal members on civic or ceremonial occasions, including dances. The blankets are almost always black, white, yellow and blue.
Jennie Thlunaut was a Tlingit artist, who is credited with keeping the art of Chilkat weaving alive and was one of the most celebrated Northwest Coastal master weavers of the 20th century.
The textile arts of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas are decorative, utilitarian, ceremonial, or conceptual artworks made from plant, animal, or synthetic fibers by Indigenous peoples of the Americas.
Teri Rofkar, or Chas' Koowu Tla'a (1956–2016), was a Tlingit weaver and educator from Sitka, Alaska. She specialized in Ravenstail designs and spruce root baskets.
Rosita Kaaháni Worl is an American anthropologist and Alaska Native cultural, business and political leader. She is president of the Sealaska Heritage Institute, a Juneau-based nonprofit organization that preserves and advances the Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian Native cultures of Southeast Alaska, and has held that position since 1997. She also served on the board of directors of the Sealaska regional Native corporation for 30 years, beginning in 1987, including as board vice president. The corporation, with more than 22,000 shareholders, founded the heritage institute and provides substantial funding.
Clarissa Rizal was a Tlingit artist of Filipino descent. She was best known as a Chilkat and Ravenstail weaver, but she also worked in painting, printmaking, carving, and sculpting.
Tanis Maria S'eiltin is a Tlingit installation artist, painter, printmaker, and sculptor.
Florence Scundoo Shotridge was an Alaska Native ethnographer, museum educator, and weaver. From 1911 to 1917, she worked for the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. In 1905, she demonstrated Chilkat weaving at the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland, Oregon. In 1916, she co-directed with her husband Louis Shotridge a collecting expedition to Southeast Alaska that was funded by the retail magnate and Penn Museum trustee John Wanamaker.
Lani Hotch, also known as Saantaas', Sekwooneitl and Xhaatooch, is a Native American artist of Tlingit ancestry known for being a contemporary Chilkat weaver who uses Ravenstail weaving in her works.
Evelyn Vanderhoop is a Haida Nation artist from Masset, British Columbia, Canada. She paints and is a textile artist, specializing in Chilkat weaving and Raven's Tail weaving.
Ravenstail weaving, also known as Raven's Tail weaving, is a traditional form of geometric weaving-style practiced by Northwest Coast peoples.
Vicki Lee Soboleff is a Haida and Tlingit artist, dancer, and teacher who specializes in Haida basketry. She was awarded the Margaret Nick Cooke Award in 2016 from the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the Alaska Humanities Forum for her work with Alaska Native dance.
Ursala Hudson is an Alaska Native textile artist, graphic designer, and fashion designer. She also photographs and paints. She creates Chilkat weaving, including dance regalia, belts, collars, and earrings.
Kelsey Mata is an American illustrator and artist. A member of the Tlingit tribe, she is known for her work in children's picture books and digital art that portray Indigenous characters and ways of life.