MINNESOTA 1 | Block #10
Team Name: Team KWE
Sculpture Title: Aamoog, Memengwaa, miinawaa Oboodashkwaanishiinyag (Bees, Butterflies and Dragonflies)
Artist Statement: As Team Kwe, we honor our relatives who crawl and fly through this montage of native pollinators in their natural habitat! Featuring a Monarch butterfly, caterpillar, bees and a dragonfly, they survive through the presence of native plants in their natural habitat. As Anishinaabe women, Aamoog, memengwaa, miinawaa Oboodashkwaanishiinyag (Bees, butterflies and Dragonflies) are an important part of our heritage and community. We strive for the preservation of our pollinator relatives, and bringing awareness to the need for insect conservation.
Team Members:
- Heather Friedli (Captain): Heather Friedli, Team Captain, is an oil painter who lives in Saint Paul and is a first-generation descendant of the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians, and has family heritage with the Indigenous peoples of Sonora Mexico. Heather creates landscape paintings about the natural world, creating Land and Heritage Inspired Art. Heather has been sculpting snow for 16 years, winning competitions such as the Minnesota State Snow Sculpting Championship in 2016, and winning the National Snow Sculpting Championship in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin in 2019 on Team Dino Fight. Heather also participated as lead pro-sculptor for Disney on their snow sculpting TV show called “Best in Snow” with team “The Bah-Humbugs” on Disney+. Her fondest memory of Lake Geneva is winning the 2019 National Snow Sculpting Competition with Team Dino Fight! As well as all the friends I have made along the way! And don't forget the delicious food- YUM!
- Juliana Welter: Juliana Welter is Heather’s sister, and an independent artist and a martial arts instructor living in Minneapolis, MN. Formerly a competitive figure skater, she now competes nationally and internationally in karate as a second degree black belt. Juliana also likes to do rock climbing and make digital art. Juliana says that her fondest memory of Lake Geneva is when "I was on top of our block with the giant hand auger, in the blistering cold, drilling into the middle of our giant sculpture- epic! And the food!"
- Maggie Thompson: Maggie Thompson (Fond du Lac Ojibwe) was born and raised in Minneapolis, MN. Maggie is well known nationally for her intricately knitted cowls and hats and has been showcased in museums across the country for her textiles and performance artworks. Maggie's work has appeared in the New York Times, Smithsonian, Bockley Gallery, and on billboards across the Twin Cities. As an artist and designer she derives her inspiration from family history, Ojibwe heritage and the broader Native American experience. Skillfully and intuitively working with both natural and synthetic materials, Thompson’s multimedia artwork expands various textile traditions’ inherited ways of being and becoming. Maggie hasn't made a Lake Geneva memory yet, but she's looking forward to the opportunity!
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