Kellen Trenal
Ancestry: Black American and niimíipuu, Nez Perce
Based In: Spokane, WA
Email: trenaloriginal@gmail.com
Social Media: @trenaloriginal
Website: trenaloriginal.com
About the Art
This piece is named: Big Ole Freak. It is an 11"x14" painted canvas with hand-beaded applique designs and embellishments featuring Houston rapper, Megan Thee Stallion. Big Ole Freak is a purse facade, giving the aesthetics of a handmade niimíipuu, Nez Perce style flat bag without actually serving the purpose of storing items like a normal purse.
My work aims to document the condition of me, the Black American and internet-connected niimíipuu, Nez Perce multi-disciplinary artist. Decades and possible centuries from now, people will see my Black identity being expressed within nimíipuu art forms and motifs. As my beaded pieces become included in the canon of Nez Perce beadwork over the ages, there will be no way of working around acknowledging my mixed heritage.
Rather than placing a sleeping fawn in a meadow or an eagle with an American flag on a beaded purse like my ancestors, this beaded purse facade showcases a Black woman that is celebrating many successes in popular culture of the early 2020's. Big Ole Freak is a representation of my journey. It is an expression of the popular culture that inspires me with the use of tools and skills that have survived generations of genocide, forced removal from homelands, and systematic injustices that continue to this day. This is me telling my story. íinim titwáatit, my story.
About the Artist
Kellen Trenal (pronounced like "Chanel") is a visual artist, performer, small business owner, alumnus of the University of Notre Dame, and holistic wellness enthusiast, born and raised in the Pacific Northwest. Being both Black American and niimíipuu, Nez Perce, Trenal embraces his multiple identities to empower his work in all its manifestations. He shares his (he)artwork through Trenal Original, a traditional-arts based, QBIPOC-owned, small business. Each piece is a custom creation aimed at increasing visibility for historically excluded communities.
