Evangeline Robinson presses designs into a new clay pottery project using a wooden stamp during the Meet the Artist event Nov. 15 in Colbert.
Meet the Artist - Evangeline Robinson
By Brandon Frye
Choctaw Nation
Durant, Okla. - Evangeline “Vangie” Robinson, Choctaw artist from Boswell, got her start in 2009 as a student attending classes offered by the Choctaw Nation and worked her way up to actively teaching her skills and selling her wares.
“Pottery is my forte,” Robinson said. “I wanted to have something to do, get out of the house, and making pottery was appealing. It was a hobby, but it is getting to be a business.”
Robinson said she enjoys the entire process of creating traditional pottery, from digging the clay out of the ground and collecting shells from the shores of local lakes, to the smell of the clay itself, which she says reminds her of fresh rain on the earth.
With her work, alongside traditional design work, Robinson likes to use objects found around her–like drawer handles or wheels from old toy cars–to make unique designs for the pottery she forms.
“Using the materials at hand is something our ancestors have always done. It’s just kind of Vangie’s way of adapting a very ancient art to the present time period,” Ian Thompson, Director of Historic Preservation for the Choctaw Nation, said.
Thompson helped Vangie Robinson develop her appreciation for the art form. Thompson taught his first pottery class in Oklahoma in 2009, a class which Robinson attended and, according to Robinson, was when she first fell in love with the craft.
“We demonstrated the techniques and got input from people on how to set up classes which would be beneficial to the Choctaw people,” Thompson said. “As the meetings went on, we started to teach the skills involved in the process of Choctaw pottery, with the hope that people would be interested and some would eventually want to become Choctaw teachers.”
Thompson said the class would go out and dig clay from tribal trust land, bring it back, then clean it. They would go out to local lakes and collect freshwater mussel shells and burn them, crush them up, and mix them with the clay. Then they would shape traditional styles of Choctaw pottery by hand and fire them in an open wood fire. At the time, the class would also make trips to museums and learn from master potters.
“Vangie was present for all of that. It’s five years later and we are still teaching classes, and she is still coming.” Thompson said.
Vangie Robinson is also branching out to other traditional arts like beadwork, and even teaches pottery classes herself. “I want to teach others who want to learn. This is important to me, because it makes sure our culture is passed on,” she said.
Robinson said pottery is very unique. It covers many forms, like storage, dishes, eating utensils, and music. “Over time, metal will rust, but with pottery, archaeologist can date it and know what tribes were in the area. Even if it breaks, or is thrown away, it will still be there if it is fired, it will stand the test of time,” she said.
Speaking on Robinson’s success with Choctaw art, Ian Thompson said, “It was ultimately her interest level. She had a lot of interest in learning how to do pottery. Over time she became very proficient at it. She’s also a personable individual, so she interacts well with the community and people who come to class. It was a natural progression for her to become a teacher.”
“If I can do it, anybody can do it,” Robinson said. “I didn’t think I could ever do anything like this, especially at the beginning.”