Oral history interview with Mary Adair

Little Thunder: This is Julie Pearson-Little Thunder. Today is December 8, 2011, and I'm interviewing Mary Adair for the Oklahoma Native Artist Project sponsored by the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program at Oklahoma State University. We're at Mary's home here in the country in Stilwell. Mary, you're a descendant of Cherokee Beloved Woman, Nancy Ward, an early Native woman leader. You've divided your efforts between art and education and community service. Thank you for taking the time to talk with me.

Adair: You're welcome. Just one little correction, this is Sequoyah County. (Laughter)

Little Thunder: Okay, thank you! Where were you born, and where did you grow up?

Adair: I was born just up the hill from here in my grandparents' home and grew up here, and really wasn't anywhere else very much until I went to school at Bacone College. That was my first time to be away from home. Then I went to 1:00Northeastern [State University] after that, and later married and had four children.

Little Thunder: Growing up, did you have any brothers and sisters?

Adair: I have one full brother, and I have a half sister that's older than I am.

Little Thunder: What did your folks do for a living?

Adair: My dad was a disabled World War I veteran. He didn't marry until he was almost forty, married my mother. She was a widow. She had a little daughter. She had come here from Tennessee and met my dad. I think they only knew each other a couple of months when they got married. My dad was sick a lot because he had 2:00been injured in the war. He died when I was seven years old and my brother was two.

Little Thunder: You were born in your grandparents' house. You were close to your grandparents on your dad's side of the family?

Adair: Well, they had passed away, so it was just my parents and my brother and sister and I that lived there, but I had aunts and uncles that lived all around where we lived. My aunt and uncle lived here at this house, and I had two other aunts that lived just up the road from us, and an uncle. We had a lot of family around, cousins, so that was really good.

Little Thunder: A lot of important family history, even in terms of the whole 3:00tribe. What kinds of stories did you hear growing up?

Adair: Oh, I heard a lot about Cherokee history. (Laughter) We had one aunt that lived about a mile up the road from us. She came often. She didn't have any children. She had gone to the [Cherokee Female] Seminary at Tahlequah, and Cherokee history was on her mind all the time. Other family members--her name was Winona. After a while they'd say, "Let's talk about something else." (Laughter) She had been a school teacher, and so had two of my other aunts. That was part of it, I guess.

Little Thunder: What is your first memory of doing art?

Adair: I went to school here at Badger Grade School for several years before my dad died, and we moved into town for awhile. I did some little basic art projects that I enjoyed doing down here. I remember my aunt that lived here kept one of my little drawings for a long time. It was just a thing that first or second graders would draw, but she kept it and made me feel good. I had a first cousin that taught art at the high school in Sallisaw. She encouraged me a lot with drawing. In fact, all of my cousins enjoyed drawing and were good at it. They didn't do it professionally, but they just liked to draw every once in a 5:00while. I was influenced, I guess, a lot by them.

Little Thunder: So you didn't have any art experiences in primary or secondary school that stood out strongly?

Adair: I had some really good art teachers. I mean, they encouraged me a lot. The curriculum wasn't much at that point, but they were very encouraging, very nice ladies. One of them was Dorotheene Pointer, and Elizabeth Black, and my cousin, Loris Dickey. They influenced my decision to go into art. However, Loris, being an art teacher, told me that she thought it might be a good idea to have a minor in elementary education, too, (Laughter) or something else, so I 6:00did minor in elementary education.

Little Thunder: Were you doing any Indian subject matter, as a child?

Adair: Just basically drawing anything that came to mind.

Little Thunder: When did you see your first piece of Indian art?

Adair: I guess when I went to Bacone. Dr. [Dick] West was there at that time, and I had classes there. That's when he had us do research and talk to people and that kind of thing, and then do drawings and paintings. That was my introduction, I guess. My first piece that I entered in an art show was when I was in school at TU. In 1967, I decided I was going to get a master's degree in 7:00art, so I went to school over there for a year and took some art classes. Alexander Hogue was my painting teacher there. He encouraged me to enter the Philbrook show with one of my paintings I'd done in class. I entered and won an honor mention. Turned out, he was one of the judges, (Laughter) but it was encouraging. Then the Five Tribes Museum started having competitive shows, and I entered some things there. I was motivated primarily by money because I had, by that time, four children. I wasn't working full time, so that added to our income.

Little Thunder: At Bacone, you were there one year?

Adair: No, I was there two years.

Little Thunder: What kinds of things did you learn in terms of an art foundation? Were they under Dick West, or did you have different teachers?

Adair: Dick West was my only painting teacher. I also had silversmithing under him. Mrs. Spinks, Alice Spinks, taught me a lot of traditional things like moccasin making and weaving and things like that.

Little Thunder: From there, you went on to Northeastern? Is that right?

Adair: Northeastern, yes.

Little Thunder: Were you taking art classes there?

Adair: Yes, I took painting and art history and silkscreen making. I think I 9:00took a watercolor class.

Little Thunder: Were you doing any Indian subject matter there?

Adair: Primarily, I was a young person, and I did whatever was required for the classes. (Laughs) Let's see. Ms. Allison, Ruth Allison, was a teacher there, and George Calvert. I learned quite a bit from them. I learned a lot of basic things from Ruth Allison. George Calvert taught the art history and the painting classes.

Little Thunder: When you were studying under Alexander Hogue, he was teaching watercolor. Is that right?

Adair: Oil. Oil painting.

Little Thunder: Is that when things gelled for you in terms of entering this piece at the Philbrook Annual?

Adair: I guess I probably wouldn't have entered if he hadn't encouraged me to enter. It was a piece I'd done in class.

Little Thunder: What was the image?

Adair: Actually, it was a cubist kind of thing, but it was of a group of dancers entering the arena. A lot of the colors were blue in it, as I remember. I think that painting belongs to TU, I believe.

Little Thunder: I think Jimmie Carol Fife was one of the first women to win at Philbrook, wasn't she?

Adair: You know, I don't know. I know Jimmie Carol.

Little Thunder: I'm just thinking there probably hadn't been a lot of Indian women painters entering. Were there a number of them entering, the year you did?

Adair: In 1967, well, I don't remember. I had never, maybe, gone to an art show before. I remember going to that show.

Little Thunder: What was that like? (Laughter)

Adair: Well, when you take four kids with you, you know-- (Laughter) Keeping them out of the pool out in the back was very--

Little Thunder: You also took watercolors at TU from Woody Crumbo?

Adair: Yes, I enjoyed that a lot. I never did think of myself as being a good 12:00watercolorist, but I can appreciate good watercolor.

Little Thunder: And, of course, you two had interests in common, in terms of subject matter.

Adair: Yes.

Little Thunder: What was one of the good things that you got from those lessons?

Adair: I think just seeing him as a Cherokee person who was teaching there at TU, that was rewarding, and getting acquainted with him. I hadn't known him before.

Little Thunder: When you graduated from NSU, you had your bachelor's degree and you could teach.

Adair: I went to teach in Tucson, Arizona, my first year out of school. My 13:00roommate and I, who is also Cherokee, Jean Christie, we decided we wanted to go somewhere. We'd never been out of the Cherokee Nation, basically. (Laughter) Very few times. We applied to teach at Tucson, and we were accepted, so we went out there. As it turned out, my younger brother went with us. He was still in high school. I don't remember how that happened, but he went out there, and he went to high school in Tucson and stayed out there with me and was out there for a year. Then my to-be husband, he'd been in the army at that time. I'd met him at Bacone, but he had quit school and gone into the army, and he'd come back from Germany. He came out there, so we got married in Tucson.

Little Thunder: Were you teaching at a government school?

Adair: No, I was teaching at a public school. It was primarily Mexican American children. I think I had a couple of children that weren't, but most of them 14:00were. It was in a neighborhood where a lot of Mexican American people lived. Brand new school, it was real nice, had a wonderful principal. She was a really nice person. Then we came back to Pawnee. My husband was Pawnee. We stayed there for about six months, and then we went to Dallas on one of those relocation projects. That was really a new experience. (Laughs)

Little Thunder: I bet. So you two hadn't started doing arts and crafts shows, necessarily, yet?

Adair: No.

Little Thunder: Not in Arizona.

Adair: No.

Little Thunder: What was it like, plunging into big-city life in Dallas?

Adair: Oh, I didn't like it. The first night we were there, I guess it was the Bureau of Indian Affairs telling us what to do and everything. They told us to 15:00go to this hotel to spend the night. That was the awfullest place I've ever seen. (Laughs) Then they took us to this apartment unit place where they were putting everyone, and we lived there for two years. Our first son was born there, and our daughter, too.

Little Thunder: Was there another Indian family there, or two?

Adair: Oh, yes. Indian and Mexican were in that. They had it segregated at that time. There were black people in one area, and Mexicans and Indians in another area, and then white people in another area. They were new apartments. They were nice, but it wasn't really an enjoyable experience.

Little Thunder: Your husband looked for work?

Adair: He looked for work. There was a lot of prejudice. He had had two years of college, but he found a job making boxes. I didn't work at that time. Our son was born, and then I did get a job working for the health department down there, and was working there when our daughter was born. Then I came back and got a job teaching at Oklahoma City first, then transferred to Tinker Air Force Base. I worked there for about a year and a half, then went to teach at Lawton at Fort Sill Indian School. Finished out a year there, then we went to Bacone. He went 17:00back to school, and I was working in the office there.

Little Thunder: During this period, are you painting on the weekends a little bit?

Adair: No, I didn't paint at all during that time. I sewed, made most of our clothing and everything else, (Laughs) but I didn't do any painting or anything.

Little Thunder: I understand your husband passed away when your kids were fairly young?

Adair: We were living in Muskogee.

Little Thunder: So then you had to really focus on earning a living.

Adair: Actually, when my youngest son was born was a really hard time for us financially. My husband was in the hospital at that time, and I wasn't working. 18:00I had worked before he was born. I started working at the Murrow Indian Children's Home, first as a tutor, then as a secretary, and then as an assistant to the superintendent. When she left, they asked me if I would take her place, so I did that for four years. I was there a total of ten years.

Little Thunder: You were aware that Nettie Wheeler was dealing art there--

Adair: Yes, yes.

Little Thunder: --but you just didn't have time to explore selling with her?

Adair: I didn't do very much. About the only thing I did was some entries for the Five Tribes Museum. I might've done some more entries for Philbrook. I can't remember for sure at this time.

Little Thunder: It's so interesting because here you are, an artist, and you're 19:00working at Murrow, and I don't know if you were the one who brought Joan Brown in. Did you bring--

Adair: We had gotten acquainted somewhere, I think through a mutual acquaintance or something, and she was looking for a job. She had several children, so she came to work there as a secretary when I became director of the children's home.

Little Thunder: She told me that you said, "Joan, you can still do your artwork while you're here." (Laughter)

Adair: Well, I don't know about that, but at night, we worked at night. I remember I would paint nearly all night some nights, getting something ready for a show.

Little Thunder: I was wondering how you squeezed that in. I know she tried to do a lot of art things with the children. Did you help with that, too?

Adair: Well, as she was there for a while, she came to work more with the children, and we had another person that did secretarial work. We also had a person that did some counseling with the children, too. She kind of worked into a different position.

Little Thunder: You were occasionally painting all night. Did you show with the galleries at all during that time?

Adair: Not very much. When I got involved with the Daughters of the Earth group--

Little Thunder: Which was in the mid-'80s? Is that about right?

Adair: I believe so. We showed with galleries in different states. I think the 21:00first show we had was in Oklahoma City at a gallery.

Little Thunder: Was it Doris Littrell's gallery?

Adair: Yes. I think so. I think we each were asked to have five or six paintings.

Little Thunder: When you were in Muskogee, did you know the Tiger family?

Adair: I was acquainted with them. I didn't know them really well. Peggy, at that time, (this was after Jerome had passed away) she had some foster children or some other children that lived with them. I think one of the boys was acquainted with my children or something. Anyway, I remember taking him home one time and going out by their house, and seeing them at art shows, the children. I always tried to encourage them to do their artwork. They always seemed to be 22:00glad to see me when I'd see them, but I didn't know them well. I don't know Peggy really well at all.

Little Thunder: It must have been hard, having to work all these jobs and having to squeeze your art in, in your spare time. I know that's one thing that brought together the Daughters of the Earth group.

Adair: I think most of us were doing pretty much the same thing. (Laughs)

Little Thunder: Right. Do you remember how it started?

Adair: I believe Virginia Stroud was the one that got the idea for the group. She was acquainted with all of the artists that were involved. Some of the 23:00artists that were with the Daughters of the Earth group, I had known before. Others I got acquainted with by being involved in that group. We had a lot of fun, going out of state. Sometimes we went together as a group, and sometimes we just would meet at a gallery somewhere, wherever we were having a show.

Little Thunder: And there weren't nearly as many women painters during that period. How did the public react to your work?

Adair: I guess it was pretty well received. Sales were good. The first show, I sold everything I had, so that was encouraging. That was in Oklahoma City. I 24:00don't remember exactly the order of the shows, but we had one in Atlanta and one in Colorado. Let's see. Minneapolis, I believe, and Nebraska at Omaha.

Little Thunder: Did you find it fed your creativity? I guess you were painting in between, and you had these shows going.

Adair: Oh, yes. We had a show once a month. We had to have five or six pieces done to take. It kept us busy, and it was interesting. Going to the shows, I think the group of us went together, either to Minneapolis or to Omaha. Might 25:00have been Omaha. We drove together there. Then my daughter and I drove down to Atlanta together to that show. That was a nice trip for my daughter and me to be together.

Little Thunder: Did you get to go to any of the Cherokee homelands down there or historic places?

Adair: Yes, we did. On our way back from Atlanta, (I believe it was on our way back) we stopped at Adairsville. I had always heard about it and wanted to see where my Adair family had come from. That was really exciting because there was a Mrs. Adair that lived there. We stopped and asked if there was anyone named Adair, and they said, "Well, yes. That old house over there, there's a lady, 26:00Mrs. Adair." So we went over there. She was sitting on the porch. She invited us in and showed us old pictures. Her husband had died, but she said, "I'm sure he was related to you." That was really exciting.

Then we went out to look at another old house out there. A couple of men drove up in a pickup, and they asked if we were interested in the house. We said, "Well, it's just an old house, and we were curious about it, wondering if it dated back to the days of the Cherokee." The man said he owned the house but he didn't know. He said, "My wife is Cherokee, and she hasn't been feeling well lately. Would you just go up to the house and visit with her?" (Laughs) So we went up to the house and visited with his wife and told her we were Cherokees from Oklahoma. She was really glad to see us. She had been raised in Georgia, 27:00but she identified as being Cherokee. It was an interesting experience.

We saw an old house right in Adairsville that I was just drawn to. It was an old two-story house at the edge of town, the old Adairsville site. I think the people that were living there were renters. They told us the man that was in town [who] was the owner of the house might know something about the history of it. We went to see him, and he was curious about us and asked if we wanted to buy the house. We said no, we didn't want to buy the house. (Laughter) As it turned out, I found out later, it had belonged to one of our Adair family that 28:00had built it back before the Removal, but I didn't find that out until years later. That was an interesting experience.

Little Thunder: How had your style and your palette evolved from that first oil that you submitted at [Philbrook], which was sort of cubist, I think you said, to these Daughter of the Earth Shows? How was it different? How were you finding your--

Adair: I think I experimented with a lot of different things and different styles and so forth, depending on the media.

Little Thunder: Were you still painting in oils, or had you moved away from that?

Adair: I painted in oils some, but I kind of moved away for a while and worked in gouache for some of the show entries. I went into painting in acrylic later. 29:00Mr. Hogue was not familiar with acrylic. At the time, it was new, and he was kind of suspicious of it. Everything we did in his painting class was done in oil. Later on, I did some work in acrylic on canvas. Then I did some work in fabric stitching and that kind of thing, too.

Little Thunder: Women, both as a subject of traditional stories like Selu and also as historical figures, have been an important vein in your work. How do you 30:00approach that differently, perhaps, than a male artist might?

Adair: Well, I think male artists are primarily interested in male subject matter. (Laughter) I think it's because that's closer to them. Of course, women being women have an interest in what women and children are doing, so a lot of my work has featured women and children doing things.

Little Thunder: The style is so interesting because there's a few elements of that flat style. Sometimes you'll do the outlining, or you'll have some negative space, in some of the pieces I've seen, but then you have these more realistic elements and also some fanciful elements.

Adair: The flat style, I started doing that when I had classes with Dr. West. I don't know if he encouraged it, but that was the style that he primarily did. So a lot of the work that we did in painting class, we did in that style. He encouraged us to learn as much as we could about our own tribes and to do work that reflected things from our own traditions and background.

Little Thunder: Your art is on several book covers. Did the author commission you to do these illustrations, or did they see your work and decide that would look nice on the book cover?

Adair: I think the first book that I did was the Selu book by Marilou Awiakta. She was a friend of Wilma Mankiller's, and I kind of think Wilma suggested me to her. She called me and asked me if I would illustrate the book for her, and we worked closely together. She made suggestions about the illustrations. The illustrations were ink drawings, and the cover piece was in color. We worked with Fulcrum Publishing Company on that. I enjoyed doing that. It was good to get acquainted with her. I loved her book and the things that she wrote in it. I feel that that was a real pleasurable experience and an honor to have been asked 33:00to do that.

Later, Fulcrum called me and asked if I would like to do another piece, and I told them that I would. They had a book by Joseph Bruchac. He and another author did a book together, and they asked me if I would do that. It's interesting that I can't remember the other author's name. He was the one that I mainly had contact with, and yet I can't think of his name right now. [Michael J. Caduto] It will come to me in a few minutes. (Laughter)

Little Thunder: Have you done a lot of commission work over the years?

Adair: Not a lot. I kind of prefer not to because it's hard to do what's in someone else's mind and vision. You feel like you might not please them with what you're doing, so I've kind of shied away from that.

Little Thunder: Did you notice any changes in the gallery landscape from the '80s to the '90s?

Adair: Actually, I haven't worked a whole lot with the galleries. I've primarily worked with entering my work in shows. I've worked with the Oklahoma City gallery some and the gallery in Tulsa a little bit but not very much. Most of 35:00the time, I've had a full-time day job. I just didn't really have the time for the output that a gallery requires.

Little Thunder: Your most important shows were Five Tribes, Philbrook, Trail of Tears--

Adair: Philbrook, Trail of Tears, the [Cherokee National] Heritage Center shows.

Little Thunder: What was one of the more important awards or honors you won for your art?

Adair: I won some Heritage awards, and I felt like that was a special honor.

Little Thunder: Can you explain about the Heritage award?

Adair: It's kind of a recognition that your work speaks for your culture and your background. I felt those were the ones I maybe most appreciated.

Little Thunder: Can you tell us a little bit about one of the paintings that you did that won the Heritage award?

Adair: (Laughs) I can't remember.

Little Thunder: Was it a historical subject?

Adair: I'm sure it probably was. (Laughter) I painted from 1967 until--actually, the last two or three years I haven't painted very much, but there was a long period that I did do work, and I don't remember a lot of it.

Little Thunder: Yes, a lot of paintings go out, and it's hard to keep up. Are you a Master Artist of the Five Civilized Tribes?

Adair: No, I'm not. Actually, I haven't entered that show in a long time. After 37:00I started working for the Cherokee Nation, I mainly concentrated on entering the shows here. I was busy with other things, and I didn't enter over there.

Little Thunder: The show at the Annual? Is that what you were saying?

Adair: The Annual, and the Trail of Tears.

Little Thunder: You've become a family of artists now. Your son Daniel is a pretty well-known painter and sculptor, and your granddaughter has won a couple of awards in art. Or is it your daughter?

Adair: My daughter and our oldest son. [Also my granddaughters Paige and Sami.]

Little Thunder: What's it like to see that family tradition of art being carried on?

Adair: Well, it's kind of discouraging. (Laughs) You know, with parents, what you should tell your children is the opposite of what you want them to do. They 38:00always enjoyed painting from an early age and doing artwork, drawing. My daughter, we always called her Sis. She went to school sometimes at TU with me and she did a little pottery in pottery class and things like that, and she enjoyed it. I told them, I said, "It's not something that's easy to make a living in. When you go to college, look into other things that you'd like to do." Well, three of them majored in art. (Laughter) I was disappointed in that. I was glad they went to school, went to college, but they haven't worked in art except for Daniel. He has worked full-time in art.

I'm proud of my kids, and I'm proud of the things that they do that aren't 39:00art-related, as well as their artwork. I have some of Sam's work over here that I've been matting for him. For a long time, he didn't have time to do any work, and lately he's been painting again and doing some ink drawings. He's enjoying that. He has a degree in art from Central State University. He went to Haskell [Indian Nations University] first. Mary has a degree in art from Northeastern. She went to OU and Bacone first and then to Northeastern. Dan went to Bacone and the Institute in Santa Fe and then to Northeastern. I'm very proud of the 40:00artwork that they do, but it is a hard way to make a living full-time.

Little Thunder: Former Chief Chad Smith referred to you as one of a key group of people who helped preserve Cherokee culture through their art.

Adair: I was a member of the Cherokee Artists Association, helped get it re- established.

Little Thunder: When was that?

Adair: It's been three or four years ago that Chief Smith encouraged a group of 41:00Cherokee artists to get together. They had had a group that had been together for a while, several years ago, then it had fallen by the wayside. Bill Glass was instrumental in that first group and also in the second group, so we got involved with that. Really got some encouraging things done for the artists, I think, with the help of the Council. I kind of dropped out of it because I'm getting older and I felt like some of the younger artists should be involved more. I'm not actively involved with that group now.

Little Thunder: Has your primary medium been acrylic the last ten years or so?

Adair: I think probably so. Most of what I've done in the last ten years has been for the Cherokee Nation. The Council set aside one percent of building costs to purchase artwork. They purchased artwork for the new buildings that were being built. The clinics, the casinos, and so forth. Mainly, my daughter has encouraged me to do things for those activities. She and I worked together, and Dan and she and I worked together on some things, too, collaborated. That was fun to do.

Little Thunder: What are some buildings or casinos that you've got artwork in?

Adair: Just about all of them, I think. (Laughs) The one at Muskogee, my daughter and I did two large--I think they're seven-foot-long pieces on canvas. She did two, and I did two. We worked together on a couple of them, I think. Maybe she did one by herself, and we collaborated on the others. [We also did one for the casino at Catoosa that I did some beadwork in the painting.]

Little Thunder: So would that involve one of you doing the research and the conceptual part, and the other one painting?

Adair: Both. We both painted on them, and we both--

Little Thunder: That must be fun.

Adair: It was fun.

Little Thunder: You sign your paintings in Cherokee and English. I know the placement of the signature, as well as the size, is sometimes a hard call to make. Did you have to experiment a little bit to find your signature, or did you come up with that pretty quickly?

Adair: Well, actually, when I first started painting, I signed my name "Mary Adair HorseChief." My husband was still living at that time. I signed my name that way until my daughter started painting. She came to work for the Cherokee Nation. I was working there, also, and there was some confusion. Sometimes our mail would get misdirected to her or to me, so later on I dropped the HorseChief 45:00and went back to my maiden name. I think probably about that time I started adding in the Cherokee syllabary, Mary, with my name.

Little Thunder: What role does story play in your work, or narrative?

Adair: I don't know. It's hard to say. I guess it depends on what I'm working on.

Little Thunder: Because you sometimes do decorative pieces.

Adair: Yes. Sometimes decorative pieces, but some of the historical pieces, narrative enters into that. I enjoy doing the historical pieces where you do research and that kind of thing. I guess Aunt Nona had an effect because I've 46:00always enjoyed learning about Cherokee history. In fact, I was instrumental in helping some relatives get together, and we did a family history book. I did a lot of research, genealogy, and that kind of thing for that, just learning about people in Cherokee history and the things that they were doing.

I've enjoyed going to archives in different states, in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Chicago, different places I happen to have an opportunity to go, even Ireland. My brother and sister-in-law took me with them 47:00to Ireland a few years ago, and so we went to Adare, Ireland, and we spent a week driving around in Ireland, going to places there. I have some Starr ancestry, and so we went to Cootehill and some [other] places where the Starr family had come from. That was a lot of fun.

Little Thunder: How important are titles in your work?

Adair: Well, sometimes they're important. I like to try to give a title that will somehow tell something about the work and relate to the work in some way. I've encouraged, mainly, my son, because he's been with me more, to research and 48:00to work on narratives, to tell about his work, the titles. I think he's enjoyed doing a lot of that, too.

Little Thunder: To have a little explanation that goes with the--did you pretty much do that throughout your career, try to give a written explanation?

Adair: Quite a bit, depending on what it was.

Little Thunder: And you cut mats, I guess. You cut mats for your own work and for your son. Do you have one of the nicer, newer mat cutters?

Adair: I cut mats, yes. I have a mat cutter. (Laughter) When I was teaching art at Sequoyah High School, I taught there for fifteen years before I retired. When I first started teaching there, they asked me to teach six different art classes 49:00a day. I had a basic drawing class, and I had a painting class, and a traditional crafts class, a general crafts class, and an art history class. Actually, I had two basic drawing classes for beginning artists. In the state of Oklahoma, and I'm sure in a lot of other states with the funding cuts, there's not too much art taught in the elementary and even in the junior highs in a lot of places. In Tahlequah, they had a good junior high art program there. Mike Daniel was the art teacher there. Dorothy Sullivan taught at the high school there when I was there. I enjoyed having those classes where students could 50:00advance from one class to another.

Then the state of Oklahoma started requiring that every student have an art class. I thought, "Oh, boy, they'll hire another art teacher, and we'll have all kinds of classes." They told us, "Be prepared to teach more art classes." As it turned out, every student had to have art appreciation. They cut all my painting, and we didn't hire another art teacher, the painting, the advanced art classes. I did keep the Native crafts class, and the rest of it was the art appreciation.

Before that time, when I had the painting class and the art history class, in 51:00the painting class we learned about Native artists, learned about their lives, where they went to school, all those things, and we learned to paint, entered shows, won awards. In the traditional crafts class, they entered shows and won awards for their work in beadwork and basketry and pottery. It got boring for me teaching just one class most of the time. It was a little easier in one way: I only had to prepare for [one]. (Laughs)

Little Thunder: And at the same time, I can see how that's very stimulating, both as a teacher and as an artist.

Adair: I learned from my students.

Little Thunder: Did it enrich your own art?

Adair: It really did. That's when I learned to cut mats and things. I ordered a 52:00mat cutter. We learned to cut mats because to enter shows they needed to be matted. We had a mat cutter and a shrink wrapper and a lot of things that we were able to get. We were supported that way, which was wonderful.

Little Thunder: What's your creative process from the time you get an idea? How does it work?

Adair: I try to find out as much as I can, if it's a historical piece, because I want to be accurate in what I put out. I don't know that I always have been, but I've tried. I do research, and then I start doing sketches. Going back to my early training, I do the sketch on tissue paper first and then transfer it to 53:00whatever media I'm going to work on, with carbon or something like that. Then I start painting.

Little Thunder: Do you carry ideas around in your head, or do you write them down sometimes?

Adair: I used to. (Laughs) The past few years, except for the pieces I work on with my daughter--there's some pieces up at the casino at Catoosa and some other places around. There used to be some at the clinic here in Sallisaw, and I don't 54:00know what happened to them. They're not there anymore. I used to do a lot of preparation. In recent years, I've made moccasins for Miss Cherokee. I did that for several years. I quit doing that two years ago. I've made two pair for Miss Cherokee. I've made a few tear dresses for people, mainly family or friends, and shawls and things like that. Grandchildren, they always have to have things, you know, (Laughter) and children, my daughters-in-law, my daughter. I enjoy doing 55:00that. I've enjoyed making dolls and dressing dolls through the years, so that's one of the things that I've done. To me, sewing is relaxing. Even if I'm ripping it out, it's still relaxing. (Laughter)

Little Thunder: Looking back on your career, what do you think was a kind of fork-in-the-road moment when you could've gone one way and you decided to head down another path?

Adair: I guess when I had my children. I was interested in art because I'd gone 56:00back to school to continue my education in art. Actually, I'd thought about the possibility of teaching at the college level. I thought, "Well, I'll go ahead and get my master's," but then my two younger sons were born, and at that point I had opportunity to work at the children's home which was there in Muskogee. It was really rewarding working with the [people] there. Then the Cherokee Nation started expanding after I was there for several years at the children's home, and I got interested in working for the Cherokee Nation. I'd been there for ten years and thought it would be good to do something different.

I started to work for the Cherokee Nation, first at the job corps center, and worked with students who were going into college. At that point, my children were getting older. They were needing more things. My husband had passed away, and so I'd pretty well given up on doing anything with art at that point. I was just taking care of my children. [I also earned a master's degree from NSU in education while working at job corps, and later worked in the Cherokee Nation Health Department before going to work at Sequoyah]. When the opening for an art teacher came up at Sequoyah, that's the first time I really had an opportunity to apply for a teaching job in art. I applied and was accepted, and I really 58:00enjoyed teaching art there.

Little Thunder: It kind of spurred a resurgence of your own work.

Adair: Of my own creativity. Actually, though, I was so busy I didn't really do much. I'd illustrated some books, and I did a really large painting for a university in North Carolina. They were wanting a piece similar to the one that I'd done for the cover of the Selu book. I did that piece while I was teaching, but I didn't do a lot of work while I was teaching art.

It was so rewarding to see the students win awards. I had one girl, she learned to do beadwork. She'd had some problems. She was kind of down on herself, I 59:00think, at that point. She entered the show at the Heard Museum in Arizona and won an award on her beaded barrette. Sold it. Every once in a while, I'll run into her. She married a Seminole from Florida, eventually, but once in a while she comes back, and I see her. She said she's still doing her beadwork.

Then I had a student that won a national award. He had his work put on a calendar. Actually, he was an exceptional ed student, so the exceptional ed teacher and I and he went to Santa Fe for a show. Then we went to Washington, DC. He had a little reception where he signed his calendars there, and we met a 60:00lot of important people in Washington. I ran into him at the casino show where Dan, my son, had an exhibit not long ago. Robert came up to meet me. I hadn't seen him in a long time. Now he's married, has children, and that kind of thing. He said he finally got the painting back. (Laughter)

Little Thunder: The calendar cover?

Adair: It was on the calendar cover. I thought that was neat. That was still a high point of both of our lives, really.

Little Thunder: You also had an image in the calendar, or you were just overseeing his creating of this?

Adair: No, this was student work. His work was accepted for the cover, so it was a special thing.

Little Thunder: Very special. What do you think has been one of the low points 61:00in your career?

Adair: You mean my art career? I don't know that I've had any low points. I can't think of any. It's all been rewarding, I think. Of course, the high points were always when I would win an award or make a sale. (Laughter)

Little Thunder: Is there one of those moments that stands out?

Adair: No, not anything in particular. I guess probably the first one was memorable.

Little Thunder: At the Annual?

Adair: Yes, at Philbrook, because that was the first award I'd ever won, and I 62:00never thought of winning an award.

Little Thunder: Did it have a little bit of prize money with it?

Adair: Probably so. I don't remember that. (Laughs)

Little Thunder: Were you nervous, going up to--

Adair: Oh, I'm sure I was. (Laughs)

Little Thunder: Is there anything we forgot to talk about, or anything you'd like to add before we look at your work?

Adair: Well, I also did some work in textiles, modern dress textiles. I entered a show at Santa Fe and won an award, modeled it. (Laughs) Won an award on that. It was a two-piece dress with appliqué work on it, and it was Cherokee subject matter in the appliqués.

Little Thunder: What year was this?

Adair: I don't remember. It's been a number of years ago.

Little Thunder: In the ʼ90s, maybe?

Adair: I think probably before that.

Little Thunder: At Santa Fe Indian Market?

Adair: Yes. I wasn't able to go to the Market when I was teaching. I started teaching at Sequoyah in 1988, so it would have been before that time.

Little Thunder: Had you exhibited paintings at the Market, too, prior to that?

Adair: Well, that year.

Little Thunder: Oh, just that year, so you had both clothing and entered a painting.

Adair: I think that was the only year that I actually exhibited work out there.

Little Thunder: Let's take a look at some of your paintings. Can you talk about 64:00this painting a little?

Adair: This is a painting I did for the cover of the book Selu: Seeking the Corn-Mother's Wisdom by Marilou Awiakta. This depicts Selu, the Corn Mother. The two children down below are representing the Cherokee Nation, and in the background you'll see some things that were referenced in the book about the atomic power plant. There's some other things that represent today's people. The basket of corn is the gift of Selu.

Little Thunder: That's really nice. How about this piece?

Adair: This was one of the illustrations for the inside of the Selu book. All the illustrations in that book were in black and white, pen and ink. This is another example of Selu with the gift of corn.

Little Thunder: Yes, it's got some really nice lines. How about this particular piece?

Adair: This piece is one of three that I did in fabric. I sort of had my uncle in mind when I did this piece, and my little son, showing the geese going north, 66:00and [them] walking along.

Little Thunder: That's so nice. It really translates as a landscape.

Adair: There was a lady that bought one of the pieces, sight unseen. She found out I was doing those fabric pieces, and she did quilting. She liked quilting. I had it in that gallery in Oklahoma City. She just bought it and hadn't seen it at all.

Little Thunder: That's wonderful. Thank you so much for your time today, Mary.

Adair: Well, I enjoyed it, and I'm glad to have met you.

------- End of interview -------