The Anishinaabe artist is featuring his collection ‘Mino-Bimaadiziwin; The Good Life’ at three different locations around the DL area

By Greta Foss

Summer Intern

Kent Estey has lived on the White Earth Reservation for 66 years now. He has never lived anywhere else. He loves where he is from, and that’s why he chooses to paint it. 

“Ultimately why I do what I do is, I want to tell a good story about the single community that I live in. You know, oftentimes, unfortunately, the only news you hear from these little, small reservation communities is bad news. Or tragic news, or an accident, or an overdose, or a suicide, or killing, and I told my wife, I said, I’m tired of just hearing bad news about our community. And I said, I know all these artists, and I know all these beautiful people that make this beautiful work. Let’s start telling their story and help them get their artistry out there. Because we’re so much more than the bad things that happen to us,” Estey said.

His exhibit, “Mino-Bimaadiziwin; The Good Life,” is currently being featured at three different locations around the Detroit Lakes area. He has prints of his collection featured at Ortenstone Garden as well as the Washington Square Mall. You can see a few of his original paintings at the Becker County Museum. 

His work is primarily landscapes, but these are not usual photo-realistic paintings. Estey chooses instead to show how he sees the landscape. Neon acrylic colors have become a part of his trademark style. He believes that we see too much black and white in landscape paintings, particularly in the winter. With the bright fluorescent paints, you can shine a black light on the originals and watch them glow. 

In his paintings, Estey commonly uses neon paints, his fingers, and does not take photos of the landscapes he is referencing. When he goes on walks around his community, he leaves his phone at home and takes mental pictures of the scenery around him instead. 

“If it’s exactly like this photo, you can take a photo, and that’s not what I wanted. I wanted to be able to look at a landscape, or look at a land, or spot a property, and say, ‘you know what, here’s the beauty I see in that.’ It may not look exactly like that, but it’s my way of expressing what I’ve seen,” he said.

Estey used to work with fine brushes and more natural colors. He focused a lot of his time on making his paintings as photo-perfect as possible, thinking that if he got any part wrong the painting was horrible. He expressed that once he started to move away from this style of painting, he started to really enjoy what he did. He also said that this was when other people started to appreciate his work as well. 

Estey’s favorite piece in the collection is entitled, “Debwewin” which means truth in Ojibwe. The piece was featured in his first national gallery show this year at the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit, Michigan. He said that people have really reacted well to the piece, and most surprisingly psychologists have reached out to say that this piece is perfect for their offices. 

“We’ve had two or three behavioral health offices purchase it for their office, to draw people out,” he said.  

The future is looking bright for Estey and he’s happy to be booking himself out years in advance. Future projects include a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, a solo show at the Plains Art Museum in Fargo, continuing to teach painting to kids, and continuing to go to schools to read his children’s book to the kids. The book tells his grandmother’s story, as she was a survivor of a boarding school. He enjoys going to schools and libraries and talking about the history of the White Earth Nation. 

“Mino-Bimaadiziwin; The Good Life,” will be available to visit at all three locations around the area until Labor day.