Charlene “Charli” Sleeper

Charlene “Charli” Sleeper is a Crow, Chippewa-Cree, Southern Cheyenne & Arapahoe self taught Two Spirit artist from Montana. Their Indigenous name is “Axpe Hisshe Bia” which means “Red Eagle Fan Woman”. It was given to them by their mother before their fourth Sundance ceremony.

Charli’s art journey started when they were about 13 years old. They had been temporarily living with their grandmother Midge. On Sunday’s they’d read the newspaper together and go “window shopping” by flipping through the Sunday advertisements. Charli liked reading the Sunday comics. “One Sunday, while looking through the paper, I decided to try to draw Garfield. As a kid, I loved Garfield. So I sat and drew characters from the comic strip out using black ink on printer paper. My grandma Midge watched me drawing and said something like, “That’s really good. If you keep doing art you can make money doing it.” Years later, after a drunken argument with my artist brother, I picked up painting. He had made a snide comment about me not being an artist so I started painting to spite him. He eventually said, “Now you’re better than me!”

Charli has long admired folk art because it tells a cultural narrative. Their first artistic passion is writing, more specifically poetry. To them, folk art is a form of visual poetry free from the constraints of the fine art world. Folk artists, akin to outsider artists, tend to buck fine art world expectations which gives them a sort of freedom in expressing their cultural identities.  

“My acrylic art paintings are a combination of Indigenous beadwork and ledger art motifs done in a folk art style. There are strong spiritual influences and symbolism in all of my pieces. Many of my pieces have a Two Spirit love theme or were created as a grief healing process.”

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