Artwork copyright Phillip Cash Cash. Photo courtesy of the artist, 1985.

Studies for Sahaptin #1, 1983

Phillip Cash Cash
(American | Cayuse | Nez Perce, born 1960)

Location: Cascade Middle School, Sedro-Woolley

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Studies for Sahaptin #1 is part of Native American artist P.Y. Minthorn's body of expressive geometric paintings featuring triangular motifs. The title refers to Sahaptin, one of the main language groups spoken by many tribes of the Columbia River plateau.

This artwork is part of Beyond Blue Mountains, a collection that was curated by late Tlingit (Native Alaskan) artist Jim Schoppert. It presents the work of Native American artists of diverse heritage, ideas, materials, and styles. The collection takes an in-depth look at the artists’ unique voices and interpretations of tradition.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Department of Corrections.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Phillip Cash Cash (Cayuse and Nez Perce, also known as P.Y. Minthorn) creates abstract paintings, drawings, and prints. Dream, memory, and experience are combined in his paintings and poetry. Cash Cash sees art as a quest for knowledge, "filling the vacuum that exists when traditional methods of inquiry are forgotten or left behind."

Phillip Cash Cash grew up in Oregon and New Mexico. As a teenager, he studied creative writing with poet Joy Harjo at the Institute of American Indian Arts High School in New Mexico. He published his first book of poetry at age 21. He went on to study art and writing at the university level in Colorado, the Institute of American Indian Arts College in New Mexico, and Oregon. Cash Cash is a fluent speaker of Ni·mi·pu·tímt (the Nez Perce language) and holds a PhD in Anthropology and Linguistics (2018) from the University of Arizona. He has served his tribal community through his work in language preservation, oral history collection, archaeological field work, repatriation, and cultural research.

In 1992, Phillip Cash Cash co-founded Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts, a non-profit printmaking studio on the Umatilla Reservation, near Pendleton, Northeast Oregon. The institute provides artist residencies and Indigenous arts workshops. Crow’s Shadow is the only professional fine art print publisher located on a Native American reservation in the United States.