Virginia Stroud (1951 - ) Cherokee - Creek Nations

“(Virginia) Stroud’s mother died when she was eleven and she went to live with her sister in Muskogee, OK.  With her sister’s encouragement she began to study the heritage of all Indian tribes, especially her own.  An additional inspiration was Dick West who, impressed with her artistic ability, made the young girl his assistant.  She sold her first painting by the time she was thirteen.  Using a modification of the pictographic style of the 19^th Century ledger drawings, Stroud paints to show that the historical Indian culture still survives in contemporary society. 

“ Considering herself a ‘visual orator’ she says, ‘I want people to look back at my work just like today we look back at the ledger drawings to see how it was then.  I’m working 100 years after those people and saying this is how we still do it . . . we still have our traditions.”  Southwest Art, August 1993

“The Cherokee National Museum, Tahlequah, OK, honored Stroud with a retrospective exhibition, 1993.  At that time she announced that it would be her last show.  She said that in the future she was going to concentrate on writing and illustrating children’s books about Native Americans.” The Columns, fall 1993

Virginia Stroud (1951 - ) Cherokee - Creek Nations had previously had exhibits of her work at the Albuquerque Museum, the Gilcrease Museum, Five Civilized Tribes Museum, Indianischer Kunstler in West Berlin, Philbrook Art Center, and many other venues.  Her awards and honors are too many to enumerate here.