No. 42
John Isaiah Pepion
John Isiah Pepion is a Plains Indian graphic artist from the Piikani Band of the Blackfoot Confederacy. Pepion is based out of the Blackfeet reservation in north-central Montana, where the Rocky Mountains meet the plains. He is best known for his ledger art, which is an art tradition that developed in Plains tribes: as the buffalo hide traditionally used for painting became scarce, Plains people were forced to adapt by making artwork on ledger paper from accounting books. He comes from a long-standing artistic background; “Ledger art has been in my family for hundreds of years,” Pepion says.