Feather Tree 1950

Plains Image 1988

Feather Basket #2 1994

Canoe Forms – Thunder Bay 1997

Maumee Reflection  1990-91

Truman Tennis Lowe is a Ho-Chunk sculptor and installation artist living in Wisconsin. A professor of fine art at the University of Wisconsin, Lowe is the former curator of contemporary art at the National Museum of the American Indian. He is known for large site-specific installation pieces utilizing natural materials. While growing up, his family created “craft” objects, which provided minor supplemental income to the family. His mother made split-ash baskets while his father made the wooden handles for the baskets, and both of his parents created beadwork. Even the children learned the skills to create these family works, Lowe learning beadwork by kerosene lamp in the evening as a young man. Like many other Native artists Lowe was instilled with a degree of comfort regarding the creative practice of creation within the household. He wasn’t aware of the Western idea of making a living full-time by art until he attended university. At university he fully delved into the concepts and creations revolving within Western art history; a social prestige regarding artistic creation, unlike his parents who would be considered “craftspeople.”