Donna Langhorne (Donna The Strange)

I am a member of Fishing Lake First Nation and lifelong resident of Air Ronge, Saskatchewan. My heritage is Anishinaabe [Plains Ojibway]. I have been working in Northern Saskatchewan as a self-taught professional artist since 2010, and professionally self-identify as “Donna the Strange”.

My work is currently being sold through Nouveau Gallery in Regina, Dervilia Art & Design in Saskatoon, and DaVic Gallery in British Columbia. Previous galleries include Bohème Gallery in Saskatoon and Delree’s Native Art Gallery in Alberta [currently in hiatus]. I have also worked hard to establish an on-line presence, and am the owner/operator of the popular Donna The Strange On-Line Art Gallery.

I paint in a wide range of styles, but for some years have focused stylistically on the Woodlands form innovated by Norval Morrisseau. My work has received increasing attention nationally, particularly as I have used the Woodlands Art style to address contemporary issues facing Indigenous people.

I have received grants from the Canada Council [2018], the Saskatchewan Arts Board [2014, 2016, 2018, 2020], and the Saskatchewan Foundation for the Arts [2016]. My Common Truths series is currently on tour [2020 – 2022] to seventeen communities in Saskatchewan through the Organization of Saskatchewan Arts Councils. Work from Seven Visions series was featured nationally as part of a Billboard campaign organized by the group Artists Against Racism, and licensed to the Centre for International Governance Innovation, among many others. In the Spring of 2020, my Seven Visions series was to be exhibited at the Mann Art Gallery in Prince Albert [COVID-19 delayed], a two-person exhibition organized by The Indigenous Peoples’ Artist Collective of Prince Albert.

This year [2020] I have been invited to serve as the artist partner for a research project entitled Organ Donation and Transplantation: Examining Culturally-Safe Public Health Education and Health Care Services with Indigenous Peoples. The project is being undertaken by a team led by Dr. Caroline Tait of the University of Saskatchewan.

In this capacity I am being retained to participate in the research phases of the study, specifically the consultation and investigative components with Elders and with a small sample of lived experience case study representatives.

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I suffer from a debilitating condition that makes it extremely traumatic for me to travel. Dealing with this confining reality has greatly influenced my artwork, underpinning in one way or another virtually everything I create, both structurally and thematically. This is an ongoing struggle for me. I was, for example, invited to participate as a panelist for the Power Lines Symposium organized by Wanuskewin Heritage Park in January 2019, but unable to attend for this reason.

The power of my voice is in my art.