Born in America
From Black and White to Color
by Angie Riebe

VIRGINIA - One hundred years ago, their faces were captured in black and white - a Navajo boy about 12 years old, a Native American woman and child, a Sioux tribal leader from the Midwestern plains.

Their faces have come alive once again, this time in color.

Artist Jay Davenport of Great Scott Township is responsible for the transformation.

His newest series of 19 watercolor paintings called "Born in America" depict portraits of Native Americans of various tribes taken from around 1890 to 1910. Their historical accuracy is based on archival photographs by legendary photographers including Edward S. Curtis, Carl Moon, and George W. Scott.

Though a reflection of those photos, Davenport's artworks are graced with coloration and backgrounds appropriate to each tribe and with added emotion and texture. "I wanted to remain faithful to the photographs in the subjects' features and dress," he said. But he also aimed to "create a contemporary dialogue" to bring the portraits into the 21st Century.

Davenport spent years sketching and researching before setting color to the .paintings. He wanted the expressions to be just right, the tones to be accurate, the details to represent "how I react" to the photographs.

"The portraits offer an opportunity for a silent dialogue between the spirit behind the image and the viewer. I believe it will have the same impact that I experienced during the creation of the paintings," he said.

Ten of the portraits - along with a number of other Davenport artworks - are on display until Dec. 16 at the Mesabi Range Community and Technical College Virginia campus library. Davenport will also be there at a reception, with entertainment and refreshments, from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday.

Davenport, who turns 70 this week, became interested in Native American faces while researching his own genealogy.

He had received a photo of his great-grandmother Susan Cobb, taken in the 1870s. According to oral family history, Cobb was a Native American. Davenport, who grew up in Kansas, began collecting century-old photos of Native Americans to compare facial features, he said.

In the process, "I was taken by the photos." It inspired him to represent them in watercolor.

The artworks, painted larger than life-size, include portraits of Sitting Bull, Navajo youngsters, a Wisham Woman pounding fish, Hopi maidens at Walpi Plaza, and Native Americans from tribes including the Piegan Blookfoot, Yakima, Nez Perce, and Apsaroke Crow.

A portrait of a small girl from the Umatilla Reservation, called "Innocent, Umatilla," is one of his favorites. Based on a 1910 Edward S. Curtis photograph, the painting shows the child dressed in elaborate deerskin leaning against a tree. "She looks more than slightly bored. I wonder what life did have in store for her," Davenport said.

"I believe the indigenous people, the Native Americans, were the fathers and mothers of our country," he said. They taught the Europeans how to successfully grow crops and raise livestock in America, and they used democratic methods, he said. In fact, at the first Thanksgiving, the Native Americans were a bit "like a food shelf" for the European settlers, he said.

Though Davenport never officially established his heritage, his admiration for Native Americans is "reflected in my work."

Davenport has been painting for years, though his main profession was as an orthopedic surgeon. "My two passions were medicine and art."

Born in Kansas City, he attended medical school at the University of Kansas. It was there he met an artist who created woodcuts, where blocks of wood are carved, inked, and set on paper. His friend, a radiologist, "died an untimely death in the 1970s," and Davenport's woodcuts - such as prints of a loon, whitetail deer, and Norway pine - are dedicated to him, he said.

In 1974, Davenport built his home in Great Scott Township, and in 1983 he opened his own medical office Virginia. He decorated the hallways with his artwork, painted on weekends and during "snatches of time." Many of the watercolors, depicting Minnesota scenes, were painted at the site - trees in a forest, a farm house, a marina.

A friend - the architect of his home - critiqued his artwork. But some of his greatest compliments came from his patients, who insisted that though he was a talented surgeon, he may have missed his calling.

"Sometimes I wondered if they were right," Davenport said. "I've often wondered what would have happened" had he pursued art full-time.

But now retired, Davenport is focusing on his art. A few years ago he designed and built a studio near his home. It features some 50 artworks.

And he plans to continue to paint Native American portraits, incorporating more backgrounds and objects "such as pottery and buffalo hides."

Once his show at the college is complete, his art can be viewed by appointment at his studio, 4815 Honkanen Road. Those interested can call Davenport at 218-258-3664.