Mirac Creepingbear was a

Kiowa Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and e ...

Pawnee Pawnee initially refers to a Native American people and its language: * Pawnee people * Pawnee language Pawnee is also the name of several places in the United States: * Pawnee, Illinois * Pawnee, Kansas * Pawnee, Missouri * Pawnee City, Nebraska ...

Arapaho The Arapaho (; french: Arapahos, ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota. By the 1850s, Arapaho ba ...

painter from Oklahoma who played a pivotal role in mid-20th century

Native American art Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the visual artistic practices of the indigenous peoples of the Americas from ancient times to the present. These include works from South America and North America, which includes ...

Background

Creepingbear was born in Lawton, Oklahoma, on 8 September 8, 1947, the son of Rita Littlechief (

) and Ted Creepingbear (

–

). He began painting in 1974 as a self-taught artist.

Education

Creepingbear was educated at Carnegie Oklahoma High School and the South Community College in

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, and ...

. He also attended

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

's School of Technology in

Okmulgee, Oklahoma Okmulgee is a city in, and the county seat of, Okmulgee County, Oklahoma. The name is from the Mvskoke word ''okimulgee,'' which means "boiling waters".Bamburg, Maxine"Okmulgee,"''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture''. Accessed June 16 ...

. He was a muralist and painter, who began painting actively and professionally in 1974. He was commissioned to paint a mural in The Kiowa Tribal Complex in

Carnegie, Oklahoma Carnegie is a town in Caddo County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 1,723 at the 2010 census, a 1.7 percent decline from the figure of 1,752 in 2000. History and culture Carnegie was named after the famous Scottish American philant ...

along with artists Parker Boyiddle, Jr. and Sherman Chaddlesone. The mural depicts the history of the Kiowa tribe from its original home in the Yellowstone territory to its establishment in the Great Plains region of the United States.

Career

Creepingbear had a number of occupations including working for an electrical supply company before becoming a full-time painter in 1974. He is considered one of the more important of Oklahoma's traditional artists. His paintings, in oil, watercolor, acrylic and pastel, show a style that is fluid and dramatic and alludes to Native-American culture. He emulated the works of his Kiowa elders as well as American Western artists

Frederic Remington Frederic Sackrider Remington (October 4, 1861 – December 26, 1909) was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in the genre of Western American Art. His works are known for depicting the Western United Stat ...

and Charles Russell. He worked with gallery owner

Doris Littrell Doris Littrell (1929–2020) was a gallerist from central Oklahoma who promoted Native American art. From 1955 to 2009, she developed and expanded the market for Oklahoma Native art through her gallery, travels, and raising the visibility of Okl ...

who helped promote his work. She provided him with shows, as well as serving as his main gallery and hosted both his first one-man show in 1981 and his final one-man show in 1990.

Death

Mirac Creepingbear died on October 28, 1990.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Creepingbear, Mirac 1947 births 1990 deaths Native American painters Artists from Oklahoma 20th-century American painters American male painters Kiowa people Pawnee people Arapaho people Native American male artists 20th-century American male artists