“Art inspires you to have joy in your life. There are so many harsh things in life, we need beauty.“ ~Wendy Ponca, Artist
In the center of small-town Fairfax is the heart of creativity at the Thunderbird Gallery with a trove of artistic works and inspiration. When you enter artist Wendy Ponca’s workspace, you find a wealth of creative endeavors at various spots in their creation process, such as hand dyed silk and other fabrics that are awaiting designs through her hand silkscreen printing process using her own designs, completed fabric pieces with a variety of beautiful and meaningful designs, and completed outfits such as a lovely kimono. Ponca, of the Osage Nation, finds inspiration in many ways. Of course, her Native culture has been an important element, but she is also inspired by the simplicity she finds in Japanese culture and designs. Additionally, all of nature and small-town values, hopes and dreams find their way into her work.
She studied art in the high school program at the Institute of American Indian Art in Sante Fe while her father was a professor there. She earned her BFA from Kansas City Arts Institute and an MA in Art Therapy from Southwestern College in Sante Fe. She, too, was a professor at IAIA like her father before her, serving as professor of Fine Arts and Fashion Design, teaching from 1982-2000. Her students learned to sew, print and weave their regalia and contemporary clothing. While in Sante Fe, she also enjoyed designing costumes for the Sante Fe Opera for a time.
Although Wendy lived in New Mexico for several years, she moved home in 2000 and now resides in the house built by her grandfather on 160 acres near Fairfax. She feels the importance of preserving all parts of her heritage for those who will come after her. Her studio in downtown Fairfax was originally an old bar from the 1920s that had been vacant for at least a decade before her father purchased it for storage. Now, it has been restored and remodeled to serve as her creative hub.
Her family are all involved in art and culture. Both daughters are artists in a variety of modes of art, a son teaches Osage language classes, and all children and grandchildren are involved in a variety of ways with their culture. Ponca’s daughters possess a wide variety of artistic skills just as their mother does. Although there’s no way to truly talk about all of these artistic endeavors, Alexandra is an oil painter and utilizes Osage beadwork on paintings and broadcloth, while Sarah is a sculptor, paints drums and murals, and does glass blowing.
In this area of the country, Wendy’s name is well-known for many types of art—fabric design, finished pieces of clothing, jewelry and even weaving her own fabric with her loom, to name only part of what she produces. However, Wendy is known through a much wider audience. Right now, she is one of the featured artists in the Voices Now: Contemporary Native American Art exhibit at The Museum of Kansas City which will be available for viewing until February 21.
In addition, her work is currently on exhibit at Sweden’s The Museum of World Culture in Göteborg. Ponca traveled to Sweden last April to help set up the Native American Fashion exhibit which will show until May 9.
While there have been far too many exhibits to list all of them, a couple of particular note are Seven Bends in the River of Life, her own installation which included works by her daughter Alex, at the Osage Nation Museum in Pawhuska in 2023, and a protest piece called “Liberty Walking Through Tyranny” at the MOVEMENT Native Fashion Art Exhibit at the 101 Archer Gallery in Tulsa in 2025.
Another recent accomplishment is serving as one of the Osage artisans providing authenticity to the Netflix series Little House on the Prairie. The nine headbands she made from otter hide were worn by the chiefs in the series and can be seen in a variety of scenes but are especially visible in episode 7 when there is a large meeting of those chiefs. As a matter of fact, Ponca’s husband was an extra portraying one of the chiefs in the scene.
Ponca has even designed three Pendleton blankets. The first was in 1996 for the American Indian College Fund; the second blanket was for the Osage Nation Foundation in 2014; and the third was commissioned by Pendleton for their Children’s blanket series in 2019.
Her works are in permanent collections of the LA County Museum of Art in Los Angeles; the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa; the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.; and the Museum of Contemporary Native Art in Sante Fe.
Art has always been important to Wendy, and she explains that she’s seen children communicate with no pressure or shame through art when they were unable to do so in words.
When asked what she most believes about art, Ponca says, “I seriously believe all art is therapy—for both the artists and those enjoying it. We need beauty.”
We all do need beauty in our lives, as well as representation of the many feelings we may experience. Artist Wendy Ponca helps bring this to life in so many different types of works that she cannot be minimized into one or two classifications. Her wealth of talent and the work she has produced are immense and larger-than-life. With many artistic years still ahead of her, we can watch for more ways she makes her impact and, overall, we can be thankful that impact includes new generations of artists doing the same in the world in which we live.
