Drawing on Her Heritage : Discovery of Sioux Roots Led to Spiritual, Artistic Reawakening

MISSION VIEJO — When she was growing up, friends and family always told Suzanne Osuna that she had a gift--she could draw vividly and gracefully.

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At Mission Viejo High School in the early 1970s, Osuna developed an interest in Native Americans as subjects, wholly unaware that she was part Sioux.

But after discovering her roots a few years later from her mother, Osuna suddenly stopped drawing for no reason, and took on a series of jobs, including a stint doing portraits at Disneyland, at painting nails at a Costa Mesa beauty salon.

The work, however, couldn’t erase a sense that something was missing from her life. She quit punching a clock last fall and started drawing again. It was a spiritual reawakening, a compelling desire to connect with her Native American origins.

“I was raised like any other white girl in Orange County,” said Osuna, 38. “I wish I could have known more about my heritage when I was growing up.”

Osuna said that her drawings have brought her closer to Native American history and given her an appreciation for the struggle of her people.

She hopes to make lithographs, sell them and donate part of the proceeds to two Native American organizations in South Dakota, the American Indian Culture Resource Center and Crazy Horse Memorial.

Any money from Osuna would be welcome, said the Rev. Stanislaus Maudlin, who oversees the American Indian Culture Center in Marvin, S.D.

“When a person like this offers to donate, we’re thankful,” Maudlin said. “We’re getting by on just what we can scrounge together.”

Paul Apodaca, the curator of Native American art at the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana, said that Osuna shows remarkable skill for someone with no extensive art training as an adult.

Apodaca said Osuna’s work is known in the art world as “photo realism,” which requires a high degree of technical ability.

“She obviously is an extremely talented illustrator,” Apodaca said.

Since October, Osuna has completed two drawings. One is of Bear Bull, a Sioux, and the other is of Quanah Parker, a former leader of the Comanches.

The woman’s art training consists of a drawing class she took at age 10 at a Laguna Beach art school and a few art classes during high school. She never had any training at a university and spent a year studying clothing design at a fashion school in Los Angeles.

Osuna’s decision to quit drawing in her mid-20s became a source of friction between her and others in her family, including her mother who passed along the Native American blood.

“I’d always tried to tell her, ‘Susie, why don’t you start again?’ ” said Osuna’s mother, Leelamae Davis. “And she’d get irritated at me.”

Two years after Osuna married in 1986, she was working as a manicurist, making about $400 a week. She had almost forgotten the time when she once sketched Native Americans from a book and amazed her parents.

But the sudden death of her father in 1993 prompted Osuna to question the path her life had taken.

“He had always shook his head and said, ‘I don’t know why she is doing nails,’ ” Osuna recalled.

Now, using photographs from a book given to her 20 years ago by a family friend, Osuna painstakingly re-creates faces. Her tool is the common pencil.

Osuna said that drawing at home was difficult at first because she was alone and would be anxious for her husband, Richard, to arrive back from his job at a silk-screen printing company in Santa Ana.

“I’d seen her work when we first met,” Richard Osuna said. “Once we got married, she didn’t talk about it.”

But now they can, and a husband marvels at his wife’s ability.

“I don’t know how anybody can do that,” he said. “Especially when they’ve stopped and put it down for 15 years.”

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Profile:

Suzanne Osuna began drawing Native American subjects in high school, unaware she was part Sioux. Some background on the artist:

Age: 38

Home: Mission Viejo

Family: Husband, Richard

Education: Graduated from Mission Viejo High School, attended Fashion Institute for Design in Los Angeles

Art training: One drawing class at age 10 at a Laguna Beach art school, high school art classes

Work experience: Includes portrait painting at Disneyland, manicurist

Attitude: “I was raised like any other white girl in Orange County. I wish I could have known more about my heritage when I was growing up.”

Source: Suzanne Osuna