Edmond Albert Biography

Born in Montana in 1959, Edmond was the 4th of ten Children. His mother,of Chippewa ancestry, was born on Hill 57 and his father was a Cree from the Sweetgrass Reserve in Saskatchewan, Canada. Edmond was raised on Hill 57, one of three shanty towns on the town’s edges. The Native Americans in these villages were commonly referred to as “Landless Indians” due to the fact that they were not recognized by the U.S. Government. Their homes lacked many modern day essentials; no running water, indoor plumbing or heating. Thus, they lived below the poverty level.

After many years as a wildland firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service,Edmond felt compelled to return to school where he originally enrolled into a forestry program. In 1986, Edmond rediscovered his natural ability and true calling when he took his first drawing class. For the next 10 years he honed his talent by drawing images from master prints and early photographs of Native American Indians. Since 1989 he has entered and won numerous “Best of Show” and “Peoples Choice” awards at the Great Falls Native American Art Show. He was the 1986 recipient of the C.M. Russell Student Art Scholarship.

In the past 2 years (2007-2008) he has been juried into the C.N. Russell Auction of Original Western Art. He has done CD cover artwork for Canyon Records and has done the Indian Art Market at the Heard Museum (Phoenix, 2005).

Already a self-taught painter, Edmond decided in 1998 to attend the university of Nevada in Las Vegas, where he received a BA in Art with a minor in Art History. Today, many of his detailed and refined compositions are of Native American dancers he meets from throughout the U.S. and Canada. Each subject is an individual with a face and elaborate costume of his/her own who dances for traditional and reasons of their own. Edmond has expressed an interest in moving into different types of portraiture (different ethnicities, dancers, etc.)