Nathan Patrick Meguinis, BuffaloBoy, TravelingRock, Kind hearted Man, 4320099201. Tsuutina, Dene Nation, one of the Treaty #7 Nations. Artist, Muralist, Illustrator, Powwow Dancer. Married with four beautiful children. Danitdada, how are you doing, or hello.
Nathan Patrick Meguinis is my name, but I am also known as Buffalo Boy, Traveling Rock, and Kind Hearted Man. Two of my names were earned, and one was given to me at birth by my Great, great, grandmother. I am also known as 4320099201. My artwork is a unique cultural visual expression of my Tsuutina (Dèné Nation) way of life which is apart of the International peace Treaty # 7. I am a full time artist, muralist, and illustrator. My artistry has a unique contemporary stylization; a mix of abstraction, and realism that tells stories, historical events or philosophy.
I have worked three years for my Tsuutina Gunaha language department in which I help create artwork to help teach Tsuut’ina language and culture , also I created language animations in Dèné Gunaha (my people’s language).
The 2020 Bump mural project was my 1st major mural for the city of Calgary and I will always be thankful for the opportunity and the following year I came back for an encore, which I was told is rare that the same artist comes back the following year. The two major Mural I did was titled ”Buffalo Nations stand and be noticed.“ The second one is titled “Travelling Family” which I used orange paint to represent the residential schools children. These murals were something I worked towards so it was fun to finally spray and paint.
My other Mural was for The Children advocacy Centre for their “sacred space project” which is used for indigenous families as a smudging area or to bridge the cultural gap. This was a challenge due to the amount of visual differences between my fellow indigenous Nations but it was a good challenge. I also had to add the four directions and the traditional teaching behind each direction.
I also designed the Tsuutina Gasbar logo which was a logo contest and also did logos for the Tsuutina Casino boards.
In my art I use Traditional ceremonial colours which have a representation and what I use in all my artwork:
White: Nataa “God” , or holy being, animal or spirit.
Yellow: Sun and is used for protection.
Purple: Thunder Bird.
Blue: All waters, air, and/or wind, and enemies (as portrayed in the old hide pictographs done by my people).
Green: Plant life, and people (as also done on the old hide drawings).
Red: Mother Earth (as done on the old hide drawings) the women’s pipe is red.
Black: Strength, or someone/thing that is powerful and was also a divider to show significance of a event or un-cluster collaborated events. The men’s pipe is black.
I am deeply grateful to family, parents, friends and other Nation Members for their support, education, and influence.
Siyisgaasdzi-tii. Thank you very much.
You can find Nathan’s work here:
INSTAGRAM: @nathan_p_meguinis
Or email him at npmbuffalo@gmail.com.
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