Get To Know Me Better!

Hiteto, hakehowase lisimimo!
Hello, how are you doing?
Welcome back to Shawnee Rising Studios!

I’m still getting things set up for my grand opening in October, and I thought I would share a little more about who I am and what I’m looking to get out of my blog and online store.

Who am I?

My name is Michael Daugherty and I am Shawnee, enrolled with the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma.

My Shawnee name is Pemipto, and I belong to the horse clan. I will have been married to my beautiful wife, Amy, for 6 years this coming September. We had a handsome little boy named Eli Tecumseh in 2014. His Shawnee name is Nimenelonepiskaka, and he is deer clan.

Above all, I take pride in who I am as a Shawnee man and the culture and traditions that belong to my people, but I have controversial opinions of where we’re headed spiritually.

But, I’ll save that for another post…

However, I’m currently learning bits of the Shawnee language and hope to be able to immerse myself in it one day alongside my wife and son.

I long for the day when I can have a conversation with my family in Shawnee. Most importantly, I long for the day when I can pray to my creator in Shawnee.

What kind of art do I do?

Honestly, I don’t have a specific type of art that I stick to. I’m all over the place. I love doing everything, and I try to add my own culture, or other Indigenous cultures, into everything I do.

Shawnee Rising Studios Blog

I started Shawnee Rising Studios as a brand for my children’s books as an easy way to be recognized. From there, the brand has expanded to almost everything I do. The medicine wheel (A Euro-American expression) consists of the colors black, red, yellow, and white, and is a sacred symbol in many Indigenous cultures across the United States. I won’t go into much detail about it here.

A good source, if you want to know more, is Powwows.com.

When the time came for me to start a blog, I called it Shawnee Rising Studios, and I debated over “Studios” and “Entertainment” for a long time but finally decided on “Studios”. The latter sounded more like a production company.

That would work as well because I hope to make short films in the future, and I might even use “Shawnee Rising Entertainment” for that endeavor. We’ll have to wait and see I guess…

Shawnee Rising Studios Online Store

For years I’ve been wanting to sell my art, either online or in a booth at powwows. Looking at Etsy, Amazon, Shopify, and a few other eCommerce sites, I just couldn’t make up my mind on the best option. After reading blogs and watching a ton of YouTube videos on eCommerce, I found WooCommerce, and after tons of research and getting things rolling, I’ve been working to get things the way I want.

And, In October 2019, I’m opening for business! Woo!

However, it’s been a long road to get things moving and things are finally coming together, but there’s still plenty of work to do, and in the end, it’s enjoyable, and I can’t wait to see where it takes me.

What are my plans for the future and Shawnee Rising Studios?

Blogging, vlogging (coming soon), artwork, handcrafting, running my online store, and more.

I want to get where I can work from home and be with my family. Most importantly, I want to get my wife to work from home as well. My plan for the future is to be around my family as much as possible and to spend as much time with them as possible.

Conclusion

I love art. I love creating new and exciting things and seeing other people’s reaction when they see something I’ve made. It makes me happy.

I’ve struggled with self-doubt, and I’ve scrapped many art pieces in my life due to the fact that I couldn’t believe that I was making something worth any value. However, I still struggle with self-doubt, but as I’ve grown older I like to believe I’ve grown a little wiser.

I keep all of my work unless I’ve messed it up beyond repair, and I try to get the opinions of my friends and family before deciding on the fate of the artwork.

Scrap it? Don’t scrap it? Is it something they would buy or hang on their wall? These are some of the questions and feedback I look for.

I’ve decided that no matter what I create, I will value it.

If I don’t value my art, then my art has no value.

If you can’t see the value in your own art, then no one else will see it either.

Value life. Value family. Value nature.

NEYIWA! Thank You!

Michael Daugherty
Shawnee Rising Studios

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