Expanding the Definition of Native Art: Participant Spotlight on Sa’dekaronhes Esquivel
We are continuing our Locals to Know features with The Evergrey by spotlighting Sa’dekaronhes Esquivel, a Kanienʼkehá꞉ka (Mohawk) and Mexican Indigenous digital artist working to redefine Native Art with comics, video games, and role-playing games. Sa’de is a participant at the Seattle Restored Collective Market, where nine emerging businesses and artists are working together to revive downtown.
Q: Tell us about your artistic focus.
A: I have been a professional illustrator and concept artist in the game industry for about 20 years. My primary focus is in Indigenous Futurisms, video games, comics, Table-top Roleplaying games, and pop culture art.
I’m working to expand the imagination of what falls under the definition of “Native Art” because I believe that relying solely on an anachronistic past doesn’t leave room for the growth of our cultures. Native/Indigenous people have ALWAYS been adaptable. We are a product of our environment and cultures, and it’s impossible to not reflect the impact that pop culture has had on Native people. We exist NOW, not in some idealized past, and we like what we like. That’s why I do what I do.
Q: What’s a project you’re working on and how can readers help you with it?
A: During the pandemic, my brother and I started a business, Rising Sons Media LLC, and our merch brand Blanket Door as an opportunity to support ourselves and mom financially. The Seattle Restored Market is giving us the opportunity to share my art with the larger Seattle community, and to be able to share our Dad’s art after he passed in 2014. Our business is named after his powwow drum group, Rising Sons. He had asked us to carry on the name, and so we are.
Being part of the Seattle Restored Market has helped place us on a more stable financial footing, but we’re still very much on the edge of homelessness. If the readers would like to support us, that would be amazing and go a long way to providing the stability we’re working for. For the majority of these last three years we’ve had to brute force our way through every opportunity. We have done everything we have without any backing or grant money.
Q: What’s the most rewarding part of your artistic pursuits?
A: The majority of my art career has been spent behind the scenes, working as part of collaborative efforts, like game development, so people don’t really know who I am. Having my own business gives me the opportunity to put my own ideas in front of a larger community rather than just the niche I’ve been working in. It also has allowed me the flexibility to work on projects with other Indigenous creatives that I may not have had that opportunity to work with before. Being able to see the projects we’ve worked on in hand has been the most rewarding part.
Q: What are you looking forward to this year?
A: Currently I’m serving as Art Lead for an Indigenous-owned game studio, Achimostawinan Games, and we will be releasing Hill Agency: Purity/decay. This project is shipping on Steam and Itch.io at the end of March. I can’t wait for people to be able to see it.
I’ve also contributed to Native comic anthologies, MOONSHOT Vol3, and A Howl: Wolves, Werewolves and Rougarou from Native Realities Press; and working with Coyote and Crow the TTRPG, which was created here in Seattle. I just got back from being a featured guest at the IndigiPop Expo that was hosted at First Americans Museum in Oklahoma. So I’m looking forward to more opportunities to make cool stuff with cool people!
Q: What brings you most alive about working or living in Seattle?
A: Seattle has always provided the opportunities to put my work out on a larger stage. I grew up on the Colville Confederated Tribes Reservation, but belong to different nations, so that sense of being an outsider really clicked in Seattle. I don’t know if it’s the fact that so much nature still exists in the city, or just the vibe of the city, but I’ve always felt like I belonged here.
Q: If you could give any one piece of advice to locals, what would it be?
A: Get out of your neighborhood, explore everywhere! There’s so much talent to be found everywhere in Seattle. Especially in the least expected places.
Q: What’s your favorite Seattle Restored pop-up or art installation and why?
A: I haven’t been able to see as many as I would have liked, but I really enjoyed the Holiday Market. My mom was a fan too.
Q: What’s your favorite Seattle memory?
A: I’d say that I have two. Both were music related and both accidental. I met the lead singer of the Deftones at the Hurricane. I was sketching in one of the booths, and I noticed a guy watching me draw from across the aisle, looked over and saw Chino Moreno, and his drummer Abe Cunningham, and possibly their GM. I showed him my drawing, had a quick convo and they had to bounce once people started recognizing them. I think they were in town recording for B Sides and Rarities. I could be wrong on the album though.
Second, I accidentally ended up at a Dave Matthews acoustic set at the Crocodile cuz I was talking to a friend standing in line and we all got swept inside. I was last “in line.”
Q: Where would you spend a lazy Sunday afternoon in Seattle?
A: I’m lucky enough to have a yard at the house I’m renting in Skyway, so I’m usually there. But I also love hanging out at coffee shops while I sketch. So I’d probably dig hangin out at the Station on Beacon Hill, given the chance.
VISIT THE BLANKET DOOR AT THE COLLECTIVE MARKET
Address: 1503 5th Ave
Seattle, WA 98101
Open hours:
Thursday | 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Friday | 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Saturday | 12:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Sunday | 12:00 am – 5:00 pm
Dates: January 14 – April 23