Seminole artwork hanging on west wall

This piece of artwork was commissioned and created by a partnership of two highly respected and honored artists currently residing in Naples. In 2008, Whole Foods in Naples wanted to decorate the eat-in café in their store and purchased four pieces of Seminole art work from two local artists, Muffy Clark Gill and Che-ke-ka. Whole Foods paid $6000.00 for the four pieces of art work, and what you see here is one of the four pieces. Muffy Clark Gill is renowned for her painting on silk called batik. She has a large series of batik paintings dedicated to Seminole/Miccosukee Indian culture. The two pieces of batik in this artwork were done by Muffy. The colorful Seminole patchwork banner and impressive woman’s necklace were done by Seminole artist, Che-ke-ka. Che-ke-ka also found the playbill announcing the wedding of Henry Cypress at MUSA Isle Indian Village on Ebay and Muffy scanned it and printed it on the piece of silk in the artwork.

In discussions with Muffy Clark Gill, she stated that the artwork is meant to honor and celebrate the culture and traditions of the Seminole Indians and all elements contribute to that objective. But if you wanted to title the art-piece, it would be “MUSA Isle wedding”.

The larger Muffy Clark Gill batik painting shows Seminole women dressed in their colorful dresses worn on public celebrations. For the smaller batik painting, Clark Gill used a historic photo of a wedding couple taken from photos archived for the MUSA Isle Indian Village.

Che-ke-ka, Black Seminole artist- came to Everglades City in 1990 and currently resides in Naples. She is a descendant of family who originally lived in southern Florida. Her colorful patch work art includes include blankets, skirts, blouses, shirts, and jackets done in the Seminole tradition.

The necklace of beads and coins created by Che-Ke-Ka follows a long tradition in Native America were necklaces were made for women featuring wampum or other elements of Indian currency like shells. This necklace follows that long tradition where it includes various coins of US denominations.

Photos of Seminole Indian children were taken by Peter Galligher, former Director of Communications for the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

Seminole Woman’s fancy dress:

This manikin features a woman’s skirt, blouse and cape covering featuring traditional Seminole Indian patchwork designs. These colorful garments are worn during ceremony and other special occasions.