Gordon Coons is an enrolled member of Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin. He also has Ottawa/Potawatomi heritage from his mother from Michigan. Gordon is a painter, printmaker, and fumage artist. Largely self-taught, he paints in the Ojibwa Woodland style and creates fumage, cedar smoke art, by burning cedar. He embellishes his fumage pieces with 24-karat gold leaf to represent grandfather and silver leaf to represent grandmother. He also prints with linoleum blocks.  Coons draws inspiration from his Anishinaabe heritage, and his bright color palette comes from his natural surroundings in the Great Lakes region.

“I also enjoy incorporating playfulness in my images, telling stories of relationships between Western and Native cultures and the connection we have to our shared historical events,” he says. Gordon Coons exhibits nationally, and his work is in permanent collections across the country.