Two Indigenous figures stand close together in an open, pale landscape, sharing one striped blanket that wraps around both bodies like a single shelter. Their skin appears medium brown and each has long black hair blown sideways by wind. The figure at left wears a vivid blue dress with a lighter collar detail while the other wears a tan top and a cool gray skirt, with turquoise-colored jewelry. Brown boots ground them. A small black-and-white dog lies low at their feet. Behind, the sky is drawn in large cloud shapes outlined in soft blue, punctuated by sharp orange zigzag lightning. A small, rounded blue form floats above, adding a symbolic, almost diagram-like storm sign. Fan-shaped blue plants and stones curve across the foreground, framing the pair in a quiet, watchful pause. Native multimedia artist of Comanche and Irish heritage, Opeche-Nah-Se (Diane O’Leary) turns weather into a kind of knowledge like an attentive reading of danger and change that lives in the body as much as in the eyes. The shared blanket makes an emotional argument that protection is collective, not solitary, and preparedness is an act of care. The clouds and lightning feel less like a “scene” than like icons while the dog’s crouched posture mirrors vigilance. Even so, the figures do not dramatize fear. They stand composed, shoulder-to-shoulder, as if naming what’s coming and choosing steadiness anyway. The image also insists that observation itself can be power with women as interpreters, guardians, and holders of lived expertise. O’Leary was widely noted for centering Native women in modernist, symbol-rich compositions. She had an extensive academic path and was a consistent activist with work shaped by commitments to Indigenous dignity, women’s equality, and environmental responsibility. "Watching the Weather" is more than a meteorological moment. It is a portrait of protective intelligence and women rendered as the ones who understand it, endure it, and keep others safe within it.
“Watching the Weather” by Opeche-Nah-Se / Diane O’Leary (Comanche) - Gouache on artist’s board / 1973 - Great Plains Art Museum (Lincoln, Nebraska) #WomenInArt #WomensArt #WomanArtist #WomenArtists #DianeOLeary #OpecheNahSe #GPAM #GreatPlainsArtMuseum #artText #art #WomenPaintingWomen #IndigenousArt
