Originally Published: http://artists.asianpacificpost.com/patrick-hunter/
Heritage: Ojibway
Occupation: Painter, Graphic Artist, Web Designer, Marketing and Branding Advisor
By Marylee Stephenson
www.indianartfromtheedge.com
Special to The Post
Patrick Hunter is a young Ojibway artist who knows where he is going.
He grew up in a tiny village in the Red Lake District of northwestern Ontario, where the Aboriginal person he knew best was his mother.
She was an inspiration and role model to him from the beginning.
An active community organizer, she directed the local Native Friendship Centre, and she also was a model for high-fashion clothing that featured dramatic fur trims.
“From my mom I got my thirst for community development and an entrepreneurial spirit,” he explains.
The combination of his mother’s caring for the community and her artistic leanings led naturally to Patrick’s own development as a visual and graphic artist, web designer, marketing and branding advisor.
He realized early in his life – and he is only 26 now – that he had both a talent and a drive to succeed.
He had a “great mentor” in high school, and took all the art courses he could.
But after graduating his community development side took over and for nearly a year he was a mentor for young Aboriginal children in a school-based program called Turtle Concepts.
He helped build confidence and self-esteem in the teens, and taught them about things like workplace etiquette, “you know, like being on time to work, dressing right.” He then worked for another year with the local Aboriginal school board.
But art called again and Patrick knew that “if I didn’t go back to school now, I never would.” So he enrolled in college in Sault Ste. Marie, which though having population of only 80,000, was the biggest city he’d ever been in.