Jesse T. Hummingbird, 3/4 Cherokee and a tribal member of the Cherokee Nation, was born in 1952 in Tahlequah, OK. He attended the Watkins Institute, the University of Tennessee, and classes at The American Academy of Art in Chicago.
He established himself as a successful printer, graphic artist, and commercial illustrator before becoming a full time artist in 1983. Hummingbird pursues both Cherokee and other American Indian themes in his acrylic paintings as what he calls “intertribal fantasy.” While painting contemporary images, he paints in the traditional style of the Oklahoma Native painters which has no shadows, shading or blending of colors; each flat-colored area has an in-lining of a different color and then a dark outline.
