Charleen Touchette



Selected Works at TouchArt Books

Adventure Fiction
Real and Fake Indians - a novel Co-Authored by Charleen Touchette and S. Barry Paisner
Three American Indian athletes dream of inscribed stones that lead them on a quest from Indian Country to the Washington National Mall.
art history
ndn art contemporary Native American art
Critical essay by Charleen Touchette, entitled, "Diversity and change in ndn art". 30 contemporary Indian artists curated by Touchette with 5 full pages of art per selected artist. Suzanne Deats, New Mexico Artists Series editor.
IAIA Rocks the '60s (Forthcoming)
Sixties pictures and bold paintings help tell the story of the exciting years at the Institute of American Indian Arts when students and instructors rocked the painting studios and helped spark a revolution in Indian painting.
Art/Non-Fiction
DREAMS of BEAUTY
Art & Memoir by Charleen Touchette
chapter "Multicultural Strategies for Cultural Revolution in the 21st Century"
Feminist Art Criticism Form Identity Action
Touchette's chapter is included in this prestigious feminist art criticism anthology edited by Arlene Raven, Cassandra Langer and Joannah Frueh
e-book (PD June 2007)
IT STOPS WITH ME: MEMOIR OF A CANUCK GIRL - E-BOOK - PD 2007
Artist's moving memoir of growing up Canuck in America with over 100 color photos of Touchette's Art.
literary memoir with art
It Stops with Me Memoir of a Canuck Girl
Captivating stories of survival and hope - the agony and blessings of family. Artist journeys from Catholic French Canadian culture to Indian Country and Judaism.


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TOUCHART BOOKS

ALBUQUERQUE BLUES Published May 2007 in hardcover by TouchArt Books in Santa Fe.
The Strand Bookstore wrote, "This collection of short fiction showcases the talents of traveler and bohemian Jacques Paisner. With a sharp and poignant voice of rebellion and youth, that is aching to seep from every imaginable pore, the stories within "Albuquerque Blues" are written from the throngs of the current generation of American subculture. Poised with all of the humor and heartbreak of the modern day twenty-something stylist, this book is an exceptional new exploration into the mind of a writer who we are sure to hear more from in the future." from Strand Bookstore, NY, NY
 


Author Charleen Touchette reads on the radio.
Albert Raymond Cata interviewed Author Charleen Touchette on NATIVE RADIO on KSFR, 90.7 FM on Saturday May 20th when Mr. Cata threw his support behind Ms. Touchette's new MIXED BLOOD RADIO show featuring Dispatches from Indian Country and Voices on Indigenous Arts and Politics - interviews and conversations with artists, activists and leaders in the Indian, Mixed Blood, and Indigenous-Minded communities locally and around the globe.
In MIXED BLOOD RADIO's pilot show, host Charleen Touchette visits with WINONA LADUKE about Honor the Earth and the White Earth Land Recovery Project, http://www.nativeharvest.com/ http://www.honorearth.org and with BILLY WARSOLDIER on the Indian Painting Revolution in the 1960s at the Institute of American Indian Arts and his winning First Ammendment fight against the Federal Prisons and his starring role in the ACLU's FREEDOM FILES video. http://www.warsoldierartwork.com/
 


Author Touchette at NM State Library Showcase
TouchArt Books presented the acclaimed It Stops with Me, TouchArt Cards and Prints, and previewed two new titles for 2007 - Albuquerque Blues and Fake Indians at the New Mexico State Library Showcase on May 9, 2006 and June 20th with dozens of New Mexico Publishers. The Showcase accompanied the NM State Library's Lecture Series featuring local Authors and Publishers. Two forthcoming lectures take place on September 19th and October 24th. Authors Charleen Touchette and Jacques Paisner will be on hand to sign books and art prints.
 


Actor Gary Farmer and Author Artist Charleen Touchette at opening of he GARY FARMER GALLERY of CONTEMPORARY ART
TouchArt Ltd's Charleen Touchette congratulates Gary Farmer on the grand opening of his new gallery in Santa Fe at 131 West San Francisco Street featuring the paintings of Anishinaabe Travis Shilling from Canada. Exhibit runs through July 6th. Now showing Nora Naranjo Morse and daughter Eliza Naranjo Morse.
 


Hopi Jeweler Naavaasya surprises Actor Gary Farmer and Artist Charleen Touchette
Naavaasya from Old Oraibi on Third Mesa takes Actor Gary Farmer and Artist Charleen Touchette by surprise with his "mustard bottle" at the opening of the GARY FARMER GALLERY of CONTEMPORARY ART in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
 


TouchArt Books' debut title, a literary memoir by American artist Charleen Touchette, has received kudos from luminaries like Louise Erdrich, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Winona LaDuke, PEN Awardees Margaret Randall and Ana Pacheco, New Mexico's First Lady Barbara Richardson, Author Gordon Basichis, and many others.


TouchArt Books debut title was awarded a ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year 2004 SemiFinalist Award
IT STOPS WITH ME
MEMOIR OF A CANUCK GIRL
ISBN 0-9746545-0-7
by CHARLEEN TOUCHETTE
PUB DATE 2004
Touch Art Books, Santa Fe
320 pages - including 32 full color insert & 115+ BW photos
Distributed to the Trade by BIBLIO DISTRIBUTION—an NBN Sister Company (800) 462-6420 www.bibliodistribution.com
Distributed to Libraries by QUALITY BOOKS, INC. (800) 323-4241 www.quality-books.com
Available now in Santa Fe, NM at The Collected Works Bookstore,208 B West San Francisco St. #505 988-4226, Borders Books & Music at Sambusco Center, 500 Montezuma #505 954-4707, Borders Books & Music at 3513 Zafarano Drive #505 474-9450, Artisans on Canyon Road, Hastings at De Vargas Mall, Clearlight's New Mexico Bookstore at the Villa Linda Mall and at the Institute of American Indian Arts Museum Bookstore, 108 Cathedral Place # 505-983-8900. Ask for Maggie Ohnesorgen.
IN ALBUQUERQUE - Bound to be Read, Borders Books & Music at Winrock Center and at the Wyoming store, and at Bookworks on the West side. Or ORDER direct at TouchArt@aol.com or TouchArt.net

 


Dreaming a healing...an artist must remember her childhood to heal.
Charleen Touchette’s memoir is a story of survival and hope, of the agony of family and its blessings, of shame and pride, destruction and creation. With the rich traditions of her French Canadian and Indian cultures, Touchette inherited a legacy of anger, alcoholic rages, violence, and denial. Determined to find a better way to live, she leaves her birthplace and culture at seventeen years old. Her journey takes her to Wellesley College, New York’s Lower East Side, and Soho’s art world, then to Indian Country, Navajo Nation, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Abandoning the Catholic Church for Native American sweatlodges and Jewish synagogues, she has three sons, a daughter, a happy marriage, and a successful career. After the birth of her daughter, she is debilitated by a strange illness that forces her to confront her past.
Touchette offers a rare glimpse of French Canadian/Métis culture and a frightening view of the power and influence of the Catholic Church.
Touchette's experiences in the Indian art world elucidate the complex identity issues and the longing to belong that bi-racial people face. Her response to being targeted and blacklisted in the Indian identity witch hunt was to assert her human right to draw strength from all her cultural heritages - even those her family was separated from by cultural genocide. Touchette's refusal to be pigeon-holed or stereotyped will inspire the growing numbers of multi-ethnic people to claim and take pride in every part of their ancestry.

DRINKING DADDY

Winona LaDuke recommends "It Stops with Me"


"Charleen's courageous story and writing gives strength to all of us. We are survivors from generations of joy, sorrow, violence and love and we have the responsibility, and privilege, like Touchette herself, to say, "it stops with me", and from now on, we will be about love and a good life." Winona LaDuke

"It Stops with Me"


With fluidity and eloquence Touchette's story moves between the personal, the familial, and then branches out with broad historical scope to share the story of the relatively unknown French Canadian, Acadian, Quebécois, and Métis whose descendants now number in the millions throughout the United States and Canada. Combining details of family memories, cultural traditions, and oral history, "It Stops with Me" spans four centuries, several cultures, myths, and families. The narrative explores the complex relationship between love and hate, nurturing and cruelty, loyalty and betrayal that ties families together or tears them apart.


Daddy, I'm trying to be a good girl.


He always caught me.
 

Daddy's Strap

Scary Daddy

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Shalom, peace, paz, salaam, paix, skennon.


Peace ...comes within the souls of men when they realize their relationship,
their oneness, with the Universe and all its powers, and when they realize
that...the center of the Universe...is really everywhere, it is within each
of us.
Black Elk, Oglala Lakota, 1947
The root of your life problems becomes nonexistent when you start to
cherish others.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche




http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/12/prweb325008.htm?BlogThisQuoting=bq

Two More NEW MEXICO STATE HISTORY LIBRARY Lecture Series and Book Fairs September 19th & Oct 24th 3 - 7 pm. TouchArt Books will showcase IT STOPS WITH ME and introduce two new titles for 2007 - REAL & FAKE INDIANS a novel by Charleen Touchette and S. Barry Paisner and ALBUQUERQUE BLUES Short Fiction and
Plays by Jacques
Paisner.


Charleen Touchette and Artist John Freesoul with his custom chopper.

REAL & FAKE INDIANS - a novel by Charleen Touchette and S. Barry Paisner, the first in the couple's INDIAN COUNTRY series of satirical and hilarious adventure novels about American Indian athletes.

TouchArt's Charleen Touchette on the patio at El Farol on Canyon Road June 2006

Book Appearance by Charleen Touchette
in APRIL 2005 in Los Angeles - Standard Hotel Rooftop Pool
_________________________________________________
SOME EVENTS for AUTHOR CHARLEEN TOUCHETTE in 2004
* Visit to White Earth Minnesota to see Winona LaDuke - August 2004.
* Minneapolis August 2004
PRE-PUBLICATION EVENT
* May 15, 2004 - 3-5 pm - Book Signing at Borders Books & Music at 3513 Zafarano Drive and Cerrillos.*

"Great Decider" by Charleen Touchette from "Horrors" series.

Commander in Chief by Charleen Touchette from "Horrors" series. See more in Art and Word

FEATURED WORK - Literary Memoir
"It Stops with Me" - Canuck artist’s captivating odyssey of survival and hope spanning five centuries, several cultures, myths, and families brings to life the agony and blessings of family.


Select City Tour with Performances, exhibitions, readings and book signings. Cities in 2005 include Jacksonville and St. Augustine Florida (February 16-19th), Los Angeles (April), Minneapolis (mid-summer), Albuquerque (September), New York City (October)(appearance on International Women's Writer's Guild (IWWG) Meet the Authors panel). More appearances in Seattle, Denver, Montreal. Times, dates, and additional venues TBA.


Pre-Publication Events already held:
APRIL 3, 2004 – 10-12 and 1-3 - IT STOPS WITH ME APRON YOUTH ART PROJECT at Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Annex. Free art workshop where youth artists 13-24 to transformed aprons into art that were exhibited at the IT STOPS WITH ME (AND YOU) COMMUNITY EVENT at the MFA.
* APRIL 24, 2004 - 7-10 pm - IT STOPS WITH ME (AND YOU) BOOK LAUNCH ARTS, MUSIC, ENTERTAINMENT, THEATER PERFORMANCE, AND CULTURAL COMMUNITY EVENT - St. Francis Auditorium, New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts, 107 West Palace Avenue, Santa Fe. Event opened with Thunder Mesa Taibo drums, a suprise appearance by Pura Fe, soloist with the accapella Native singers ULALI, Charleen Touchette read and showed art from her new book, "It Stops with Me" in a dramatic performance, Winona LaDuke spoke on "Healing and Activism", NM YOUNG FATHER'S PROJECT HIP HOP, and COATLICUE THEATRE - with ELVIRA & HORTENCIA COLORADO performed "A Traditional Woman - 'Too Much - Not'Nuff'" Event was a benefit for INDIGENOUS WOMENS NETWORK and SANTA FE RAPE CRISIS CENTER.
* May 1, 2004 - 3-5 pm - Book Signing at Borders, Sambusco Center.


I dreamed I saved a drowning baby.

Fleeing with my treasures, I found two more.

Feeding the Grandmothers

Charleen Touchette is developing MIXED BLOOD RADIO - news, interviews, and conversations on Indigenous Arts and Politics. The radio show has been proposed to KSFR FM 90.7 in Santa Fe and TouchArt Books is seeking other radio stations to air this exciting radio show that has been endorsed by Albert Raymond Catah of NATIVE RADIO.


"Elk Woman at Twilight"

Exhibitions


TouchArt Books participated in the book fair at New Mexico History Museum on May 9th with its debut title, IT STOPS WITH ME and the covers of its new titles for 2007, ALBUQUERQUE BLUES by Jacques Paisner and REAL & FAKE INDIANS by Charleen Touchette and S. Barry Paisner. Author Publisher Charleen Touchette signed books and sold fine art cards and prints from TouchArt Cards at TouchArt, Ltd.

Articles


BY CHARLEEN TOUCHETTE:
2001 “It’s a Sweet Life” (first 4 chapters), MOE TWI POE website, Franco-American Women’s Institute.
"IAIA Rocks the '60s: The Painting Revolution at the Institute of American Indian Arts", Gallery brochure, INSTITUTE OF AMERICAN INDIAN ARTS MUSEUM, February, 2001.
“George Morrison (1919-2000) - Master Artist - Standing on the "edge of the world", AMERICAN INDIAN ART MAGAZINE, Phoenix, Arizona, November.
“A Portfolio of Native American Art”, THE MAGAZINE, Santa Fe, New Mexico, August, Cover and p. 23-29.
2000 "Interview with Kay WalkingStick", THE MAGAZINE (photos), August, 2000.
“C.S. Tarpley: It’s Alchemy from Start to Finish”, NATIVE PEOPLES, Phoenix, Arizona, November.
1999 "Change Is On the Horizon: Interview with Joanna Bigfeather, Director of Santa Fe's IAIA Museum, THE MAGAZINE, (photos), August, 1999, pp.67-69.
1998 Charleen Touchette, "Sacred Manifestations: Innovative Expressions of Spirituality", (art by 25 women artists, 28 artists discussed).
Charleen Touchette, "Innovative Women Artists of New Mexico: Who Are The Undiscovered O'Keeffes?", (art by 25 artists).
Charleen Touchette, "O'Keeffe's Contemporaries: Our Honored Matriarchs", (art by 25 artists, 32 artists discussed.)
1997 Charleen Touchette, "Shattering Stereotypes", Critic at Large article, THE MAGAZINE, Volume VI, Number II, August, p.57-59.
1995 Charleen Touchette, NATIVE AMERICAN ART IS WORLD ART, (NAAWA), Curriculum Guides, MCAE, Minneapolis, MN. Commissioned by the Minnesota Center for Arts Education (MCAE), Ten units; each includes text, slides (160-320), slide lists, cross-reference charts, and learning experiences. Originated, developed and written by Touchette.
"Respecting Native American Art as World Art", NAAWA Guide 1.
"Ancient Architects and Their Influence on 20th Century Earth Sculptors and
Ritual Artists", NAAWA Guide 11.
'The Transformative Power of Masks", NAAWA Guide III.



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