The title invokes the Indigenous agricultural teaching of the Three Sisters ... corn, beans, and squash ... grown together in mutual support. Mvskoke (Creek) Nation artist Starr Hardridge turns that ecological relationship into a human image of kinship, reciprocity, and continuity. Three Indigenous women sit shoulder to shoulder before a dense wall of tall green plants. Their bodies form a calm horizontal rhythm, but each face turns in a different direction, creating a sense of individuality within kinship. The woman at left wears a warm rust and orange patterned dress. The central figure wears a deep brown outfit and long braids while the woman at right wears a vivid magenta-purple garment. All three wear large white aprons that catch the light and anchor the composition with brightness. Their hands rest quietly in their laps. The plants rises closely behind them, almost like a protective screen, surrounding the figures in living green. Hardridge’s surface is carefully structured and highly finished, balancing hyper-realism with stylized pattern so that cloth, skin, and plant life feel equally intentional and symbolic. The women do not simply sit in front of plants. They seem held within a living system of nourishment and inheritance. The corn rises behind them like a protective curtain, while the squash leaves spread low across the foreground, rooting the figures in land-based knowledge. Hardridge’s contemporary Muscogee visual language joins realism with pattern and ancestral design, making the painting feel both intimate and ceremonial. Painted for the 2024 Mvskoke Art Market, where it won first place in painting, the work was soon acquired by the Philbrook Museum of Art. In their collection, it becomes a visible and powerful statement about Indigenous presence, food sovereignty, feminine strength, and the enduring intelligence of community.
"Three Sisters" by Starr Hardridge (Muscogee/Creek) - Acrylic on canvas / 2024 - Philbrook Museum of Art (Tulsa, Oklahoma) #WomenInArt #StarrHardridge #Hardridge #PhilbrookMuseum #Muscogee #Creek #NativeArt #art #artText #artwork #IndigenousArt #AmericanArt #NativeWomen #BlueskyArt #PortraitOfWomen
