In The Studio With Marlena Myles

From fabric designs to bus layouts and augmented reality (AR), Native American and Spoonflower Artist Marlena Myles is connecting her community to her culture through art. Marlena is a Dakota artist from Saint Paul, Minnesota, who is enrolled in the Spirit Lake Dakota Tribe in North Dakota. Learn how Pokémon GO inspired Marlena to create AR to educate people about her culture, and her tips for artists to be more involved in their community. 

Marlena: My art celebrates my culture and shares its traditions, teachings and history with others. Growing up on my people’s traditional homelands in south Minneapolis, I didn’t see much that reflected my culture outside of the urban Native community of Little Earth where I lived, and the Native magnet school I attended. 

Art also creates a sense of identity and belonging for Native people on our homelands, promoting healing and resilience in a beautiful and empowering way. My people have faced oppression, but my art is a celebration of our strength and perseverance. 

As an adult, I use my talents to create visibility and understanding through Dakota art. I want the next generations to feel seen and heard through the work I create, so things are easier for them. I create educational resources such as maps and coloring pages; illustrate books; animate music videos and large-scale art installations in 2D and augmented reality formats. 

Creating the ‘We are on Dakota Homelands’ bus design has been very exciting. My intentions were to create public art that makes Native people feel seen, and I’ve gotten so much positive feedback from folks who say the bus does exactly that for them. Elders say that’s something they would never have expected to see, and they’re happy our histories are being better supported by the greater community. 

After seeing the popularity of Pokémon GO, and how it got people engaged and outdoors—I thought the same augmented reality technology could be used to bring people to our significant and sacred sites. I figured I could overlay digital elements and storytelling to show others these ancient stories and teachings without disturbing the land so that the powers held here can continue to be passed down to future generations.

Experiencing Dakota culture and teachings through AR offers an innovative and immersive experience that allows people to see the world through Dakota eyes. My first AR walk is called the Dakota Spirit Walk and it was so successful that I’ve been asked to create more AR installations for other organizations. 

I love seeing what people create using my designs. At the time I got into surface design, I didn’t see many designs created by Native people. Spoonflower was so helpful in filling that void. Now, I see many more Native artists using Spoonflower, and I’m proud that we have this resource to create for our communities and show our capabilities. It’s incredibly inspiring to see designers out there using my fabrics to create wonderful adornments that our ancestors would be proud of. 

I love all kinds of pattern designs, so I look at different eras of designs and think about how Dakota art can be represented in that theme too. So in my Spoonflower portfolio, you’ll see combinations of Dakota floral designs with different eras such as 1970s or midcentury modern. I think Dakota artistic expression is limitless so I keep my mind open for inspiration. 

I buy every kind of pattern book I can find to stay inspired by what’s going on all around the world. The books don’t even have to be in English, I study the illustrations and photographs instead.  

I’m also inspired by the patterns Grandmother Earth puts into all of her creations. I live near a number of parks and it’s always inspiring to see the different seasonal colors.