Jonny Bear Contreras was born in 1962 and raised on the San Pasqual Indian Reservation. He absorbed his knowledge of his surrounding and his viewpoints from the very earth, wind and fire of his childhood. He has worked diligently with the community to make works of sculpture that reflect his own time and space and at the same time reflect the larger community of which he is a part.
“Often times man can be moving like liquid, or sedentary like stone. He may be slumped on the steps that society has placed before him or he might have created the steps on which he will fall. The steps might also be for advancement.”
Johnny Bear Contreras
This statement reflects a journey of life of Johnny Bear Contreras, a Native American of the Kumeyaay tribe in San Diego, California. Last child of ten, born in 1962, he often explored fields on the San Pasqual Indian Reservation. Natural rhythms of life including the mountain’s commanding voice, made him aware of his passion and gift. Attending Palomar College in 1996, he studied art and was rewarded financially for his early work. Sharing his ideas at pow-wows with other Native American artists led to the completion and installation of his first piece of public art in 1997 for the Santa Fe Springs School District. Asked to create a memorial for a District family member that had recently lost a child, “The Journey” depicts a young girl being guided to the next world by a dolphin. Her reflection in the windows of the Family Center represents transition,breaking surface tension from one world to the next.
That same year, Johnny Bear Contreras was one of nine world artists chosen to create a sacred piece for the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, in Los Angeles. “Spirit of the Earth” was installed in the Prayer Meditation Plaza at the Cathedral. The architecture and atmosphere of the Cathedral inspired Johnny to create a sculpture, “that looks like an extension of earth.” and reveals the Kumeyaay’s story of creation. Here is man, struggling through the vortex; attending him, the hawk and dolphin. Forceful currents pull and push for him to rise or fall.
Continuing on with his public work, he was asked to create a piece for the Solanus Casey Center in Detroit, Michigan. “Sister Mother Earth” was installed 2001. This abstract reflects Mother Earth’s powers and endurance, “who sustains and governs us” according to The Canticle of Brother Sun. In 2002, the city of Poway, California contracted Contreras to create two bronze sculptures outside its new city complex. “Seeing” and “Settling Woman”, are traditional representations of his nations’ people. “The Cross and Corpus” were created for St. Steven’s Parish in Valley Center, California.
After his award of the Smithsonian Fellowship early in 2006 came the commission for the US Grant Hotel by Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation in downtown San Diego. This is the largest group of art that Johnny Bear has worked on to date.
Johnny Bear Contreras does not believe in coincidence, only those interlocking moments that are part of a greater plan. Like his clay molds, he has gone through numerous processes and is still emerging.
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