Amber DuBoise-Shepherd

2023 Rising Star

BFA Art '16

Along with being an artist, illustrator and educator, Amber L. DuBoise-Shepherd is a culture bearer; she uses her talent to depict contemporary Native American artwork based on her Navajo, Sac and Fox, and Prairie Band Potawatomi heritage.

“I want to show my Native relatives — both young and old — that we are resilient,” Duboise-Shepherd said. “I want to make a change, and I believe I can do that through my artwork and through sharing my knowledge of the arts and my Native culture.”

DuBoise-Shepherd earned her associate degree in art from Seminole State College before attending Oklahoma State University, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a minor in entrepreneurship in 2016.

“I had great mentors in several professors who helped me in navigating my first body of artwork,” said DuBoise-Shepherd, who works in oil paint, 2D mixed media, typography, digital art and sound. “I continue to use the skills to this day in my career. I can’t thank them enough … for giving me a solid foundation to build upon.”

Previously the manager of education and outreach at the Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art (MGMoA), DuBoise-Shepherd has her own gallery in Shawnee, Oklahoma, and is the assistant to the director for the School of Visual Arts at the University of Oklahoma.

“As artists, we do more than just create artwork,” DuBoise-Shepherd said. “We are running our own business, being our own promoters and administrators, while creating artwork that is thought-provoking to people and can be challenging to our society.”

In 2020, DuBoise-Shepherd was commissioned by the First Americans Museum in Oklahoma City to create a large oil painting that was digitally converted into a mural for the WINIKO: Life of an Object exhibition. In 2021, she was chosen as one of the Oklahoma Visual Art Coalition Spotlight Artists and in 2022 she curated the MGMoA exhibition Tkenagen Mnowabmenagwet: The Beauty of Indigenous Cradleboards.