Lily Hope


Lily Hope is a Native American artist, designer, teacher, weaver, Financial Freedom planner, and a community facilitator. She is primarily known for her skills at weaving traditional Northwestern clothing such as Chilkat robes and ensembles. She has a collaborative studio in downtown Juneau with Ricky Tagaban where she teaches and presents her work.

Biography and education

Lily Hope, also known as Lily Lalanya Hudson, was born and raised in Juneau, Alaska by full-time artists. She mainly identifies herself as Tlingit Indian of the Raven moiety from her grandmother’s clan, the T’akdeintaan. The clan originated from Snail House in Hoonah Alaska. She was taught how to weave traditionally from her mother, Clarissa Rizal, and artist , both well-known and also from Juneau, Alaska.
Clarissa Rizal was known for her weaving, painting, printmaking, carving, and sculpting. She was one of the last apprentices of the late Master Chilkat Weaver, Jennie Thlanaut. Back in the 1990s, Jennie Thlunaut was part of a handful of artists who still practiced the traditional Chilkat weaving. Jennie’s knowledge of formline design was so thorough that she was able to create her own designs that followed the traditional rules. This was later taught to Clarissa, and soon enough, following her mother’s lead, Hope learned how to weave that certain way too. Her ties with her mother were strong to the point that they collaborated on an ensemble and won first place at an art show.
Despite learning traditional Northwestern art at her home, Hope went on to study Communications and Theatre at University of Alaska Southeast from 2002 to 2007. Soon after college, she became a well-known Chilkat and Raventail weaver and teacher. She also acted and participated in the Alaskan Regional theatre, Perseverance Theatre, whose mission is to “create professional theatre by and for Alaskans.” They valued community engagement, cross-cultural collaboration, professional rigor, and regional voice. This ties in with Hope’s commitment and dedication to her hometown. Not only that, but she also has dedicated her time to teaching weaving in Juneau community, Yukon Territory, and down the coast of SE Alaska. Regardless of her busy schedule, she still takes time to be a mother of her five children and a wife to her husband, Ishmael Hope.

Artworks

Copper Child is her first Ravenstail ensemble, in which she collaborated with her mother Clarissa Rizal. It is made out of Merino wool, rabbit fur, sea otter fur, and copper cones. It includes a robe, headdress, and apron. As mentioned in the title, it is woven to fit a child. Its intent is for celebrations. It contains standing at the top of the mountain pattern repeating across the body of the robe, with Hope’s 2002 design, shaman eyes, and Clarissa’s traditional lightning and Haida spider web designs. It had a run of exhibits and shows and won first place at Sealake Heritage Institute’s Juried Art Show in 2012. It now holds a permanent spot in its collection.
Little Watchman is a child-size Chilkat ensemble that includes a headdress, leggings, a wool jacket adorned with epaulets and a Chilkat face on the back. It exemplifies the mix of Ravenstail and Chilkat textiles. Chilkat robes used modified Northwest Coast form line, and she weaves them by hand on an upright frame with no tolls other than a tapestry needle to tuck in braids. And it is on display in the exhibition Reflections: Native Arts Across Generations at The Fralin Museum of Art. This exhibition’s purpose was to bring together historic Native American art that was drawn from the collections of The Fralin Museum of Art with the work of several distinguished contemporary Native artists.
Lineage Robe thigh-spun merino wool, cedar bark, hand-dyed merino wool, beaver fur is part of the collection of the Portland Art Museum. In the Northwest Coast, such as Alaska, Canada, part of Washington and Oregon, the Native American tribes believed in human and animal interactions were strong enough to the point that they could switch with each other. The Chilkat blanket is a traditional, woven cape, traditionally worn by high-ranking tribal members during civic or ceremonial occasions. Only the wealthy could make or own. Both men and women contributed in the process of creating the blanket. Men would design the pattern while the women would provide the cedar bark. It was considered a great privilege. The standard design is a white background with bold black border and fringe on the lower portion. This also consisted of the formline style, which is a primary design from the Northwest. It consisted of darkly outlined shapes called ovoids. Ovoids are U or V-shapes. The blankets are in black, white, or red colors. But on this occasion, Hope mainly used the traditional designs of a Chilkat blanket but added in color to it to modernize it.
Heritage Robe it is her first adult size Chilkat robe. It took her 17 months, from 2016 to 2017, and over 1,700 hours at her loom. It is one of four robes in the exhibit at Portland Art Museum, in Portland Oregon that is connected by the same teaching lineage. It mainly holds the same outlined shapes and characteristics from the Lineage Robe. Hope worked on the robe at SHI’s Delores Churchill Artist-in-Residence Studio. While she was working on the project, her mother, Clarissa Rizal, passed away. The intention of the robe, according to Hope, is to help build an awareness and recognition of Chilkat weaving on a global scale. Not only that, but children and grandchildren could learn more about their ancestry.
Giving Strength Robe 5-inch-by-inch squares to create a traditional indigenous robe. This is a collaboration with many Chilkat and Ravenstail weavers from all over North America. The concept originally came from Heidi Vantrease, the project organizers include Hope Hope, Deanna Lampe, and Ursala Hudson. Ursala Hudson is Hope's sister who is an artist and a graphic designer who photographs and paints. She is also a mother and contributes to society by working as President and one of the founders of Pagosa Peak Open School, the community's charter school. The intention is to bring weavers together to bring in strength and for survivors to be able to heal. The completed robe will be given to Aiding Women in Abuse and Rape Emergencies, Juneau’s gender-inclusive shelter for survivors of gender-based violence. This project was mildly based on Clarissa Rizal’s “Weavers Across the Water’s robe”, which also brought weavers together to create a robe to fight for a cause.

Merchandise

Lily Hope holds a shop that sells woven earrings which can be found in her website, includes:
=Exhibitions=
Group Exhibitions:
Lily Hope's work is included in: