When Shelby Rowe was named the 2016 Chickasaw Nation Dynamic Woman of the Year, she said her life changed in ways she would never have expected. A journey begun with award winning work as a suicide prevention advocate led to a new life as an artist and a first-place ribbon in beadwork at the 2026 Heard Museum Indian Fair and Market. At the time of her Dynamic Woman of the Year award, Rowe was the manager of education and prevention programs for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. The award led her to move back to Oklahoma.
“At the time I was living in New York City, working for a national nonprofit,” Rowe said. “But this was a life-changing award, and it didn’t take long before I realized this isn’t about me, and I asked myself, ‘What am I doing to help our tribe? To help our people?’ I wanted to come home, so I moved home.”
In 2017, Rowe went to the Chickasaw Annual Meeting and Festival and spent time at the Southeastern Art Show and Market (SEASAM). She wanted to visit with the new dynamic woman, Brenda Kingery, and congratulate her. It had been life-changing for Rowe, and she thought it might be for her as well. She also had a chance to visit with Mary Ruth Barnes, who had won the award the year before her.
“Both of them happened to be artists,” Rowe said. “So, I was talking to them in their artist booths, and I also visited and talked to other Chickasaw artists. I was really inspired.”
Rowe said she had been trying to find ways to become more in touch with her Chickasaw heritage. She had tried language learning, but she didn’t feel like it was the right fit for her personally. When she was walking around SEASAM, she saw someone selling beaded hat bands, and something clicked for her.
“I thought the patterns looked like a spreadsheet,” Rowe said. “And I’m pretty good at reading spreadsheets, so I thought maybe I could bead.”
She went to the ARTesian Gallery and Studios in Sulphur, Oklahoma, and bought a little loom and an instruction book. She went home and started to bead, beginning with three little hair barrettes. While that was her first foray into beading, she wanted to do something more.
She had seen Kiowa and Choctaw artist Steven Paul Judd’s portrait of Sitting Bull, which was made by gluing together 300 Rubik’s Cubes, and wondered if she could recreate it using beads. Rowe printed a picture of it, reached out to Judd and told him that she was going to try to bead that picture.
“I told him, ‘If it looks good, I’ll give it to you. And if it doesn’t look good … I don’t know, but I just want to see if I can do it,’” Rowe said.
Rowe finished the portrait and gave it to Judd.
“He was like, ‘No, this is good,’” Rowe said. “He talked to me about pricing and other things and shared it on his social media. Within three hours, I had my first commission, and now it has just gone from there.”
One of the most difficult parts of being an artist, though, was time.
“It’s a really slow medium,” Rowe said. “My pieces take a long time to do. They could take me months, or they could take me years.”
Though Rowe found whatever time she could to work on her art, she still had a full-time job as an advocate in suicide prevention. Until October 2025, Rowe had been the executive director for the Suicide Prevention Resource Center for the previous five years, focusing on building capacity for preventing suicide. She had around 60 people on her team, and art just sat to the side.
However, after an esteemed and influential career in suicide prevention, Rowe decided it was time for the next phase of her life and left her position to have more time and energy to spend on her beadwork.
She now has a studio at Exhibit C in Oklahoma City. She said she is excited to be a part of a First American artist community where they can share their work, and support and encourage each other.
Rowe will be at the Artesian Arts Festival, Saturday, May 2, with festivities running from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. This will be her first time at this festival, and she said she is looking forward to it.
“When you go to a national tribal art show, the Southwestern style really dominates, and our Southeastern motifs and stories are not as prevalent,” Rowe said. “I’m happy that there will be people coming by who are going to recognize the stories. But also, I get to hang out with the other really talented Chickasaw artists like Dustin Mater, Billy Hensley, Mary Ruth Barnes and Regina Free.”
One of the pieces she will have with her is “Taloowa Ikbi: A Tribute to Jerod Tate,” which won first place in its division at the Heard Museum Indian Fair and Market in Pheonix, Arizona. The piece is a top hat with a beaded portrait of Tate on the top and sheet music from his opera “Loksi' Shaali' (Shell Shaker)” beaded along the sides.
While Rowe enjoys the challenge of beading and the reactions she gets from people when they realize her work is made of beads and not paint, she also finds joy in the metaphorical significance of beadwork.
“Beads are pretty fragile, but once you get them woven together, it is a sturdy piece of bead fabric that is durable and beautiful. And that’s something I think about for us as Native people,” Rowe said. “When we come together in community, we are nearly indestructible.”
The Artesian Arts Festival takes place at the Artesian Plaza, adjacent to The Artesian Hotel and Spa, 1001 W. First St., Sulphur, Oklahoma.
For more information, visit ArtesianArtsFestival.com, email ArtistInfo@Chickasaw.net or contact the Chickasaw Nation Performing and Visual Arts Division at (580) 272-5520.