49 Minutes of Fame Artist Profile: Arigon Starr

Indigenous artist Arigon Starr tells Native stories through comics, music and entertainment.

Award-winning artist, musician and entertainer Arigon Starr has always had a love of the arts. As a young girl, Starr received support from her parents, Ken Wahpecome (Kickapoo) and Ruth (Creek-Cherokee-Seneca) to pursue art, music and drama. Since her father was in the Navy, Starr grew up all over America and even lived in the Philippines for a time. She says these diverse environments exposed her to many facets of art.

With so many passions and influences, Starr says she struggled to pick one area of creative Interest.

“It’s a long and winding road story,” she says. “In high school, I loved art, music and theater. I couldn’t decide what I was going to do. I eventually decided I really wanted to learn the entertainment business from the inside out.”

Hollywood dreams

After completing high school, Starr headed straight to Hollywood to follow her dream of becoming an artist and entertainer. In Los Angeles, she worked as a legal secretary and publicist before obtaining a job at Viacom Productions, where she learned the many phases of programming and art selection. She also worked as a music publicist for a while, gaining skills in writing press releases and pitching stories to the media.

Starr says the knowledge she acquired on the job was invaluable, as her work brought her increased recognition in the industry. After seeing her results at Viacom, Disney hired her to create freelance art, enabling her to leave the corporate world and pursue a music career. While playing in Los Angeles coffeehouses, Starr released her first independent CD, “Meet the Diva,” which brought her accolades and led to her first nationwide tour.

“That was a blast,” Starr says. “I have met so many amazing, great people on the road by doing Music.”

Through making industry connections, Starr received encouragement to pursue acting as well as music. As suggested by a friend, she auditioned for Native Voices at the Autry, the country’s only theater that exclusively produces works by Native playwrights. Starr says her stage reading led to roles in various plays and allowed her to hire an agent.

Following this success on the stage, Native Voices at the Autry and the Native Radio Theater project worked with Starr to broadcast “Super Indian,” a radio comedy series she created to express the Indigenous perspective in a humorous way.

“It was amazing,” Starr says. “Everyone really enjoyed the take of a Native superhero. It was really pointed with comments on what it’s like to be a Native Indian now.”

Broader exposure

Originally a 10-minute piece produced at the National Audio Theatre Festival in West Plains, Missouri, “Super Indian” was broadcast on National Public Radio, the Native Voice One radio network and the American Indian Radio on Satellite in 2006. The success of the program led to a 10-episode series written by Starr and produced by Native Voices at the Autry and the Native Radio Theater Project. XStarr says the nationwide broadcast was a game-changer for her, allowing her to turn Super Indian into a weekly webcomic followed by a 64-page, 3-issue graphic novel that she drew and wrote herself.

“It still is pretty unique,” she says. “There aren’t that many Native comics out there.” As she continues to develop more volumes of the comic, Starr says she is proud of Super Indian and its impact. Several issues are available in print, and Starr is displaying a digital illustration of “Super Indian, Issue #8” along with several other comic pieces at the Red Cloud Opera House’s 49 Minutes of Fame exhibit.

Since creating Super Indian, Starr says the series has allowed her to share her love of visual art to a wider audience.

“Super Indian is always a part of what I do,” she says. “This all has led me in so many places that I didn’t know I would be. I could never give it up.”

Starting conversations

An enrolled member of the Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma, Starr says her Kickapoo and Muscogee (Creek) roots influence the work she produces. She enjoys sharing Indigenous stories through projects such as Super Indian and 49 Minutes of Fame.

“It’s important for me to show that all Native people are contemporary,” Starr says. “We have a lot of humor in our community that doesn’t get showcased. It’s nice to be in the mix because we’re hardly ever in the mix.”

While developing her pieces, Starr says she likes to experiment with pop art due to its thought- provoking, playful nature.

“The thing that I love about it is that it’s colorful and immediate,” she says. “It makes you feel connected in the “now.” I can go crazy and bring something to life that hopefully makes people think or makes them smile and feel included. I think that’s really something important about pop Art.”

When she started out in the arts, Starr says she never imagined she would become the creator of an award-winning graphic novel series.

Now, she says she is passionate about telling Indigenous stories from historical and modern lenses.

“I think that’s at the core of being an artist,” Starr says. “There’s this flame that will not go out.”

About Arigon Starr

Arigon Starr is a multi-talented artist, musician and entertainer based in Los Angeles. She has released four music CDs, written many stage plays, created the comic superhero Super Indian and uses her storytelling talents to highlight contemporary Native America. Starr’s career began in Hollywood, where she worked at entertainment companies such as Viacom Productions and Showtime Networks. A talented actress, Starr is the playwright, composer and performer in “The Red Road,” a musical comedy from Native Voices at the Autry. She has also appeared on television in Showtime’s comedy, Barbershop: The Series and ABC’s General Hospital. In addition, Starr developed the comic series “Super Indian,” which has been published as two graphic novels. Her artwork has been featured at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Museum of the American Indian in Santa Fe and the Philbrook Museum in Tulsa. Along with “Super Indian, “ Starr created the award-winning comic anthology “Tales of the Mighty Code Talkers, Volume One.”

To learn more about Arigon Starr and her art, visit her website, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages.

Learn more about 49 Minutes of Fame: An Exhibition of Native Pop Art which was installed at the Red Cloud Opera House Gallery from November 5-December 14, 2021 • There is also an index to the other eleven 49 Minutes of Fame artist profiles at that link.

We are grateful to freelance writer Juli Oberlander for her artist biographies and public relations efforts for this exhibit.