When local artist Willard Malebear looks back on the trials of his early life of addiction and crime, and his current triumphs in recovery, which include recently garnering a prestigious Bush fellowship, he recalls a simple, yet clarifying, insight.   

“I believe what happened was I procrastinated being who I really am.”

This moment of clarity came to him several years ago while in the Hennepin County jail in Minneapolis, facing dozens of felony charges for property crimes and first-degree drug sales, and staring down a long prison sentence. He had already done one previous stint in prison.

“For sure, some people would call it a divine intervention moment, a spiritual reckoning,” Malebear recalled in a recent interview with The Phoenix Spirit in his apartment near Bde Maka Ska in the Uptown neighborhood. “The universe made it explicitly clear that this was it.” As a result, he remembered telling himself, “I’m just going to surrender, I’m going to do everything I can to make the best choice I possibly can, be the good person I’ve always wanted to be … stick to it no matter what happens.”

That was on Sept. 17, 2017, when he was 33, a date that serves, he said, as “my clean date, my sobriety date.”

Malebear navigated a long, winding, twisting path to get to that clean date.

Early years in Idaho: skateboards, weed … and art

Malebear, an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, was born in Minneapolis but raised by his mother, mostly in Idaho Falls, Idaho. He got into skateboarding at “age 12 or 13,” he recalled, “and the only kids that were skating in the community I was in were the alternative kids. They smoked their moms’ cigarettes, threw firecrackers at animals, the general neighborhood terrorists.” By middle school and high school, drinking and smoking weed became “baked into the skateboard lifestyle … and I fell into that culture.”

Parallel to all of this counter culture activity and bad behavior was a developing passion for “making art,” Malebear said. “Throughout this entire time, maybe since I was 5, I wanted to be an artist, make art, all I did was draw.” He used pencils or pens and whatever “canvas” was available, such as old cardboard boxes. “Painting was too expensive. Mom didn’t have a lot of income,” Malebear explained. Art would become a crucial through-line for Malebear, a creative outlet, a sort of travel companion riding along on his long and winding path.

Meanwhile, as Malebear hit the high school years and beyond, he moved on to the harder stuff. He recalls that he and his skateboarding crowd “went from smoking weed and going to parties and skating at the skate park to doing cocaine, meth and oxycontin pills. I wasn’t doing oxycontin but became heavily involved in the pill and drug trade.”

By 18, he had gotten his own apartment, had dropped out of high school, and, for the next two years, continued trafficking in meth.

After several close scrapes with police, Malebear eventually decided to get out of town, fleeing to Minneapolis, where his father lived.

It was at that moment, when I made that choice, that’s when good things started to happen because I truly stayed committed to that choice.

A move to Minneapolis, a life of crime

“That was always my goal, to come here to Minneapolis and pursue art, because I was born in Minneapolis, and this is where my dad lived,” Malebear said of his move to the area.

He lived with his father for a brief time and worked on, as he described, “kicking an extreme cocaine, meth, drinking habit on top of taking Xanax every day.” And he did indeed pursue art, that constant travel companion of his, adding painting (mainly acrylics), digital art and other art forms to his pursuit, quickly gaining a following for his creations. According to Malebear. “I was blessed with finding a community that gave me access to a larger platform for my art.”

He also was introduced to the art and craft of tattooing, finding that his creative eye and artist’s hand transferred well to this medium.

However, he also found his way back to cocaine and other “standard party drugs” and, eventually, back to meth, a spiral that would lead to burglary and other criminal activities. He recalled that he became particularly adept as a lockpicker, leading to a role as an in-demand burglar. Malebear led a Jekyll and Hyde life. “I was doing sort of mainstream art and getting recognized for it but nobody really knew that I had this meth crime life.”

But secrets can only be kept for so long and eventually Malebear was caught, convicted and sent to prison in Faribault for a year for burglary and possession felonies.

Once out of prison, “I spiraled again for another year and a half,” Malebear recalled, acknowledging making a series of ill-advised decisions along the way. That’s when he was caught the second time and had his epiphany in Hennepin County lockup.

“It was at that moment, when I made that choice, that’s when good things started to happen because I truly stayed committed to that choice,” Malebear said.

One of those major “good things” was getting a so-called “global resolution” on his criminal cases, a legal term for a comprehensive agreement that resolves multiple cases or charges at once. Indeed, Malebear had a number of property crimes and drug sales felonies stacked up against him. But rather than face a multi-year sentence, he ended up serving two and a half years, two years in the correctional facility in St. Cloud, and six months at a prison boot camp in Northern Minnesota, part of Minnesota’s Challenge Incarceration Program (CIP). CIP allows individuals convicted of non-violent drug or property offenses to earn early release upon successful completion. While incarcerated, he also got his GED, which allowed him to be an art tutor.

“All throughout this prison sentence, I was blessed with opportunities in insight and in tools that literally contribute to every moment in my life now,” Malebear said.

A sober life

These days, life is good for Malebear. He is owner of Iktomi Tattoo, a sober tattoo shop that’s within walking distance of his apartment. He also founded and runs Art Shelf next door to the shop, which is a nonprofit that operates as a sort of food shelf for artists, providing free art supplies and a community studio, along with workshops and programming. Plus, he continues to work as an independent fine artist, notably landing a recent $250,000 art contract with two other artists with the City of Minneapolis.

Beyond that three-legged stool of operating the tattoo shop, running the art shelf and working as an independent artist, Malebear is actively involved in Indigenous culture. He organizes the Mni Sota Akitho Festival, which draws together Indigenous artists, tattooers, performers and storytellers. He helps lead the Dakota 38 Ceremonial Run, honoring Dakota lives and history through collective remembrance. And, as if he’s not busy enough, he teaches art and wellness at correctional facilities.

“Willard’s contributions to our community are well known,” said Robert Pilot, who hosts a national radio show five days a week called Native Roots Radio. “His art is significant.”

Pilot, who recently took over as editor of The Circle, a Native American newspaper and website, said he plans to re-launch the publication as a magazine, and has asked Malebear to provide artwork. “His art is going to grace the cover of the magazine…it is The Circle’s honor to amplify his work.”

Finally, the Bush Foundation recently announced that Malebear is one of 30 individuals from across the region who will receive up to $150,000 each to support a self-designed leadership development plan of up to two years. As the Foundation’s press release stated, “Willard’s goal is to change how communities approach healing by scaling creative wellness models and expanding opportunities for Indigenous artists and people affected by the justice system. To build his ability to lead change, he plans to expand his knowledge in nonprofit development and cultural programming.”

Looks like Malebear no longer procrastinates about being his genuine self. And, that artistic through-line of his has finally come front and center. As he says, “I’m grateful that I continually get offered opportunities for growth in the community.”

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Angelo Gentile is a Minneapolis freelance writer. He recently wrote about Traveling Sober for The Phoenix Spirit.