James Luna
James Luna is a Luiseno Indian who dwells on the La Jolla Indian Reservation. ... Luna was born February 9, 1950. ... Luna feels that "art work in the media of performance and installation offers an opportunity like no other for Indian people to express themselves without compromise in traditional art forms of ceremony, dance, oral traditions and contemporary thought. ... " Luna began his studies in painting, but it was when he found performance that his practice took shape. ... When James Luna says, "Im a California dude," he doesnt mean that he surfs. ... Ironically, much of Southern California does not know about Luna though he is nationally respected performance and multimedia artist. Luna may have performed and had his work in some the most prestigious museums in the United States--including The Whitney Museum of Art in New York and the Smithsonian Institutes Museum of Natural History--but he has never presented a performance piece in San Diego County where he lives on a Reservation. Luna is a California dude of this century, if not the next: "I use pop imagery because I like it. ... " "Lets get this out front: theater is not what I am, though there are any number of similarities," Luna says. ... " "I am not a trained actor," Luna emphasizes. "I am a visual artist when I do a performance piece, which comes from a different place than where actors come from," Luna said.