A member of the Eastern Band of Cherokees, painter and storyteller Edwin George is the recipient of the 2011 Ohio Heritage Fellowship in Material Culture. George was born in North Carolina in 1934 near the town of Cherokee, and has lived in the Kent, Ohio area since the 1980s. Completely self-taught as an artist, he started painting in 1991 to express his dreams and memories; his work has been hailed for its cultural, historical and educational value. In paintings such as Earth Spirit Rising, Medicine Man, When the Bears Wash and Spider Brings the Fire, George depicts in a visually stunning fashion the traditional Cherokee myths and legends he learned as a child, Cherokee iconography and healing herbal medicines, and the written language and history of his tribal ancestors. In addition to painting, George has also worked with wood, carving such items as totem poles, walking sticks, shields, drums and small sculptures. George received an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Ohio Arts Council in 2005 and has had his works displayed at the Riffe Gallery in Columbus, the Museum of the Cherokee Indian in North Carolina, the Akron Art Museum and numerous libraries, schools, colleges, parks and nature centers throughout Ohio.