Elias Jade Not Afraid was only 12 when he started creating art out of beads he found around his house. After years of addiction and recovery, Not Afraid is now sharing his story with the world: that beadwork can be just as much of a form of art as a form of therapy.
Hundreds of thousands of beads, and days of work, make up Not Afraid's collection.
"I always told myself I would never use beading as an art form, just because I was such a young age. It was so tedious to do, but now, I'm like 34-years-old, and it's a business," Not Afraid said.
Not Afraid's hard efforts have paid off. His work can be found at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Henry Ford Museum, and Lily Gladstone's personal jewelry collection.
However, his life wasn't always like this.
"Because I am a member of the Crow tribe, and I live in Lodge Grass, growing up out there was, you know, pretty hard, being surrounded by certain substances and stuff. So that kind of played a role in my life later on, when I got addicted to opiates, and then later on got on to Fentanyl," he said.
Before Not Afraid became a full-time artist, he experienced loss and tragedy, and ultimately turned to opiates. His addicted started at 15-years-old.
It was at a Casper, Wyoming rehabilitation center that his therapist told him to turn to art instead of substances.
"My beadwork is what gave me a purpose at that time. It helped me get through the rough times, and kind of help me support myself," says Not Afraid.
Not Afraid was sober from 2011 to 2018, but relapsed when he was introduced to Fentanyl. Now he is four years sober.
He decided to share his story at TEDxBillings this year. It's a local conference allowing guest speakers to share their ideas related to technology, entertainment, and design.
"One of our goals with TEDxBillings is to highlight the incredible people that we have in Billings, and our surrounding regions in Montana, people that are doing things, not just here locally, but all across the globe. Elias is certainly one of them" says D'Vaughn Hayes, the director and licensee for TEDxBillings.
On Friday, Not Afraid will share his experience with therapy through art. He says that art therapy ultimately saved him in many ways. Now he aims to share his love of beadwork and creativity with the rest of Montana, in the case that others are experiencing the same thing.
"It's kind of crazy how things work," he said.
TEDxBillings is on Friday, Oct. 11 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Harvest Church. Tickets are still available and can be purchased at the door.
