Column: Renelle White Buffalo, Rosebud artist, in competition

Since Renelle White Buffalo now lives in Los Angeles, our interview had to take place via Skype.

Yet even the coldness of two sheets of computer glass between us — and the fact that her iPad image portrayed her head horizontally — couldn’t dim her vibrancy.

That passion, readily apparent in her artwork, has been part of her always. “She is, I would say, a very complex person in some ways, and she articulates this very well in her work,” says John LeBoeuf, White Buffalo’s art teacher at White River High School.

White Buffalo has begun gaining national attention for her art, which she describes as “Native American inspired, a little abstract, contemporary.” This week she will compete with other artists in Los Angeles in a contest that could take her submission to Miami.