Artist Statement
I am a woman artist of Native, Latinx mixed heritage. My lived experience inspires me to prominently feature women and themes of my cultural heritage. This inclusion is my way of erasing historical exclusion. Additionally, my mixed media works celebrate a resilience and a compelling Native cultural history.
I was raised apart from the Dine’ side of my father’s family. Like tens of thousands of Native Americans, my paternal grandfather was forced to attend a boarding school. Where he endured government-mandated pressures intended to stamp out that culture and language. The trauma of this was intergenerational, passed on in my family. I was raised in estrangement from Native culture and encouraged to embrace and emulate mainstream “American” culture. This left me questioning who I was and where I fit in—an all-too-common experience for many Natives I’ve met. As an adult, I later became fascinated with my ancestry and began to read widely about Native cultures and contemporary women’s issues.
I’ve read literature about contemporary Native Americans as well as news articles and history as a source of inspiration. Research I undertook on American Indian Boarding schools, led me to complete a series with my discovery upon the term, “Apple”. “Apple” can be used as a derogatory term to refer to an urban Indian who has assimilated, lost touch with his/her culture, or is a mixed-blood, seen as red on the outside and white on the inside. I incorporated real apples, carving, and dehydrating them myself. I used up-cycled Barbie bodies, attaching the dried apple heads. As a child, the noted Native writer Zitkala-Sa was lured by missionaries with the promise of big red apples, and she tells a story of how she hid when it came time to cut her long braids off, a first step in the assimilation at an Indian boarding school. This was my inspiration for the sculptural installation in this series. Additionally, I included, Maria Tallchief, America's first prima ballerina who was of mixed native descent, Osage and Scottish.
My creative practice encompasses both two- and three-dimensional artworks. I typically begin a series with loose, expressive painting using acrylic ink, then proceed to figurative drawing in graphite. Throughout the process I remain open to unexpected visual and conceptual components compelling the work forward. I use recurring circular motifs symbolizing the moon, and the feminine in honor of indigenous matriarchy. My process continues with layers of acrylic paint and drawing. The Red Apple series was expanded to working with fabric, wood, ceramic, and materials such as hair, synthetic, and dried apples., which culminated in a sculptural installation.
I am a woman artist of Native, Latinx mixed heritage. My lived experience inspires me to prominently feature women and themes of my cultural heritage. This inclusion is my way of erasing historical exclusion. Additionally, my mixed media works celebrate a resilience and a compelling Native cultural history.
I was raised apart from the Dine’ side of my father’s family. Like tens of thousands of Native Americans, my paternal grandfather was forced to attend a boarding school. Where he endured government-mandated pressures intended to stamp out that culture and language. The trauma of this was intergenerational, passed on in my family. I was raised in estrangement from Native culture and encouraged to embrace and emulate mainstream “American” culture. This left me questioning who I was and where I fit in—an all-too-common experience for many Natives I’ve met. As an adult, I later became fascinated with my ancestry and began to read widely about Native cultures and contemporary women’s issues.
I’ve read literature about contemporary Native Americans as well as news articles and history as a source of inspiration. Research I undertook on American Indian Boarding schools, led me to complete a series with my discovery upon the term, “Apple”. “Apple” can be used as a derogatory term to refer to an urban Indian who has assimilated, lost touch with his/her culture, or is a mixed-blood, seen as red on the outside and white on the inside. I incorporated real apples, carving, and dehydrating them myself. I used up-cycled Barbie bodies, attaching the dried apple heads. As a child, the noted Native writer Zitkala-Sa was lured by missionaries with the promise of big red apples, and she tells a story of how she hid when it came time to cut her long braids off, a first step in the assimilation at an Indian boarding school. This was my inspiration for the sculptural installation in this series. Additionally, I included, Maria Tallchief, America's first prima ballerina who was of mixed native descent, Osage and Scottish.
My creative practice encompasses both two- and three-dimensional artworks. I typically begin a series with loose, expressive painting using acrylic ink, then proceed to figurative drawing in graphite. Throughout the process I remain open to unexpected visual and conceptual components compelling the work forward. I use recurring circular motifs symbolizing the moon, and the feminine in honor of indigenous matriarchy. My process continues with layers of acrylic paint and drawing. The Red Apple series was expanded to working with fabric, wood, ceramic, and materials such as hair, synthetic, and dried apples., which culminated in a sculptural installation.