Portrait of Frayed
Mixed Media, pastel, pencil, conte, charcoal, on Stonehenge Paper, 22” x 30”, 2022
Archives: Projects
Messenger in Red
Messenger in Red
18”x 21”x 6.5”
Encaustic, Unique Cast Bronze on Birch Board
It is the story of a Red Cardinal that comes close to you as if they are visiting you from a far, the carrier of a messages, whispered in the wind from one who was lost. They hold the hope of goodness and new things to come.
I have dreamed many times that I was a bird flying and then to awaken to see I am just a person. I create these birds with that hit of human with their eyes and our hands as we hold tight to the hope we hear in the wind.
Available
Currently on view at MA Doran Gallery
For inquiries, please contact:
MA Doran Gallery
3509 S. Peoria Avenue | Tulsa, OK 74105 | 918.748.8700
Bloodline, Keeper of the Seeds
Bloodline, Keeper of the Seeds
2021, 30″ x 98″ x 18″ in, Unique cast bronze with patina, cedar, and steel
It is a matriarchal society that my family lineage comes from; the woman cared for the children and the stories of their family. They told the history and planted the seeds for the next generation. Their lives, my life, and that of my daughter are full of the twists and turns that women hold in our society.
The Cigar Figures come from a childhood Native American story that my mother told of the “Stick People.” The “Stick People” would run through the night and call your name; if you went with them, you were never heard from again. She never described the figures, and I was always drawn to the idea of what they looked like. The Cigar Figures are my reimagining of that story, now a story of family and my past—a complicated narrative of loss, survival, and resilience. The figures are made from real cigars and found sticks, all cast in bronze. The faces are of the ancestors and family shaped from the idea of a cameo or silhouette painting to capture the faces of the families.
When hung, the light casts a shadow of the figures on the wall. This shadow represents memory for me. Like a shadow, these memories cannot be held, and in the end, we are all only a shadow in history, shadows on this earth.
Available
For inquiries, please contact:
The Studio
Mustang, OK 73064 | 405.308.0239
I Am
I Am
12″ x 9″ x 2.5″, Encaustic on Birch, 2023
I am Resilience I am Resistance I am Powerful I am Still Here
Available
Currently on view at MA Doran Gallery
For inquiries, please contact:
MA Doran Gallery
3509 S. Peoria Avenue | Tulsa, OK 74105 | 918.748.8700
PAPER WINGS: FEARLESS
PAPER WINGS: FEARLESS
21”x 23” x 13”, Unique Cast Bronze with Patina
It started with looking at my children playing and making their other world, if they needed wings they would make them from paper and sticks tied together. Their masks were transforming and all-consuming for them they believed and they became the bird.
We use a mask as a facade to be the thing we sometimes can not be, to fill that spot or give us courage.
Sometimes it is the unknown that we fear so we do not step when it is the step into that unknown that we need to live and breath. The figure prepares to fly away on her paper wings. It is a leap of faith that her wings will hold. In that moment she must be fearless to take the leap.
Available
For inquiries, please contact:
The Studio
Mustang, OK 73064 | 405.308.0239
Exhibition History
- The Thread that Connects, Spiva Center for the Arts, Joplin Missouri (January 14 – March 4)
- On Turtle’s Back, Pauly Friedman Art Gallery, Misericordia University, Dallas, Pennsylvania (September 8 – October 11, 2022)
- Holly Wilson: Talk Story, C.N. Gorman Museum, University of California-Davis (January 9-March 16, 2018)
Portrait of Coyote and the Anguish of Mortality
Portrait of Coyote and the Anguish of Mortality
Mixed Media, pastel, pencil, conte, charcoal, on Stonehenge Paper, 30” x 22”, 2022
Renewal: The Belief in Hope
They say that to grow a garden is to believe in hope; you must believe that the seeds you put into the earth will grow. The beauty of this simple act has captivated me since I watched my dad garden when I was very small. He would tie string so tight for the beans to climb that when the winds of Oklahoma would blow, the string would sing. It was as if the garden was a symphony in and of itself with the strings and the sound of the corn stalks rattling. The buzz of the bees as they made their way from flower-to-flower fat with the bright yellow pollen and the crackling hum of the cicadas in the late Oklahoma August months. I can close my eyes and am transported back.
“Renewal: The Belief in Hope”
Unique Cast Bronze with Patina and Birch Panel
40” x 30” x 8”
Currently on view and Available at MA Doran Gallery
For inquiries, please contact:
MA Doran Gallery
3509 S. Peoria Avenue | Tulsa, OK 74105 | 918.748.8700
Exhibition History
- The Thread that Connects, Spiva Center for the Arts, Joplin Missouri (January 14 – March 4)
Bloodline: Building Community
Bloodline: Building Community
Unique Cast Bronze, Patina, Cedar and Steel, 20” x 84” x 10”, 2022
There is the family you are born into and then there is the family you make. They are the friends you made in school, the neighbor’s you live by and the colleagues at your work. You watch the children grow and tell the secret wishes you have for them. You have meals together; you share in the joy the ups and the down and you bring them love and kindness when they have lost a loved one. We build an extended family that grows year by year and that makes for a community that is full of rich diversity, compassion, and love.
The Cigar Figures come from a childhood Native American story that my mother told of the “Stick People.” The “Stick People” would run through the night and call your name; if you went with them, you were never heard from again. She never described the figures, and I was always drawn to the idea of what they looked like. The Cigar Figures are my reimagining of that story, now a story of family and my past—a complicated narrative of loss, survival, and resilience. The figures are made from real cigars and found sticks, all cast in bronze. The faces are of the ancestors and family shaped from the idea of a cameo or silhouette painting to capture the faces of the families.
When hung, the light casts a shadow of the figures on the wall. This shadow represents memory for me. Like a shadow, these memories cannot be held, and in the end, we are all only a shadow in history, shadows on this earth.
Available
For inquiries, please contact:
The Studio
Mustang, OK 73064 | 405.308.0239
Currently on view in Seen Unseen, Feb 21 – July 14, Duhesa Gallery Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado
Bloodline: Building Community
By the Light of the Fireflies We See Tomorrow
By the Light of the Fireflies We See Tomorrow
48″ x 80″ x 2″, Oil on Linen, 2023
Indigenous artists are often asked how we hold our heritage. I am not sure you can hold a feeling that runs deep inside each of us, just as the sound of the drums feels like my heart beating; this resilience is as powerful as an underground water current that even the earth cannot hold back. Resilience, Resistance, Power. We are still here.
I look at the land and my children, indigenous children, and their connection to their Delaware culture and histories; they are the caregivers to both the land and the lives upon the land. It is filled with the magic of fireflies and starlight, each holding endless possibilities for tomorrow and remembrances of yesterday. My great great-grandfather was Jim Bobb (1849-ca.1925), an Oklahoma Delaware Chief. Elements of his bandolier bag are layered into the patterns of the children’s’ graphic t-shirts as a way of encoding their indigenous culture within the piece; the youth carry the future of our people.
Available
For inquiries, please contact:
The Studio
Mustang, OK 73064 | 405.308.0239
Exhibition History
- The Thread that Connects, Spiva Center for the Arts, Joplin Missouri (January 14 – March 4)
Wind Rider
Wind Rider
Unique Cast Bronze and Patina, 17” x 48” x 8.5” , 2022
My children and I love to pick up sticks that look like birds or dragons. In the story I made up with my daughter there is a young girl who is playing outside when she hears a rustling in the bushes next to her, as she looks closer, she sees this beautiful dragon emerge with a long body and tail. They both stare at each other in amazement and then the dragon says, “Can you see me? Only MY Rider can truly see me.” The young girl tells the dragon “I can see you”, and then they rode through the skies for the rest of the afternoon. When her mom looked out the window, she only saw her playing with a stick, but for the girl, she saw her dragon, and she was the Wind Rider.
As we get older, I think we forget to see the dragons that are hiding in the sticks and that we can fly through the skies with our arms outstretched, feeling the wind pass beneath us. I try to remember, never stop looking for the magic, and that our dreams can come true.
Available
For inquiries, please contact Bonner David Galleries
Currently on view in Scottsdale
7040 E. Main Street | Scottsdale, Arizona 85251 | 480.941.8500 | www.BonnerDavid.com
Exhibition History
- On Turtle’s Back, Pauly Friedman Art Gallery, Misericordia University, Dallas, Pennsylvania (September 8 – October 11, 2022)
Wind Rider
