We Rise

Unique Cast Bronze, Patina, Steel and Cedar, 36”x 17” x 8”, 2022

There is that moment in your life when you realize you must stand no matter how exhausted your body is or how tired your mind feels, your soul must rise to hold up not just yourself but for the ones around you that cannot, the ones who need you to hold them while they rest. We Rise, we carry on, to be counted, to seen, to be heard.

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.

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For inquiries, please contact:

MA Doran Gallery
3509 S. Peoria Avenue | Tulsa, OK 74105 | 918.748.8700