IN SONG
Archival Color Photograph
mounted on 1/4″ plexi with museum mount
24″ x 36″
2, 4, and 5 available from the edition of 5
For inquiries, please contact: The Studio
29″ x 22′ x 9″, Unique Cast Bronze with Patina and Locust Wood
It is the stories of family, history, and identity that brought me to “Bloodline”. It is a long trail of my Native American history, my bloodline. To be ‘on the Rolls’ as an American Indian you must prove a quantum of blood verified through birth and death records until you match up to a name on the official “Dawes Rolls.” As I began walking through the past to document my blood, with the names and some faces, I wanted to hear them speak and tell their story. I wanted them to be counted.
The figures walk across a Locust tree base that came down in a storm. It is cut lengthwise exposing the rough center revealing the lines that show its life and history. I de-barked the exterior but kept the curve of the tree and its raw surface. You see the figures walking through time—their life above and the tree’s life below.
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 cast in bronze. The faces are of the ancestors from my past as far back as I can trace.
There are sections for each generation, beginning with my children. Though I only have two, there are five figures. Each life is counted and the children who did not survive are remembered with a place on the wood in history; their forms small and their heads bowed. Next, I have my section with my sisters and brother followed by my mother’s and father’s history weaving back and forth. 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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Mustang, OK 73064 | 405.308.0239
In the Collection of James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, PA 18901
Exhibition History
Never Broken: Visualizing Lenape Histories, September 9, 2023 – January 14, 2024, James A. Michener Art Museum, Doylestown, PA 18901
On Turtle’s Back, Pauly Friedman Art Gallery, Misericordia University, Dallas, Pennsylvania (September 8 – October 11, 2022)
2013, 9.5” x 3.5” x 9.5”, Unique Cast Bronze with Patina, and African Mahogany
In so many things there is a thin line that on one side you are in complete joy and the other complete devastation. The space between the two emotions seemed like it should be so much farther apart from one another than it truly is.
SOLD Through the Studio
In the Collection of Travois, Kansas City, MO
Exhibition History
2018, 36″ x 24″ x 4.5″, Crayola Crayon, Plex Glass, Birch Panel
When I close my eyes and dream I do not see the color of my skin or limitations that have been placed upon me because of who I am or where I come from, I dream of all the possibilities of all the amazing things I can achieve.
While getting my children ready for school we were pulling together pencils, folders, colored pencils, and crayons. They had to have 4 sets of 24 crayons each and we had leftovers from sets of the past years, some colors had never been used, and we were combining them together so we’d know how many new boxes would be required. The kids were talking about their friends at the new school and friends of their past school. In the conversation, they were describing the children “the girl with the yellow hair, the boy with the brown skin”, in a very casual descriptive manner with no malice to the differences. This made me think more about how we see people and how one is judged. The smell of the crayons, the vivid colors, and the thoughts of my youth brought me to this crayon project. How we change in our viewpoints of people, and how we judge people based on race and color. We are all one below that surface, that surface of the skin, no matter the color, the shape, or the origin.
SOLD Through the Studio
In the Collection of Travois, Kansas City, MO
Exhibition History
2018, 8”x4”x4″ and 6”x4″x4″, Unique Cast Bronze with Patina and Geode Rock
We strive for human attachment and belonging whether in a place or a sense of self. This boy and girl are not 2 people but oneself, 2 halves of a whole. The geode can reflect the same and when broken open it reveals its sides and secrets hidden within. The figures are not glued to the rock, they are fitted, like a key in a lock. They balance in their stand much like we do in our life.
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2018, 36”x 24”x 4.5”, Crayon, Plexiglas, and Birch
The Bear Girls do not see the color of each other’s skin or limitations that have been placed upon them because of who they are or where they come from. They are in this world together and the possibilities are endless.
While getting my children ready for school we were pulling together pencils, folders, colored pencils, and crayons. The kids began talking about their friends. In the conversation, they were describing the children, “the girl with the yellow hair, the boy with the brown skin,” in a very casually descriptive manner with no malice to the differences. This made me think more about how we see people as we grow older. How we change in our viewpoints and how we judge based on what we see on the surface. We are all the same below, no matter the color, shape, or origin.
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In the Collection of The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS
2015, 10.5” x 14.5” x 12.5”, Unique Cast Bronze with Patina
How much is enough? If one is good today then 100 is better, we are overwhelmed by what we have yet we want for more. This girl stands atop boxes of sugary cupcakes that are nothing more than empty, hollow treats.
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In the Collection of: Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis, Indiana
Exhibition History
2014, 9.5″ x 10″ x 6″, Unique Cast Bronze with Patina, and Geode Rock
“Belonging” we are always looking for that feeling of belonging that sense of a key in a lock. The geode I broke open revealing two sides. Here I have a boy and a girl, I see them as masculine and feminine in us all. The figures here are fitted to that geode when they are still in wax; they are not glued they are keyed to the rock that they belong, two sides of the self two halves of a whole.
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In the Collection of Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis, Indiana
Exhibition History
2012, 22.5” x 3.5” x 4”, Unique Cast Bronze with Patina, and African Mahogany
Masks are layered with meaning from creatures in nature to a child’s imagined world. As children, we make and wear masks to be anything we want or need to be and we could do anything in them, from being a superhero to a bird in flight. As adults, the layers and meaning deepen and grow and these masks are a way to represent the different personas that we need or desire to be in life. They become an identity that one can live through or hide behind in our roles – I am a daughter, a sister, a friend, an aunt, a wife, a mother, artist, and Indian.
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In the Collection of Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis, Indiana
Exhibition History
TOPSY TURVY
Unique Cast Bronze with Patina
40” x 32” x 10”, 2016
Collection of: College of Saint Mary, Omaha, NE
