BLOODLINE

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.

Sold The Studio
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)

• First Americans Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
• Weaving History into Art: The Enduring Legacy of Shan Goshorn, Gilcrease Museum (October 9, 2020 – March 28, 2021)
• On Turtle’s Back, Dunedin Fine Art Center, Dunedin, FL (Sept 13, 2019 -December 23, 2019)
• On Turtle’s Back, Museum of Contemporary Native Art, Santa Fe NM (May 25 2018-January 27, 2019)
• Holly Wilson: Talk Story, C.N. Gorman Museum, University of California-Davis (January 9-March 16, 2018)
• Art Prize 9, Grand Rapids MI (September 20-October 7, 2017)
• Four by Four 2016: Midwest Invitational Exhibition, Springfield Art Museum, Springfield, Missouri (September 10 – December 4, 2016)
• A Foot in Two Worlds, Oklahoma Contemporary, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (June 18 – August 21, 2015)

IT’S A THIN LINE

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

• Below The Surface, Travois, 310 W. 19th Terrace Kansas City, MO 64108
• Holly Wilson: Talk Story, C.N. Gorman Museum, University of California-Davis (January 9-March 16, 2018)

When I Close My Eyes

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

• Below The Surface, Travois, 310 W. 19th Terrace Kansas City, MO 64108
• Native American Contemporary, Spiva Center for the Arts, Joplin, M0 (Jan 5- Mar 3, 2018)

How Much More Must She Bear

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.

Sold Through the Studio

In the Collection of The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS