Crayola Crayons on Panel, 8” x 8” x 2”, 2021
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Currently on view in a Solo Exhibition
“On Turtle’s Back”
September 8 – October 11, 2022
Pauly Friedman Art Gallery
Misericordia University
301 Lake Street
Dallas, PA 18612
1.570.674.8420
For inquiries, please contact:
The Studio
Mustang, OK 73064 | 405.308.0239
In the Cherokee traditional belief system, “going to water” is when you immerse yourself into a body of moving water as an act of purification or part of ceremony.
2019, 32 3/8” x 24” x 2 1/6”, Oils on Birch Panel
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2019, 3.5” x 2” x 1.75”, Unique Cast Bronze with Patina
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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.
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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.
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In the Collection of Travois, Kansas City, MO
Exhibition History
100” x 70” x 2”, (site sets size), Crayola Crayon
I think if we could see ourselves as all the colors in the crayon box in all the shades, we could be kinder we would be able to feel if just for a moment another’s life and our world could change in such a way that children would not worry about if they are too light or too dark to belong. We are more than a classification in terms of a position between two extremes, I see the light within us all and the variations that make each of us, we are all the colors and an untold number of possibilities.
The way we see others and how one is seen has been a subject that I have had in my life since I was small. I am both Native American and Caucasian but growing up I felt more times than I care to count that I was not enough of one or the other and that pull made me question all parts of myself. If I did not look like _____ could I be ______? Where did I fit if I was not a part of this or that group? I have had conversations with many that are from other races and nationalities, and they too have struggled. Is my skin too dark or not dark enough, the texture of my hair or the accent that one hears when I speak? All this history, this past came to a head one day while getting my children ready for school we were pulling together pencils, colored pencils, folders, 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 a big laugh, she has yellow hair or the boy I ate lunch with, he was a helper, and he told the funniest stories”, in a very casual descriptive manner with no malice or notice 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, color. We are all one below that surface, that surface of skin, no matter the color, the shape, or the origin.
12 girls and each girl are made from 12 colors in a Crayola Crayon box making a total of 144 girls.
Available
For inquiries, please contact:
BONNER DAVID GALLERIES
22 E. 81 ST | New York City, New York 10028 | 929.226.7800 | www.bdgartboutique.com
7040 E. Main Street | Scottsdale, Arizona 85251 | 480.941.8500 | www.BonnerDavid.com
Exhibition History
Unique Cast Bronze with Patina
10.25” x 3” x 4”
SOLD
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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