Artist Statement

My art is a journey of self-discovery and self-expression. It is a process for me to reclaim and reconnect to my indigenous culture, traditions, and community. All indigenous traditions, customs, and stories are inspired by and born through song and dance. Native Americans dance and dress in the finest handmade regalia to showcase tribal identity and individuality and be a conduit from the past to future generations. Photographing my subjects in their element allows me to capture unique moments that speak to a universal human condition and celebrate the richness of life. My oil paintings of native Americans today challenge the notions of Native American stereotypes, the imagined narratives, and the lack of authentic representation. My figurative oil paintings focus not only on the figure and their regalia but also on our collective strength, beauty, and enduring spirit as indigenous peoples of this land. In our mere existence as native Americans, we are confronted daily with assimilation, religious doctrine, and Western cultural norms. My experiences are both a source of pain and joy – my source of inquiry and inspiration. They are what I tap into when creating my art. We, as Native Americans, are not simply stories or figures of a bygone era; we are here and the future.

Artist Statements

Your Other Is My Uncle demonstrates a personal connection to the issue of gun violence. This problem is pervasive throughout the United States, yet the major impact on Indigenous Peoples is largely overlooked. Further research is needed into the statistics, due to the lack of readily accessible data pertaining to Native Americans, as we are often included in the “Other” category. Only by increasing awareness, can we begin to make change. Only by recognizing harm, pain, and grief, can we begin healing and moving forward in positive ways. This vest represents my late uncle, who was murdered with a firearm. The vest incorporates elements of Osage men’s clothing with details alluding to who he was as an individual and what he meant to my family.

Through my artwork, I seek to address systemic injustices against Indigenous Peoples in a way that recognizes and acknowledges the problem and the victim, but seeks not to hold that victimization as an identity, but rather to show pride in the identities of the peoples and individuals who are the victims. I hope to raise awareness about and encourage change in the racist, colonial systems of the United States and to encourage understanding and healing through the processing of emotions and trauma, both my own and those of others.

In Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, the Court only addressed jurisdiction, and not the legal issues of the case. Continuing to rely on the doctrine of discovery, the Court decided that Indian tribes were not foreign states, denying them access to the Supreme Court. As domestic dependent nations, tribes were thereby denied full nationhood. The guardian-ward relationship was also established here, incorporating the trust doctrine into federal Indian law and reinforcing the inferiority of tribes. While tribes were later granted access to the Supreme Court, this racist, rights-destroying decision is still valid.

Artist Statement

I work with many traditional fibers from the forest and woods, combining these natural materials with metals and man made materials to weave contemporary baskets. Knowing when the time is right to harvest fibers from the forests is an important part of my everyday life; knowing the seasons according to mother nature and not man made time. 

I use my art to tell a story about experiences, and influences in my life while keeping touch with my beginnings and where I come from. I am a diverse human being who lives in a diverse world. My work speaks of the teachings from ancestors as well as the teachings from my mentors who have helped shape the person I am today. I am open to new experiences, and keeping an open mind and knowing you are never too old to learn is important. Knowing who you are and where you come from and where you are going are equally important. 

My work tells stories, shares teachings, shows the nature I am influenced by, and the Nature I am affected by. I use my baskets to tell the story of the destruction of the black ash trees by the Emerald ash borer, to combine the traditions of yesterday and today.  I create baskets to educate, to humor, to engage people in conversation, to get people to think, to learn, to share, to give a voice the traditions of yesterday and combine these teachings with my role in a contemporary world today.

Artist Statement

Of White Bread and Miracles (male) is from a series that responds to the Boy Scout tradition of misappropriating sacred Native American practices, and in this case for a “hobby”. The bodies are taken from a book titled “Here Is Your Hobby…Indian Dancing and Costumes”. While the manual attempts to teach young boys (mostly) how to dance through confusing, static photographs, it is also an example of cognitive dissonance as it erases any vestiges of contemporary Native people and homogenizes all Native American cultures while making casual remarks such as “…get a local Indian to teach you singing and dancing if you can…”. By appropriating the figures from the book and re-contextualizing them I am re-introducing the power of dance for our people; that dance is not merely your hobby, it is a sacred form of prayer and sacrifice that has deep and varying roots and meaning for Native people everywhere. These works also deal with the idea of innocence (lost) and institutionalized racism. To interject the stagnant poses that are meant to teach movement with elements of spirituality, authenticity, and contemporary aspects, I am reclaiming that which has been erased.

Artist Statement

I have always had a natural affinity for art, particularly when it comes to figures and character designs. Coming from an ethnically diverse family of Potawatomi, Black, and German descent, I prefer not to concentrate only on one side of my cultural background but embrace the beauty of each while showing their distinct attributes. Having witnessed tragedy on both sides of my family and overcoming my struggles with depression, I want my artwork to convey joy, love, humor, and hope for the future. I grew up on animated TV shows, comic books, and video games. At an early age, I noted positive examples of POC characters and the lack thereof within pop culture. The children’s books I’ve worked on feature themes of mixed-race identities, youth supporting their communities, and a handi-capable character following his dreams. My goal is to continue to bring these storylines to life, whether it’s on paper or in animations. My artistic vision is to leave behind a legacy that encourages younger generations to keep dreaming and reminds older generations to keep reflecting on their own influence. Most of my artwork centers around identity, self-expression, and finding hope through uncertainty and pain. Being a mixed media artist seems fitting with my diverse cultural background as I’ve had to navigate between the trauma and experiences that come from both lineages. For a long time, I was afraid to work with pigments. It wasn’t until much later that I was prompted to try my hand at it again, and I fell in love with art all over. Whether working with pastels or vectors, I embrace the essence and showcase the souls of the subjects.

Artist Statements

Ashokmaget Waboyan  (Healing Blanket) 

The blanket is a strong metaphor in Potawatomi culture for love, strength, and protection. It symbolizes the reverence we hold for women in their role as life givers, water protectors, and the warm, nurturing presence they have in raising our families. By blending printing techniques with hand-crafting skills, this textile represents an approach to individual health and community empowerment through knowledge. The cones are snippets from various Potawatomi treaties, along with cyanotype images. They are created and hung in a fashion similar to the cones that adorn regalia worn for the Jingle Dress Dance, a healing, ceremonial dance with roots in the Ojibwa culture of the northern Great Lakes, but now widely practice and honored across Turtle Island. This work has a particular focus on the younger generations, imploring them to embrace their ancestor's sacrifices, the tribal history, and our traditional culture, as the work 'wraps' them in a blanket of wisdom, solidifying their Native identity as they walk through modern-day life.

Mbish Waboyan (Water Blanket)

This piece examines the power of water and our connection to it as tribal people of the Great Lakes. Water has the power to heal and make sick. It can cleanse or destroy. We are dependent upon it, yet have grown to misunderstand our significant relationship with it. It is these waterways that the Potawatomi people have used to trap, fish, and travel upon since the beginning of time. In our traditional culture, as the givers of life, kwe’wek (women) are the caretakers of the mbish (water). It is our women’s prayers, their songs and dances for the water, that humbly ask for it to be respected and kept clean for our grandchildren’s grandchildren; for everyone’s future. I harvested clay from Lake Michigan, modeling it and the copper snuff can lids into cones, and hung them from this waboyan (blanket), in a similar fashion to how a Jingle Dress dancer adorns her regalia to be used in healing dances. As I created this piece, I imagined those instinctual feelings of love each one of us experienced as we grew in a sacred womb of water, inside our mother’s belly, as she nurtured us into this physical world.

Artist Statement

En Route and There and Back Again

By nature, Native peoples are storytellers. I am a Korean and Jemez Pueblo artist who utilizes digital imagery to visually share my story about identity, being mixed race, cultural pride, and home. The centralized figure in En route and There and Back Again are literal visual portrayals of a young Pueblo girl, my daughter Ji Hae, dressed in a traditional Pueblo manta, who is leading me to ceremony. I interpret this as the next generation connecting us to our Native traditions, helping our cultures to continue thriving, and keeping us tied to our ancestral homelands. I also incorporate the popular images of the “L” train and a Chicago Transit Authority map to represent our urban home in Chicago. I convey the similarities within the spirituality of both my cultures by using symbolic imagery, motifs derived from origami paper such as the butterfly and dragonfly, that have significance in both Asian and Native (Pueblo) cultures.