Artist Statement
Painting is a way of reflecting on my culture: past, present and future. My early paintings recreated Edward Curtis photographs from the early 1900s using large brush strokes, mixed colors and bold movements. These works honored my ancestors by rendering their images on canvas. By utilizing bold colors, movement and thick brush strokes across the canvas surface, I expanded the photographic imagery to more natural and spiritual images.
Since then, my paintings have evolved into a more abstract style, incorporating the use of geometric beadwork and quillwork forms. Historically, these designs were used to tell stories about dreams, visions and other unexplainable events. Honoring past traditions I utilize shapes, size, structure, scale, composition and colors to create contemporary stories. The large non-figurative expanses of color and form offer the viewer an opportunity to explore the depth of meaning within each creation. The use of color in my paintings is similar to the traditional spirituality of family history.
In accordance with Lakota perspective, the repetition of song and prayer brings our people closer to the supernatural beings, which guide throughout our lives. In the paintings, I transmit the importance of repetition in my compositions to induce a trance-like state in the viewer, bringing the soul closer to this particular enlightenment. In addition to non-figurative elements, I have also added many sizes of birds such as ravens and crows. The raven is of particular importance and is believed to bring story of the future to individuals and serves as a warning to animals that prey is near.
As an artist, I strive to bridge the gap between traditional Lakota art and contemporary movements by incorporating traditional symbols in a contemporary fashion.