STATEMENT

I approach my oil paintings and works on paper with the understanding that I am generating individual visual representations of personal experiences from having lived on the Reservation.

It is not important for me to communicate either one literal personal narrative or identifiable political message to my audience because Native people do not exist in the mainstream of American consciousness in an open, direct way. My life continues to reveal the residual effects of various traditions, concepts, and memories of the Reservation. I address these ideas by layering select images throughout my work and through ongoing research. 

“America” is a makeshift construct. I keep this notion at hand and allow it to guide me as I expose the depths of Native absence and presence; the spare, mysterious quality of my work magnifies the weight of implicit desire and cultural voyeurism. These are themes that I persist in returning to.