1864 - Cultural Erasure

Featured at The Movements Toward Inclusive Education wall installation at Lesley University.

In 1864, national legislation was created barring Native Americans from being educated in their own language and retaining their identities.

I made a visual reaction piece to highlight the consequence of this decision, of the forced practice of the "Americanizing" of indigenous peoples. A portion of my artwork depicts numerous generations of women, depicting sending girls to boarding schools, chopping their hair, forcing them to speak English, and denying them the ability to identify with their culture.

So, I wanted to spotlight the symbolism of language, identity, and generations of women, and how these topics relate to one another, how one decision made creates a vast impact on numerous generations that is visible over time with the feeling and a sense of emptiness and not knowing who you are because of something taken away from you. Not because of your choice, but because of fear and forcing control over someone else's rights.

I'm intentional about the layering of symbols and images in my work. I layer symbols and pictures with purpose. I combine photos of the boarding schoolgirls with a young woman representing the future generation of hope and transformation. She wears a colorful tulip headpiece in the composition, conveying a sense of cultivation, growth, and beauty. She's taking a stance attempting to figure out who she is, and while she's not sure, she has a sense of her spirit carrying all of history and remembering the truth within herself.

This young woman is imbued with the spirit and presence of a female ancestor. This is where you can see the silhouette of an older woman with black and long hair and features that resemble a fur coat; she represents her culture's actual identity.

I believe it is critical that we, as allies, have this discourse because we do not have enough dialogues about indigenous people in this nation and the injustices perpetrated against them. And that's crucial because we need unity, and the only way to get that is via conversations like this, so this is my reaction piece.

When you buy this print, 100% of the proceeds go to a Native American small business and community.

Pain That Leads to Intention.

What inspires me about Frida Kahlo isn't just her body of work, but also her life and how her art served as an outlet for her struggles, pain, and convictions. When you look at her life from the viewer's perspective, it was as if she was born to suffer. But I find beauty in how she chose to deal with her suffering and how she used her art to capture and process her painful moments, not knowing that her work would be celebrated one day.

I used to delay pursuing my dream of being an artist because I didn't know or understand what I wanted to showcase or capture in my work. But Frida's art demonstrates that it isn't about the art itself, but rather how art can serve as a vessel for healing. I admire how she visually journaled her life and probably used it to process her pain.

"I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality."

Frida Kahlo

I've found inspiration in Frida's transparency, and my own art has evolved as I've come to understand myself better. In 2017, I created my first tribute to Frida, which was a simple depiction of her essence. But as I explored my own life and emotions, I realized that my first piece was flat and binary, and life isn't binary. In my second tribute to Frida, I added layers and confusion to represent the dynamic nature that we all encompass within ourselves.

Sometimes life turns us upside down and we don't know why or how to right ourselves. During the pandemic, I can relate to feeling like Frida in her paintings. But what's wonderful about feeling this way is that it's not forever, there is always something to learn, and we become stronger for it. If you find yourself feeling not quite yourself, try taking your feelings and processing them through art or another outlet that helps you understand yourself better. For me, it was creating my tribute to Frida.