Artist Statement 

My mixed-media body of work focuses on motifs on intergenerational healing through the multiple roles of nourishment, by using food to create a dialog with my viewer about the importance of my matrilineal existence. I embody multiple roles as a two-spirit matriarch, meaning I am responsible for learning from my elders and passing on that knowledge and medicine. As a queer person who identifies with existing as something more than the western binary of masculine and feminine, for me I am both and neither. I am a vessel who is responsible for passing down traditional knowledge of identity, culture, language, and survival to my children and community. 

 Growing up on multiple reservations in Oklahoma very food insecure most of my life, for me food is something very sacred, especially how traditional foods are used in multiple cultural settings. Indigenous people have struggled for food sovereignty throughout the colonial history of the United States, food sovereignty is a community’s right to have autonomy over their food systems and as such, relativizing Traditional foodways’ can be seen as a symbol of Native resilience. Food sovereignty is more than just physical food but its connection to our emotional and spiritual well-being, to me Indigenous resilience means being able to thrive and adapt to the modern world. Such as reviving language, culture, tradition, dance, and ceremonies, that the western world has tried so hard to kill and get rid of. The solidarity of continuing to just exist in these Indigenous spaces is resilience, my art reflects my family’s resilience to extermination and removal with me living today as a seventh-generation post removal to Oklahoma from my ancestral homelands. My lived experience in my multicultural background is what fuels me to keep passing down knowledge and giving my children the skills to continue passing down our family’s experiences to lead to a stronger future for not only my family but our tribe as well. My ceramics, prints, paintings, and drawings use images of traditional foods to reflect on the interconnections of my relationships to the land, my ancestors, generational trauma, and how these memories and lived experiences influence my journey as a queer parent.  

My works capture the intimate moments of healing, grieving, and learning through vibrant colors, patterning, and Mvskoke cosmology in a representational but not fully realistic space. By using green onions as a not only a motif of indigenous resilience but also as a symbol of my connection to my family, ancestors, and food sovereignty. Wild green onions are perennial meaning they come back year after year wherever they are planted but in western society they are often deemed as weeds and a nuance to people's yards and often fought to be removed from the land. I use this as a metaphor as my family has faced removal from the land but still thrives despite harsh living conditions just like the wild green onion.  

I primarily gas fire my pieces to focus on the atmospheric effects due to the reduction process of the firings that allows for the clay body to appear burned, contrasted with the vibrant moving glazes that dance along the textures of cracks and indentions to mimic the healing process. I emphasis this on my vessels by manipulating the clay and glazes to show how the intentions, cracks, spots of regrowth or bursting of the clay form are being covered or healed by the glaze. Threads of fiber and wires symbolize the bloodlines that hold me as I navigate my roles as a queer parent. The suspension of my ceramic vessels is assembled to show that traditional cycles will keep being passed down and my most vital role is to break those intermingled with trauma. I use traditional foods, fruits, and squash forms to represent fertility, the womb, or matriarchal roles that I have taken on. My works highlight my role in ending the gripping cycle of my family’s intergenerational trauma that has been pushed onto me, but my children will never experience.