In the Spirit 2013 Artist Statement

I am conceptually incorporating indigenous postcolonial theory reconciling two conflicting paradigms. My focus is on healing the historical traumas of dislocation, displacement, loss of language and ceremony, while simultaneously upholding stories of survival, spiritual regeneration, and ultimately the power of memory and invention. This is being explored through the visual language of abstract expressionism and color in oil painting. Returning to homelands is a decolonizing imperative that I utilize conceptually in the studio. I use abstraction to organize visual information that interprets this sense of displacement from indigenous lands, to depict earth’s sustenance, and reestablish connection to place. The paintings “Wocus Gatherers” and “Lava Field Stronghold” reflect a transcendent return to ancestral homeland, psychological maps locating a post-colonial identity within contemporary concepts of landscape.