A Jug to Alleviate Stagnation of Sacral Smoke

Artist Statement

I am a visual artist working in a range of mixed-media including painting, sculpture, embroidery, animation, installation, and ceramics. I use these mediums to further investigate my identity as a queer woman of mixed heritage. In my recent work, I have been exploring both my queerness and my indigeneity of my ancestors of the South Western, U.S. I am interested in inventing aesthetics to visually describe the space in between these parts of my identity, where I sometimes feel like I belong to neither. This is what drives me to explore this in-between space, to create my own world where my whiteness, nativeness, and queerness exist as a whole. As someone who did not grow up with a connection to an indigenous community, I am influenced by indigenous folk-art and petroglyphs of New Mexico, where my family is traceable up to 1,000 years ago. I also love the aesthetic of Pre-Columbian art, Surrealism, and the work that came from the New Objectivity art movement. These styles influence my visual world, but I also incorporate my own personal motifs and symbols. The end result is an allegory of my identity and spiritual relationship to both nature and humanity.


With my research of ancient cultures, I have found that I enjoy the way different societies imagine femininity and maternity as a powerful force. From this research I have been inspired to visualize my own cosmology. This is where an unusual landscape is created to foster a cyclical connection between maternal beings and their relationship with animals, plants, the sky, and the earth. The main protagonists who wander this imagined landscape are deities, monsters, and goddesses that are often hybrid feminine creatures. These creatures are an exploration of the liminal space where femininity becomes a monstrosity. I love exploring female archetypes that embody this persona through both my art and other cultures. What is left for my audience is a lasting impression of both objects and paintings that are both alluring and otherworldly.