Life in the Crayon Box

Title: Matriarchal Spirit House: Miracles and Answered Prayers

2016

Mixed media installation

This piece was a love letter to the women ancestors in my family, and the artistic manifestation of the family history research I’ve been doing over the past few years. When I began to learn about the lives of the women in my family, I was spellbound by their stories. They had accomplished and overcome so much, and their stories became a guiding light as I navigated the challenges of being a new mother.  I painted their portraits as watercolor cutouts, and surrounded the paintings with their photos. The handwritten and typed pages are from my Great Grandmother, who was a contralto singer in San Francisco, and very dedicated to her craft (check out my blog post about her here). The yellow and white quilt was made by the women on my mother’s Oklahoma side of the family. The doll on the upper left belonged to my Grandmother, and I made the one on the upper right. I placed the Orisha Oya in the center of the piece, she is the spiritual anchor for all of my ancestor work, and serves as my protector when my work takes me to the ancestral realm. 

Thanksgiving was founded on the genocide of America’s indigenous people. Celebrating it is like being thankful for the Holocaust.

“The United States is a nation defined by its original sin: the genocide of American Indians […]. American Indian tribes are viewed as an inherent threat to the nation, poised to expose the great lies of U.S. democracy: that we are a nation of laws and not random power; that we are guided by reason and not faith; that we are governed by representation and not executive order; and finally, that we stand as a self-determined citizenry and not a kingdom of blood or aristocracy […]. From the perspective of American Indians, ‘democracy’ has been wielded with impunity as the first and most virulent weapon of mass destruction.”

– Sandy Grande | Red Pedagogy

Ty Underwood was a 24 year old black trans woman brutally murdered in Tyler, Texas on 1/26/15. Share this graphic from the Trans Women of Color Collective (TWOCC) in honor of her life. R.I.P

Amber and her Cosmo Bear. :)

*Prince threw a roller-skating party in L.A., on Valentine’s Day 2005, attended by Questlove and Eddie Murphy*

“…..Prince had the briefcase out on the floor. He clicked the lock and opened it, and took out the strangest, most singu­lar pair of roller skates I had ever seen. They were clear skates that lit up, and the wheels sent a multicolored spark trail into your path.

He took them out and did a big lap around the rink. Man. He could skate like he could sing…..”