Process pages & Artist statement.

The third image (the left) is of an eagle feather, medicine wheel, a hand, and a pool of blood underneath the hand. The eagle feather which is the main focus of this picture is something that is very sacred to the native people. Why? Because it represents spiritual purity, strength, power, and compassion. The medicine wheel is put behind the eagle feather because the eagle feather holds more power than the medicine wheel but it peeks out as much as it does to show that it still holds an importance. The importance of the medicine wheel is that it stands for the circle of life and you follow your own path (east, north, west, south). East is yellow and stands for fire. North is white and stands for wind. West is red and stands for water. South is black and stands for earth. The reason for the hand print is just a hand print but represents the colors of the medicine wheel. The pool of blood underneath the hand and the red dot (if you see it) dripping from the feather is to show the bloodshed that we have been through. But, the fact that the eagle feather is still overpowering the blood because we as natives have still survived even after all of the things the white man has put us through... No offense. Lastly, the dots are just showing the common colors, once again.

The last image to the right of the eagle feather is of a female (obviously). She has black and red hair and yellow skin to once again, show the significance of the common colors that natives often use for regalia, jewelry, etc. She has designs going to down her "face" but she does not have a face. The reason why I didn't paint her with a face was because I simply did not feel the need to draw one. The designs do not really represent anything, but I feel as though the ones to the are similar to a road OR her crying. But whatever interpretation you have, works. She has an earring in her right ear that is in the shape of a jingle (or the top of a snuff can which are made into jingles). This represents the fact that I am a jingle dress dancer. The arrow head does not really represent any kind of emotion to me... But I made it sort of vague and blurry because when a majority of people think of natives they think of cloth, teepees, and bows and arrows riding on horses. The dot in the middle of her forehead sort of represents a hole in her head. This symbolizes her and her people being shot down and taken advantage of for the things they did and did not have. I chose to give her no face because I wanted to show the viewer that she was stripped of everything and she has no identity because, even though she has a culture to fall back onto she was confused with the ones that the white man threw onto her. Therefore she is an unidentified woman.

The second image (above) is of a chief in the middle, a feather coming out of his head, and two images in the background of the right side. The top image is my mother when she was younger in her regalia along with a group of other young woman- obviously doing a dance of some sort. The image underneath my mother is a picture of my father, also from when he was younger. He was also in regalia but he posed for this picture alongside the stage where powwows take place. The red/ brown that is finger painted on the chiefs face represents the bloodshed that he and many other native ancestors have gone through in the past. The black, white, and red represent the colors of the native medicine wheel. I decided to leave the rest of the image plain black and white because I felt as though it relates to the fact that people now-a-days lack knowledge of natives, are refused to be taught it, and the things that were taken away from us- the plain representing the things we are left with and the colors representing the things that we have (some languages, powwows, regalia, stories, ceremonies, songs, etc).

The first image (above) that is shown (with the yellow background) says: The beginning of "mother" which is Anna in my language- Algonquin. I showed from chest down of a pregnant women which indicates the beginning of a human beings life. I have the fox paw prints coming from the stomach and getting bigger with every print. I did this because it shows the steps in life and also the growth of me physically and mentally. You cannot see it in the picture but within three of the fox paws it says: Red Fox Clan. This is the clan which I originate from created by my grandfather and grandmother on my mothers side. Above the paw prints there is a picture of me from my childhood (3-4 years old). At the bottom right hand corner: Hakame to Shinnecock is written. Hakame is welcome in my language and Shinnecock is one of the tribes that I am from.