The life experiences, people and landscapes that have influenced me in my art are my grandmother, where I come from, my Blackfoot Indian heritage, and having what I call a blended identity.
Until the age of four I lived with my family of origin on the reservation and in the projects. My father was Blackfoot and my mother was white. My Grandmother and aunts and uncles lived close by. When I was four our family disintegrated. Us five children were given to others and my family split up. My two older sisters and I went to live in the suburbs with a middle class family and my younger brother and sister moved to the mountains with another family. Although I don’t remember much of the move I often think it must have been like waking up on another planet with everything familiar gone and everything else different. We were lucky in that we remained close to our Grandmother and father, traveling often to Montana to spend summers and school breaks with them.
Those life experiences shaped me and continue to inform and inspire my work.
