We fill our lives with loops and lines. Lines drawn to place us, to mark us. They can be as sustaining as veins or as restricting as bars. Just as the world circles and cycles. Our bodies run on tiny loops. Our bodies tell our stories, where the past, present and future are all connected. 
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This portfolio explores what's needed to redefine and reflect on the lines we draw, the loops we follow and the stories that come from this.
​I would love to hear your reflections. Please contact me. You can write a note, a poem, a critique or ask me any questions you may have.

Note: My paints are made with natural earth and mineral pigments. They are completely safe and sustainable.
Natural Earth Paint sources clay and minerals prevalent in native soils all over the world.

Imprint

Red

Across the Line

Stolen Sisters

-11° C

Rangers

The Witches

Water Shed

My body is a place that pulls water.
A place that responds to waters touch.
​Soft like foam, old like stone.

Currents

Blue

Pulling Ties

Overgrowth

Rose-tinted Glasses

Double Line

Nobody promised us permanence. We lose things because nothing is given forever. Impermanence is the only forever and no lines drawn have to be followed.
**Nadie nos promete permanecer. Perdemos algo pero nada se nos ha dado para siempre. La ausencia es lo que dura para siempre y como nada es para siempre las lineas que no se han dibujado deben ser seguidas.**

Honeycrisp

My Body Is Not A Temple

Cloud-clothed she bathes in sky, defying: the body is not a temple. 
Seeds from tailbone embrace back, shanty library’s female saints
gasping breeze rung to expanding, I not I. This is more,
bigger than, her eyes, jaws cupped by blue heart in throat dissolves
in sighes. But this does not belie her strength: releases as she grasps,
white now blue on turtle’s back.
Poem by Arpita Bajpeyi

Wombs Like Water

We who walk and wander wombs like water.
Wonder not the weather change, when we feel eternal rage. 
**Nosotros que caminamos y deambulamos dentro del vientre como el agua.
No es de extrañar que el tiempo no cambie cuando sentimos rabia eterna.**
​Poem by Miranda Crawford

From the Cracks

Buried

Alter-Ego

All Eyes On You

She who goes unseen wears a cloak of eyes. She, the exploited brown body. She, the neglected mother nature. This triptych symbolizes both the unavoidable presence of humanity within the web of life and how we distance ourselves from those we deem “other”.  She who sees all, sees you.

Sisters

Sumergirse en el Espejo

Monte Que Arde

Desde las profundidades que navegó de noche, sale la luna.
Ella arde intensamente para encontrarme.
Solo los valientes van a las profundidades.
Lo malo no es tan malo cuando en su magia me oculto.
Ella dice que nuestros cuerpos cuentan nuestras historias.
Donde el pasado, presente y futuro están conectados.
La prisa no es parte del ritmo natural del universo. 
Somos almas recorriendo tiempos infinitos.
Y mediante esto compartimos mucho.
Ahora que lo pienso, nunca he visto un árbol apurándose por crecer.
Poem by Yahara Lucila Salmerón & Jenny Zander

Rising from Concrete: Voice, Movement & Color

Clothing by Minneapolis Made
Photos by Bruce Silcox

Scratch

Isla

I saw you

in your eyes i saw wisdom beyond our conditions of violence
i saw ferns unfurl,
i saw waters so deep,
i saw murky questions,
i saw you choose me.

Black Box

Mpls Citizen

Dusted

Wedged

Red Rain

Rose-tinted Glasses

Pin-Up

​Performance & installation artist: Nico Athene

Marcell Experimental Forest

Urge

Nesting

Lavender

Streak

Whip

Autumn

Wall Street

Red Dress

Trail

Down in Denver

Coldwater Spring

Strong Buffalo, Tatanka Ohitika

Corner

MURDERED MISSING INDIGENOUS WOMEN

In honor of all our lost sisters, this series reminds us of the indigenous women taken by a system of violent crime. With each pipeline project comes an influx of non-native oil workers. These man camps have devastated communities. Native women, who are already 2.5 times more likely to be sexually assaulted, are especially vulnerable as the 1978 Supreme Court case Oilphant v. Suquamish stripped tribes of the right to prosecute non-natives who perpetrate crimes on reservations. Silenced by black handprints across their mouths, gripping their throats, and clawing at their dresses, these women show the violence that passes from generation to generation.
Series from the Art of Resistance: Embodying & Reclaiming the Sacred Exhibit
Co-artists: Eryn Wise, Dianna Lynn

Trace Back

Spinal

Río Salado

Listen For

Sown

Estrellas y Musgo

Frontline Bodies

Renewal

If My Bones Could Speak

Unfurling

Tidal

Manoomin

Wild rice beds in Minnesota have already suffered great losses, with estimates up to 70% loss of original growth. Existing and proposed pipelines pose a direct threat to remaining manoomin beds, the only ones in the world. Atquetzali carries this rice as an extension of herself, her ancestors, and future generations.
Series from the Art of Resistance: Embodying & Reclaiming the Sacred Exhibit
Co-artists: Heidi Affi, Dianna Lynn

From the depths that are sailed at night, the moon rises.
She burns bright to find me.
Only the brave ones go to such depths.
The bad is not so bad when I’m hiding behind her magic.
She says that our bodies tell our stories.
Where the past, present and future are all connected.
Haste is not part of the natural rhythm of the universe.
We are souls traveling infinite times.
And through this we share so much.
Now that I think about it, I have never seen a tree rush to grow.

People Touch

Lichen Prayer

These domes were created to measure everything about the trees, plants, fungi, root systems and water levels. They measure in real time the impacts of increased heat and carbon dioxide. Welcome to a warmer future? But the future looks different to me - in the future I talk to these trees, pray with the lichen, taste the water inside the mud. The future looks like us, under the tamarack buds, making eyes at each other. I am dancing under the spruce trees. They remind me that I am not separate from this bog and that you and I hold each other in evolutionary time.
Learn more about the Marcell Experimental Forest Research Sites
Poem by Gayatri Narayanan

Euphoria

Nibi

Lucia displays the devastating effects tar sands pollution is having on the water. This literal representation of the spilling and leaking of tar sand pipelines stands as direct resistance to the Enbridge Line 3 Replacement Pipeline. This line promises continued denigration of sacred resources, treaty rights in occupied lands, and indigenous people as a whole.
Series from the Art of Resistance: Embodying & Reclaiming the Sacred Exhibit
Co-artists: Alma Lora, Dianna Lynn

On Ice

Coloring Book

Brujería

Enzymes

Madre de la Tierra

Self

Turning one body against another, turning oneself against their body. It’s one thing to see yourself, it’s a whole other to accept what you see. To see beyond the sum of each part. To consider yourself a work of art.

Winter

Las Manos

Buddy's Bench

In collaboration with Ira and Nadine Baumgarten for the book A Night On Buddy's Bench, this painting is meant to embody Autumn: a time of transition. Additionally, it reflects themes of loss and distance. Purchase this evocative book for a story exploring end of life questions. All proceeds go to the Hospice & Palliative Care Association of New York State.

Turtle Island

Our backs provide us with the strength needed to carry our hardships. Just as Turtle Island carries each of us, we must carry her, for she is a part of us. In the Anishinaabe creation story, the turtle, mikinaak, offers her back to bear the weight of the new Earth. The seven dots that circle the eyes of both Samantha and the turtle symbolize the seven generations. In this way, we are honoring the generations that have lived in balance with Turtle Island and will continue these traditions into the future.
Series from the Art of Resistance: Embodying & Reclaiming the Sacred Exhibit
Co-artists: Jada Brown, Dianna Lynn

21 Eyes

I'mprisoned 圄

In collaboration with Michelle Wan Lok Chan for her solo dance performance and installation surrounding criminal justice reform and mental health. This painting is symbolic of the systemic hands that hold people and the role media plays in our perception and justification of mass incarceration.

Guacamaya

Undoing

Room