Imperceptible Pain
The suicides of my nephew and friend in the Winter of 22 prompted me to process this pain through art. The mighty crow who appears invincible in the harshest of winters represents how those we think have it all together on the outside are suffering with red hot pain inside. The cells represent the constant hot burning pain we don't see on the surface.
American Sunrise Echo
Medium: Ceramic Mixed Price: 650.00
In reading Joy Harjo’s poem “An American Sunrise” I immediately recognized the ode to Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem “The Pool Players, Seven at the Golden Shovel - “We Real Cool”
Many decades ago I read Brooks’s poem and was entranced by the enjambment of the lines succinctly conveying a picture of the disenfranchised inner city youth in America. I was raised in a town in Wyoming and lived literally on “the wrong side of the tracks”. My town grew around a refinery where my father worked. The oil and freight trains divided us from the main town of a different name. We were called a derogatory name that we turned into a badge of honor, but the message of our social status followed us through school. As a teacher Brooks’s poem reinforced that I would respect every student’s circumstances.
Harjo’s poem American Sunrise, for me, attests that there is and perhaps will always be youth in that “pool hall” expressing their realities, fears and dreams. In America we base our “equality” on documents such as the Constitution, treaties, and other legal documents. Documents are symbols of power and fear. My American Sunrise contains charms to represent hopes and dreams existing still within a “document” affirming that those goals are still evasive for many.
In reading Joy Harjo’s poem “An American Sunrise” I immediately recognized the ode to Gwendolyn Brooks’s poem “The Pool Players, Seven at the Golden Shovel - “We Real Cool”
Many decades ago I read Brooks’s poem and was entranced by the enjambment of the lines succinctly conveying a picture of the disenfranchised inner city youth in America. I was raised in a town in Wyoming and lived literally on “the wrong side of the tracks”. My town grew around a refinery where my father worked. The oil and freight trains divided us from the main town of a different name. We were called a derogatory name that we turned into a badge of honor, but the message of our social status followed us through school. As a teacher Brooks’s poem reinforced that I would respect every student’s circumstances.
Harjo’s poem American Sunrise, for me, attests that there is and perhaps will always be youth in that “pool hall” expressing their realities, fears and dreams. In America we base our “equality” on documents such as the Constitution, treaties, and other legal documents. Documents are symbols of power and fear. My American Sunrise contains charms to represent hopes and dreams existing still within a “document” affirming that those goals are still evasive for many.
Roadside Melody 2021
24" x 24" Mixed Media
500.00
2019 Spirit Room Whimsy Show
"Adulting Daydreams"
I wanted to empathize with the hard working Millennials and future Generation Zers. The “babies” represent the dreamer in all of us. They go from playing with toy blocks to navigating blocks with nails representing student loans, medical bills, car repairs, and child care, etc etc etc.
10" x 10"
$100.00
2019 Human Rights Art & Film Festival
"A Murder of....The Last Thing Virgil Saw"
In November of 2016
Tokio, North Dakota resident and local artist Virgil Feather went missing after being released from the Lake Region Law Enforcement Center.Feather was incarcerated for failing to make payments on a DUI charge from 2008. He was an inmate at the LEC (Lake Region Law Enforcement Center, Devils Lake, ND) for six days from Nov. 9 to Nov. 15 at 4:33 p.m., according to jail records.
Shortly after his release, Feather disappeared.
Authorities reportedly dropped Feather off at the county line somewhere near the Hwy. 20 bridge after he was released.
About two weeks after Feather’s release, with no word as to his whereabouts, Fort Totten police sent a missing persons report to several media outlets, including the Journal. Whether or not they conducted an investigation into his disappearance is unknown.
What is known is that on March 29,2017 Feather was found dead.
Details surrounding Feather’s death are currently scarce.
Feather was known around the community and beyond as a talented artist, and his pieces have been displayed at the Lake Region Heritage Center and the Pioneer Daughters Museum at Fort Totten, among many other venues. Several of his works are also for sale at the antique mall on 6th St. in Devils Lake.
Feather was 65 years old at the time of his death.
Tokio, North Dakota resident and local artist Virgil Feather went missing after being released from the Lake Region Law Enforcement Center.Feather was incarcerated for failing to make payments on a DUI charge from 2008. He was an inmate at the LEC (Lake Region Law Enforcement Center, Devils Lake, ND) for six days from Nov. 9 to Nov. 15 at 4:33 p.m., according to jail records.
Shortly after his release, Feather disappeared.
Authorities reportedly dropped Feather off at the county line somewhere near the Hwy. 20 bridge after he was released.
About two weeks after Feather’s release, with no word as to his whereabouts, Fort Totten police sent a missing persons report to several media outlets, including the Journal. Whether or not they conducted an investigation into his disappearance is unknown.
What is known is that on March 29,2017 Feather was found dead.
Details surrounding Feather’s death are currently scarce.
Feather was known around the community and beyond as a talented artist, and his pieces have been displayed at the Lake Region Heritage Center and the Pioneer Daughters Museum at Fort Totten, among many other venues. Several of his works are also for sale at the antique mall on 6th St. in Devils Lake.
Feather was 65 years old at the time of his death.
"Wreckage" 2016, Ceramic
10" x 10"
200.00
ATTESTED SERIES
This series responds to fictional and factual roles ascribed as female in past and present times.
Best of Show Award- 2018 North Dakota Human Rights Art Show
Myers Foundation Purchase Award University of North Dakota Permanent Collection: Her Vote Counts Exhibition 2019
Her Vote Counts Exhibition News Release
At a Cellular Level
I've become interested in communicating how all inhabitants on the planet share similarities at the cellular level. We all need air, sun, food, and water. Calling attention to the cellular commonality of all beings may soften our first response when we interact with other humans or species and help us to avoid scanning for the differences and the hierarchies we place mentally on everything
outside of ourselves.
I've become interested in communicating how all inhabitants on the planet share similarities at the cellular level. We all need air, sun, food, and water. Calling attention to the cellular commonality of all beings may soften our first response when we interact with other humans or species and help us to avoid scanning for the differences and the hierarchies we place mentally on everything
outside of ourselves.
OIL PASTEL ON VELOUR
CURTAINS
The Curtains series responds to the remnants that are left from the passing of time. The crisp almost new curtains testify to the hope and work the former inhabitants applied to these scenes. The storms represent the challenges we experience in life.
SOLD
RUST SERIES - 2015
Created using metal on canvas.
SOLD
The Long Journey Triptych responds to any new situation humans undertake to achieve a goal. The scene is meant to evoke the feeling of the heat from the sun on a desolate almost desert looking landscape where you can imagine going over hills and vast expanses in pursuit of “arriving”.
The Uphill Battles series responds to events we face every day in living an ordinary life. The viewer can decide if they are the sun rising to challenge the landscape or the landscape responding to a powerful force; but ultimately the realization is that all things that we encounter become a part of who we are.
