What They Took From Us

What They Took From Us is one of 22 works in my upcoming exhibition, Sugar Coated, exploring forced assimilation and what gets lost when people are made to surrender who they are.

The work began with a photograph I took of Cyrus E. Dallin’s Appeal to the Great Spirit outside the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Back in my studio, I built thick layers of red beneath the figure’s outstretched arms and around the horse. The surface is rough, torn, and deliberately unsettled. For me, it holds the weight of what was taken and the wounds that do not disappear just because we stop talking about them.

I keep returning to those open hands. There is grief in that gesture, but also dignity. Through this work, I am asking what we have learned to overlook, what we have made easier to swallow, and what happens when we finally look without the sugar coating.

30x40 Inches $1800