I am happy to be apart of the exhibit ‘Spirit of the Land’ at The Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (open until July). My participation in the art show is a result of my time in Nevada last summer at the Mystery Ranch. While I was there I made and modeled masks and outfits inspired by the surrounding mojave desert. Here is my statement that is included in the show alongside my coyote mask: "I’ve always been enchanted by the solitude and silence of the desert. That silence is something I rarely encountered growing up on the east coast. I found myself seeking this meditative inspiration in 2015 when I did an artist-in-residency in Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. The desert became an important place of inspiration for me, and I sought out more western National Park Service artist-in-residencies in the following years. This creative quest led me to southern Nevada in the summer of 2021. Visiting the proposed Avi Kwa Ame monument was a beautiful experience, and I’ve been drawing from that creative well ever since. In fact, an entire series of animal masks and collages emerged from my time there. The creation of the coyote mask was inspired by the evening yip-howls I enjoyed listening to as the sun dropped below the mountains. For me, the coyote is emblematic of the desert landscape itself – very often misunderstood, sometimes villainized. As I’ve had time to reflect, I realized there is a connective thread between the six artist-in-residencies I’ve experienced. Each landscape, from the Everglades in South Florida to the deserts of southern Nevada, has originally been unappreciated before people realized their incredible beauty and importance. These wild places are worth protecting for future generations to explore and find a similar spiritual renewal."
From the website: “[the museum] is proud to present Spirit of the Land, a love letter to the plants, animals, geology, history, and people of the East Mojave landscape at the southernmost tip of Nevada.
The exhibition features work by more than forty artists and musicians who have chosen to celebrate the country around Spirit Mountain, the highest peak in the Spirit Mountain Wilderness. Known in the Mojave language as Avi Kwa Ame, the mountain is considered sacred by ten Yuman-speaking tribes as well as the Hopi and Chemehuevi Paiute.”
Spirt of the Land opening event