TaŊyaŊ hipi!

I never set out to be an artist. But as a midwife, and eventually as a mother, I was frequently asked to make moccasins, bonnets, umbilical cord bags, and cradleboards for the families that I served. Understanding the sacred nature of these items, I apprenticed with master quillworkers to understand the techniques and cosmology behind traditional designs.

Through my teachers, my practice goes beyond the practical techniques of quillwork to encode cosmology, oral tradition, and the relations between human and non-human, as well as the living with ancestors. 

The basis of my generative quillwork is the creation of Dakota designs though songs and audio. The digital designs have become standalone works of their own. And in addition to digital and print editions of these works, these designs also provide the basis of jewelry, sculptures, and physical bead- and quillwork rooted in the generative piece.