Title: Upstate Man
Material: oil on canvas
Size: 60×48
Year: 2014
“We do not wish to destroy your religion, or take it from you. We only want to enjoy our own.” — Handsome Lake
This experiment in line and color describes an Ojibwe Indian as a mythical man in an inverted world, so that he shuffles across the sky in snowshoes, creating the Northern Lights in his wake. His lodge is built using a blue tarp, surplus traffic signs, and even a twisted flag, a sympathetic comment on life on the reservation.