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 blue tarp, surplus traffic signs and even a twisted flag, a sympathetic comment on life on the reservation.