Coyote Ballad

Solo exhibition, Texas State Galleries

now on view through November 12, 2021

Coyote Ballad is a new body of work designed to center the experience of having culturally, racially, and geographically mixed identity, rooted contextually in the United States. The sculptures, drawings, and textiles in the exhibition weave an assemblage of found materials, personal items, and handmade objects: quiltops, taxidermy, neon lights, fluorescent acrylic, cottonwood stumps, recorded improvisation by fiddler Maria McCullough, an embroidered 1985 El Camino split bench seat, Red Wing boots, and fishing lures. Together, the symbolism in these materials and forms create a non-linear, autobiographical narrative, one that provides a metaphor for the complexity of mixed identity and the power of navigating in-between spaces.

The constellation of artworks on view reference and remix Rio Grande weaving and traditional block pattern quilting (Querencia textile series), Greek mythology (Self-Portrait as Hermés), borderland culture (La Camina Caballera), mestizo heritage (Conozco Coyote), and American identity (Untitled [Americañ/na]). Conceived through the lens of my own ancestral connections, Coyote Ballad provides a new visual language for coming to terms with the pride and struggle of reclaiming a distinctive identity defined by its overlapping cultural histories.