LAGOON

Images taken months before my uncle was killed. He dives beneath the water and resurfaces, completing a cycle of rebirth and cleansing. The distortion of his body beneath the water speaks to the warping of himself by the forces of the world and reference the Native figures of paintings from Fritz Scholder, a Luiseño painter, who painted the Native man as he saw. Often in an unflattering, but deeply under- standing light. The Native man is frequently robbed of many things, especially his right to complexity. Native identity is so frequently filed down to a thin line on which no one can walk.

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The patterning serves to fill the space with representations of my family. Going beyond a picture to become a symbol of rebirth, breaking cycles and an assertion of us in the gallery space.