My passion in art is creating images using various mediums, specifically graphite, ink, charcoal, digital media, and sometimes beading. I love the softness of graphite and charcoal, and the sleek and crisp effect ink has on a new piece of paper. I utilize digital media when I clean up photos or digitalize my drawings to mass produce select designs for merchandise to sell at markets, shops, and online.
During my creative process, I begin with creating multiple thumbnail sketches eventually choosing a design for the next level in the creative process. When laying out my design, I prefer to use harder graphite. I am a messy artist with a heavy hand and tend to lean into my drawings and put my prints all over the paper. The hard graphite reduces the effects of my mistakes and tendencies, due to its lighter value and need for more pressure. When finalizing the project, depending on whether it is merchandise or an art piece, I will layer the graphite with ink or charcoal, or go over the graphite with ink then send the image to my computer for digital processing.
Reclamation fuels my drive in creating Indigenous (mostly Tohono O’odham and Yoeme) scenes of ceremonies, landscapes, Indigenous pop culture, religion, and cultural geometric designs. These scenes are intended to reassert our presence on our land and in various media. My art pieces and merchandise are created with the purpose of educating because creating a presence is not enough, people must be able to appreciate and understand what they are seeing and who they are speaking to.