In my current process, one or more historical photos are used to create digital compositions. The actual flat-stitch beaded bag photos are in color, and the original colors are maintained from the photo. The photos of women, mothers and babies are usually in black and white.
Historical photos of Native Americans are a treasure trove for an artist to create contemporary Native American art. They show the beauty of Native American objects, women, mothers and babies. They are a way to connect with my ancestors to acknowledge, honor, and give recognition that they were here before us and are an inspiration to those of us who survived along with them.
The inspiration of the digital art pieces of historical flat-stitch beaded bags came from the beauty of the objects beaded on the bags. The organic shapes create patterns that are simple to complex. Moss Babies, the cradleboard babies series, and People of the River have complex wavy shapes that show shadows from the folds of clothing or the wrinkles in a face seem simple but are not. The simplicity of a figure or a face seem simple but are not. Working to maintain both complex and simplicity shapes, lines, and colors are a challenge.
The challenge is to give the historical photo an authentic representation using one or more photos of a composition. Text is used to give further explanation of an art piece.
The inspiration of the art pieces of women, mothers and babies comes from my Diné side, specifically a story told by my uncle telling me that all the generations of women in one family represents Mother Earth. All life in this world from the dirt, clay, sand, mesas, tumbleweeds, flowers, water, everything, are Mother Earth, and that women create life and are the same.
