I use art as a tool for personal investigation: acknowledging what I have a limited understanding of and making it an opportunity to explore and educate myself. While this serves as a personal catalyst to create it also serves as a personal educational model for educating others. My investigations and creations stimulate conversations about historical and political topics.

In 2007 I read a book by Howard Zinn called The People's History of the United States of America, which offered a different perspective than the history books I read in school, where I learned about the past from the perspective of powerful white men. I realized that, just as there is more than one side to a story, there is more than one side to history. History texts contain selections of stories about the past. Who selects which stories are included in those history texts? How do the authors decide what gets included and what gets excluded? While reading Howard Zinn's book I saw the power that historians have in deciding what stories from the past get heard and which ones are forgotten. This realization inspired me to express my own interpretation of United States history and the treatment of Native Americans.

My current series in progress began with extensive research, reading and close examination of United States government policy that led to the systematic removal of Native Americans from their land that resulted in thousands of Native Americans losing their lives. My research was then concentrated on finding images of Native Americans as well as the oppressors who represent both the United States government and army. My series of paintings begins with portrait studies of these individuals. These two-color portraits were done in oil on a 12" by 12" canvas that was prepared with multiple layers of acrylic paint applied by palette knife and then sanded down for painting. The next part of the series contains larger images of known and unknown Native American chiefs. These canvases are larger in size, 16" to 24", and are prepared in a similar fashion. The paintings themselves explore a broader range of colors and are emblematic of a culture and tradition that has been erased. The last part of this series contains paintings and prints with a narrative quality that attempts to demonstrate the audacious crimes committed by the United States government. The paintings are larger in size, 30" plus, and are done in both oil and acrylic and styles that are literal and figurative as well as abstract and expressionistic.

This body of work was inspired by my experience as an educator and my reflections as a student. I realize the position of authority and the power a teacher has to disseminate information and knowledge. Often, students are not given space for personal discovery or for the individual process of questioning the status quo. My aspiration as an artist, educator, student, and human being is to personally question, investigate and speak out about what I believe as well as listening to others who have something they wish to express.