O’odham Artist Market at Cahokia
My first art exhibition as a featured artist took place at Cahokia in downtown Phoenix for a First Friday event in Fall of 2021. I was featured among many great O’Odham artists that evening. Cahokia was a newly opened art space for all indigenous artists to showcase their artwork. It was a great opportunity for me to get my break into the art scene. I learned about the event just 2 weeks prior, so I immediately went to work on designs which revolved around my Native American heritage. Up until that point, I had not made anything other than shoe customs, so it was an opportunity to start working with new mediums.
The O’odham Purse
My original idea for the market was to work with pottery and basket designs. I wanted to hand paint them on different products, the first being a purse.
This would be the first time I would actually paint a basket and pottery, so I carefully selected the design. As this was an O’odham market, I knew some of the best and most recognizable imagery would be the squash blossom basket design and the water design which are depicted in many forms on the Gila River Indian Community.
The Man in the Maze finish on the buckle was something I felt was needed to reflect my culture, and the end result was the most unique item I had ever created.
Since I was only a shoe customizer up to that point, the purse gained a lot of attention and was a big draw to my table. To this day it remains one of my proudest accomplishments. It pushed my art to a new level of creativity, as I could now paint more realistic imagery and incorporate other styles on wearable products.
