I make Western art and jewelry. Mainly making Platero jewelry, maintaining this connection to my family’s culture in Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado. I enjoy being able to make my family’s jewelry so they can have this connection too and pass it onto their kids in the future. I like jewelry because I can make something that shines. A gift that brightens someone’s day, or that they adorn themselves with to make them feel special. I can just turn my brain off and craft while working with the same materials as my ancestors and it brings me solace.
Besides jewelry; I make pastels, mixed media, and prints. I like to repurpose materials that would otherwise be thrown away into new projects. I experiment with different types of canvas and surfaces or the effects of different weathering and distress. I have always liked the idea of art being ephemeral. Making art with materials that are meant to break down faster or that aren’t lightfast. It is a good contrast to my jewelry. What I see as my art which seems like it could exist the furthest into the future, though with no memory of me.
Even if I tried not to, I would end up doing art of plants and animals. I’m a forester at heart but fell in love with ecology and environmental science in college. Even though I actively try not to, I end up doing art about my time in the Marines or art that hints at it or references that time in my life. Art that reflects my experience of serving during the mid to late aughts and the fallout that the war on terror had on me, my family, and other vets I have known. Using art as a tool to express aspects of my family, culture, and community.
It is easier to draw an abstract, or something surreal, or with an obtuse reference that nobody might even know, than it is to actually say the words. You can throw all the stones you want if they are just drawings of birds instead. You can cut yourself as many times as you want as long as you do it with craft paper. If you see it, then that is enough. If one person hears, that is enough.
Little Dog Silver 