In Ndekwemek, I wanted to explore Potawatomi womanhood and sisterhood in a
way elevated to the level of deity and sacred story. The women subjects appear in
medicine wheel colors and wrapped in blankets on which semi-traditional floral
patterns crawl and spread, a visual symbol of a living culture covering and
nurturing the women. The one in front wears abstracted jingles and holds a yellow
spotted turtle shell rattle, which here mimics constellations as the sound of the
rattle mimics the natural shishigwen sound of celestial expansion.


The women in the painting all wear vermillion in patterns directly inspired by
images of warriors and leaders among our shared ancestors, a vermillion color
carried on throughout the piece as both a nod to this face painting tradition and an
acknowledgment of the inextricable link between our Citizen Potawatomi Nation
and our home today on land characterized by Oklahoma’s signature red clay.


Metallic gold and silver pigments appear throughout the piece to catch and carry
light, gold for sunlight and the material world and silver for the light of the spirit,
the light of creation. This silver light fills the eyes of the women and bursts out in
subtle crowns around their heads, reminding us our ancestors see the truth of our
innermost being, and they call us to see it, too.