Sculptural Expression of Flower Worlds
"Nine Wind is the Sacred Name of the Day When the New Sacred Sprout was Born, it Happened at Flower Mountain and it was Overseen by the Lady of the Moon"
Polymer Clay, Jade, Obsidian Mirror, Conch Shell, Quartz, and Pyrite, early 2018 - late 2022
There is an accompanying explanatory monograph I wrote as I worked on this sculpture. There, I go into great detail to reveal and unfold the various facets
B’alun Ik’
"Nine Wind"
u k’uhul k’ab’a
"(is) the sacred name of"
K’in
"(the) day"
siyaj
"(when it) was born"
yax k’uhul ch’ok
"(the) new sacred sprout"
General Works
"Winged Mirror Emerging Reborn and Deified from Sacred Water Basin"
Polymer Clay and Obsidian Mirror, 2023-2024
The basin alludes to the Moon as a vessel and is linked to notions of abundance, fertility, birth, rebirth, and cosmic renewal. Divinatory mirrors have been of high importance for traditional ritual/spiritual practitioners in all of Mesoamerica from extreme antiquity to the present, as the
Earlier developmental stage
"Xochiquetzal"
Polymer Clay, 2023
Xochiquetzal ("Precious Flower") is born from a large flower as other smaller flowers blossom around her. The main flower itself emerges from the Moon hieroglyph, the latter of which is surrounded by stars. Xochiquetzal is the youth female aspect of the Postclassic Central Mexican version of the cosmic creator, and along with her male aspect Xochipilli, inhabits Tam
"Xochipilli"
Polymer Clay, 2023
Xochipilli ("Noble Flower") is born from a large flower as other smaller flowers blossom around him. The main flower itself emerges from the Sun hieroglyph. Xochipilli is the youth male aspect of the Postclassic Central Mexican version of the cosmic creator, and along with his female aspect Xochiquetzal, inhabits Tamoanchan, a Nahua expression of Flower Worlds
"Moon Goddess and her Rabbit Inside Lunar Crescent"
Polymer Clay and Moonstone Shards, 2020
The Classic Maya Moon goddess sits inside her lunar crescent and, along with her rabbit, communicates with other transcendent entities via three portals (note speech scrolls emerging from portals and from the two figures' mouths). Just as in East Asia, Mesoamerican peoples see the figure of a rabbit on the f
Detail
Older Works From "The Apprentice" series
Sacred Land Acknowledgement
Iowa City and Cedar Rapids, the stolen land areas of Iowa where I have been living and working, are ancestral Sauk and Meskwaki, Očhéthi Šakówiŋ (Dakota Sioux), Báxoje Máyaⁿ (Ioway), and Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo) lands. If we lived in accordance with true justice and fairness, reparations would be made at once, and these and all other unjustly relinquished lands would be returned back to living Indigenous peoples, the rightful overseers of these sacred lands. My heartfelt gratitude for said honorable peoples, who’s many profound contributions to the world immensely enrich the human experience.