Portfolio > The Buffalo Project

I started the The Buffalo Project in 2021 while I was the Artist in residence at The Institute of American Indian and Alaskan Native Arts and Culture. I had a conversation with my cousin back home in Shawnee Oklahoma, where we talked about one of our tribal members reaching out to our Nation, for books from the tribal library. This conversation inspired this project. I decided then, to create a work of art that would exist as a symbol of reclamation, re-connection and hope. A symbol that is recognizable, familiar and that holds beloved meaning to Native Americans everywhere. I began to draw a Buffalo. Once I finished carving and inked, hand pressed and pulled the first print, I understood what my intention for this project was. I made a little over 300 that first month, and reached out to Native communities through social media, offering the prints as a gift to Native People to send to their relatives that are incarcerated, in rehabilitation care and recovery, and in nursing home care. I want this project to uplift my fellow Native American People. To remind them that, like the Buffalo, we will return to our lands, our communities, and the strength of our Spirits cannot be taken from us.

I facilitate this project through sales of other prints. But this particular Buffalo print is never for sale, it is given solely as my gift to Native relatives. An act of Love, and a different approach to accessible art, this project will be my lifetime work.