Acrylic on Wood 01/16/2012
1'6x2'; Acrylic on Wood 
2'x4'; Acrylic on Wood 
She's Not That Into It; 2'x3'6 Acrylic on Wood Add Comment Know Better 01/02/2012
 These Distortions, Such Unheard Screams; 1'x5' acrylic and enamel on wood.   “I captured a very beautiful Carib woman who the admiral [Christopher Columbus] gave to me…I wanted to put my desire into execution…She did not want it and treated me with her fingernails…I took a rope and thrashed her well…She raised such unheard screams.” -Michele de Cuneo, Spaniard who traveled with Christopher Columbus  “We must continually struggle to sort through and cast off stereotypical constructions that make us vulnerable to racism, sexism, and violence. Part of this effort must be to teach others to analyze and reject these distortions.” -Renya Ramirez, Healing, Violence and Native American Women, 110 Social Justice, 2004, 31, 4; Research Library  BANG! BANG! YOU'RE DEAD! We used to scream as kids. They still do, running in circles, slapping their mouths and calling, "Awww, wa, wa, wa. Awww, wa, wa, wa." I was in college when a woman stood crying before 100 of us, recalling the explosion in her stomach the first time she took her son to a basketball game and watched his eyes grow in horror when the Indian mascot appeared toma-hawking his way across the gym floor. I've thought about that moment for years. My eyes tracing the wetness from her cheeks to the dirty carpet in that too small room. How could a mascot hurt so bad? Could I really ever understand? I didn't have to, respect doesn't always demand understanding, when someone's hurt you respect that and listen. I thought about that moment at my family's fourth of July party, where my Uncle dressed up in blackface and everyone laughed as he waddled and shimmied his way around the room. I think about it every Columbus day I have off, and every Martin Luther King Jr. day I'm still scheduled to work. These examples tell a story about a society's confusion with heroes and power, and a tradition of an ugly historicity that is becoming more and more illuminated. These Distortions, Such Unheard Screams is a painting I thought about for years and let simmer in my mind before letting out. These images taken from the last 200 years of popular culture, draw viewers in and invite them to question. The images of white people were pulled from childrens' books and pin up posters and are meant to highlight the myths of the nobel savage and the sexual squaw. The images of Native Peoples were found in books of anthropological paintings. There is a corrupt history behind the painting and photographing of Native American Peoples by anthropologists and people of privilege involving inaccuracies in the images, names, personality rights of the people or "subjects," and a lack of any sort of reciprocity. The images in, "These Distortions, Such Unheard Screams," crowd each other and build conflict on the narrow piece of wood, letting ideas of childhood fantasy play and cultural racism collide and tangle under the veil of cartoonish features and speech bubbles. More articles on current Native American politics: http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/tag/raceethnicity-american-indiansaboriginals/ http://ucsc.academia.edu/RenyaRamirez/Papers/658494/Healing_violence_and_Native_American_women http://collegemediamatters.com/2011/03/22/student-newspaper-apologizes-for-racist-article-about-american-indian-event/ Last Paintings of 2011 12/30/2011
 Contact; 1'x3' acrylic and enamel on wood.  We Never Did Figure Out How It Worked; 2'x3' enamel and acrylic on canvas. First Paintings From The New Studio 12/27/2011
2'x2' Acrylic, Oil, Enamel on wood. The very first painting completed in the studio! 
2'x2' Acrylic and Enamel on wood. 
18x24 Enamel, Acrylic, Chalk on found wood | Courtney Spring
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