A Little Bit of "Real" Work

I went in to the National Museum of the American Indian yesterday (where I used to work before becoming a full time momma) to help with a bit of translation for a Visiting Artist. The program that I used to work with is called the Native Arts Program and it brings Native American artists from all over the hemisphere to do research in museum collections in various cities on the east coast. There are also a couple of other opportunities including a mural project and a symposium, but the core component is the Visiting Artist opportunity. It is such an amazing program, run by a great staff, and the artists that participate are always interesting and very creative.

This group of three was no exception. The woman I was translating for, Guillermina Ortega was from Veracruz, Mexico. Her installation work was based on feminine imagery and ideas related to ritual, fertility/infertility and healing. It was a lovely body of work and really fun to translate for her presentation.

The other two artists that presented were equally as fun to listen to. Cody Sanderson is a metalsmith who crafts amazing contemporary pieces in silver, gold and precious stones. I particularly liked his Rubik's Cube, which you can see here.

Angel Nevarez does works that are collaborative and very interactive. Many of his works are radio based projects, including the FM station that he and his collaborator, Valerie Tevere, set up on the Staten Island Ferry. My favorite from his presentation, was the Low Drone --as he described it, a transnational low-rider drone. Here is the website if you want to take the Low Drone for a spin.

There are many other fabulous past participants in the program, if you are interested to see a few more, there is a web publication containing information about many participants from the first ten years of the Native Arts Program, which can be found here.