This is a print of the portrait from the series Dormidera. This print is of Dormidera #2: LAND  (Modesta Avila). Avila was a mixed-race (Indigenous/Spanish) woman growing up in the throws of the decline of Spanish California and the upheaval of US occupation. Her story shows how race and gender directly affected potential for land ownership, land rights and treatment by US law. Modesta Avila became the first convicted felon and state prisoner of Orange County for “obstruction of a railroad” on her family’s land, eventually being sent to San Quentin State Prison due to her protests. 
 
For this series, I am using rare historical portraits to create a visual juxtaposition between ephemeral, classical portraiture and overlays similar to Victorian pressed flower collecting and modern #superbloom trends. My goal in this work is to create a dialogue about how the women in these photographs have been implemented in today’s modern cultural revival and the current “reseeding” of both culture and the larger landscape of California, reflecting the health of and/or damage to our tribal communities. This series hopes to also create a visual color through-line between Poppy/Flame motif speaking of how fire continues to be the commonality in this revitalization: a physical manifestation in shades of yellow-orange-red speaking to land care relationships and a forward movement of cultural revival through language keeping, protests of land theft and fights for land back, as the intangible petals of the poppy flower, whose beauty no one can truly hold onto.
 
The prints will be glicee on thick art paper. 
 
for larger custom sizes, please message me directly. 
 
Please allow 2-3 weeks from order date to ship, as I use an outside print house to have these done.