Artist’s Statement
I would like to acknowledge that we are on Native land. This statement was written on unceded Wabanaki territory—on land taken from the Abenaki of western Maine and New Hampshire, the Wabanaki tribes of Maine and the Maritimes, and the people of Dawnland, that is, the Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, Penobscot, and Passamaquoddy tribes, who have all suffered and continue to suffer from violence, pestilence, diaspora, and trauma.
The two drawings shown here were created for a solo exhibition in Farmington entitled Across References. They explore the interconnections between deep time, which includes the glacial retreats, seen and unseen tracks and marks on the forms of land and rivers in Maine, and shorter human eras and individual histories. The Mapping the Sandy River drawing interconnects geological marks of the Ice Age with the indigenous presence of the Wabanakis, their use of the Sandy as a means of travel, and subsequent diaspora and displacement by white settlers.
As a feminist, I am interested in the connections between time and space on the lives of women. How does our location in time and space influence our lives? What about the lives of women who were born or live near our Maine waterways? For instance, Constance Thurza “Flyrod” Crosby of Phillips became a noted outdoor sportswoman, early conservationist, and the first registered Maine guide. Is this a coincidence or indicative of her deep ties to the land and water?