Melinda
Schwakhofer
Juried Artist Member (JAM)
Location
Moretonhampstead, Devon
United Kingdom
Region
Artist Statement
I am an American textile artist and citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation with Austrian-American ancestry, who now lives and works in the UK. I stand at the confluence of multiple streams.
I began my Muscogee Journey body of artwork in 2008 to process and articulate what I had been learning and discovering about my personal story, my family roots, and my Muscogee ancestry. As with many people of Native ancestry, I grew up tangled in a web of inherited trauma and unresolved grief which has been handed down through the generations and which demonstrated itself keenly in my own family.
Many of these artworks contain motifs relevant to my contemporary Southeastern culture and from our older Mississippian culture. Some of this artwork tells of hidden histories, such as The Trail of Tears. It also confronts uncomfortable truths, for example Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. Taken as a whole, this body of artwork explores themes of Identity, Belonging, Home and Heritage.
I began my Muscogee Journey body of artwork in 2008 to process and articulate what I had been learning and discovering about my personal story, my family roots, and my Muscogee ancestry. As with many people of Native ancestry, I grew up tangled in a web of inherited trauma and unresolved grief which has been handed down through the generations and which demonstrated itself keenly in my own family.
Many of these artworks contain motifs relevant to my contemporary Southeastern culture and from our older Mississippian culture. Some of this artwork tells of hidden histories, such as The Trail of Tears. It also confronts uncomfortable truths, for example Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. Taken as a whole, this body of artwork explores themes of Identity, Belonging, Home and Heritage.
