Artist statement: In this work I focused on the circularity of storytelling. I am so influenced by Cree and how our language teaches us nonlinear modes of knowing. There is animacy in our language, which in turn teaches us holistic relationships, where time bleeds into the past, present, and future. With this piece in particular, imagery wraps all the way around and does not stop, referencing how we are connected entirely. We exist simultaneously or asynchronously; a non linear mode of being. There is animacy and with that, there is care. This is an image of a family member leaning on a trailer at night fall. He has grey hair, wearing a long sleeve shirt, long johns with socks tucked over his pants, and rubbers. This piece is wrapped around a 2x4 plank: a material that I use and reference as bones (2x4s are the foundations of many of our buildings, the skeletons so to speak). When I use these “bones", I am thinking about how I can activate my paintings or beadings. In structures, bones are hidden and the white walls are the visible forefront. Here, beading on the literal bones of the building, I acknowledge the histories that homes keep.