Medicine Bags

Medicine Bag 1 - Invented ritual for self-love (flowers from my mother's garden, breath from my lungs, a prayer to the night sky)

25” x 21”, oil on canvas, 2023

Medicine Bag- Chicago tap water, $1.73 & the alley plants that know me

24” x 18”, oil on panel, 2022

A medicine bag is usually a small bag used by some indigenous peoples of the Americas that contains sacred items. Traditionally, medicine bags are worn under clothing and their contents are kept private.

I was inspired to begin a series about creating new rituals using readily accessible items, alluding to the belief that there is medicine all around us. Where a traditional medicine bag used for personal ritual keeps its contents hidden, I make my bags transparent as a way of gesturing towards the importance of communal care. I then identify the items I use within the painting’s title both as a way of making the work accessible to the viewer and as an opportunity to elevate the mundane elements in the medicine bag, making them sacred through loving attention.