LIVE/WORK STUDIOS

I archive everyday moments and objects from Lubbock and the surrounding towns to look more critically at the idea of the American West and its connections to the myth of Progress. These nineteenth-century initiatives became prevalent during Manifest Destiny, dominating global perspectives and Western Art. My art aims to reclaim the story of the West by looking at the rural quotidian, particularly in the Southern High Plains. My practice consists of walking, driving around, and observing life happening in the Panhandle. I like slowing down and collecting objects, materials, and moments from the environment that seem insignificant or obsolete in a culture set on innovation. The forgotten objects, abandoned structures, and scenes of people and animals that I witness in rural Texas may reveal deeper truths about how something's worth is determined. I investigate the process of a thing becoming refuse or a relic and how this overlaps with regional beliefs towards land valuations, animal industrialization, and the worth of people and their labor. A resounding question in my research asks: Does something have to be productive, even reproductive, to have worth? These oncechosen materials-now abandoned-spark a distrust of the heroic, spectacular, romanticized West that is still a common stand-in for reality. When dominant discourses and ideologies omit and deny the actual existence and circumstances of the American West, these entities are silenced. Here, imagery and materials share the burden of retelling the story of the West, which has long been one of exploitation, exhaustion, and a refusal of the everyday. Reframing these often-overlooked moments, places, and materials serves to discover inherent worth rather than commodified value based on marketability and (re)productivity. Ultimately, this investigation intends to find more sustainable and equitable actions and beliefs regarding the land, animals, and all people.

CASP is an important organization because it provides affordable living and studio space for artists in Lubbock. The arts are the heartbeat of a city's culture so having opportunities for artists and the public to engage with one another and create community and art helps everyone.