American Myths Artist Statement

All my life I've been told:

God helps those who help themselves.

Pull yourself up by your bootstraps, then take the other guy's boots.

America is the greatest country in the world because we can kick any other country's ass.

What's best for all is whatever's most profitable.

Life is a beauty pageant; dress to kill.

Those at the top of the corporate ladder are closest to God.

Be a cheerleader for whoever's winning.

It's not murder if you have permission.

The Indians had to be killed to make way for golf courses, shopping malls, and gated communities.

But there are other voices:

A whale washed up on shore and I was sad for him. But he told me not to cry, for his race once walked the land, and taking to the water was a choice they made. They knew there'd be risks.

Though America is paved and fenced, the ghosts of its forests still sing in the cities.

The trees remember the parrots that nested in their branches, and the flocks of pigeons that darkened the skies for days.

The rivers dream of the salmon that spawned on their banks.

Some say the buffalo all went underground, and they're just waiting for the right time to emerge.

Those are the voices of the land. But there are yet other voices, some of which we carry inside of us.

The long neglected gods and goddesses of Europe followed the settlers across the ocean. They married themselves to the spirits of the forests, deserts, and grasslands of America.

Coyote married Branwen, and their children built Las Vegas.

Daedalus built the steam-trains that thundered across the west (and drove the buffalo underground).

Anansi came over from Africa, and gave Brer Rabbit his banjo and drum.

The thrill-seeking Indo-Europeans who drove their cattle across Europe and into India also rode out onto the plains of Wyoming.

The Trojan War was fought again at the Alamo, in Cuba, and in Iraq.

Old impulses and ancient mythologies still drive us.

There is a reality behind the one we're taught to see.

Every child knows this world--where each journey is an adventure, each tree has a voice, and everyone gets a chance to be the hero.