Yúna’ :: To Collect

“Yúna’” is the Luiseño word for collecting, assembling, joining together, and making one.

My love for pins began with the Disney pins of my favorite characters that I started collecting on my lanyard whenever I visited the theme parks with my cousins. As I grew into my teenage years, my love for pins and patches grew with the inclusion of the Hot Topic flair used to decorate my jackets with my favorite cartoons and band logos. Now that I am a parent, my pins are now memories saved to my collaged corkboards covered with my children’s art projects. I love the versatility of collecting and trading enamel pins and sharing a part of yourself through art, which inspired the creation of my print designs as pins and patches that can be worn to share the Southern California Indigenous Payómkawiichum culture.

Náavut :: Optuntia Cactus

“Náavut” is the Luiseño term for the Opuntia Cactus. This beautiful and bountiful cactus native to the Americas is culturally important to the diet of the Southern Californian indigenous peoples. This design was inspired by the Opuntia cactus growing on my grandparent’s property on the reservation. Growing up, during the summer my cousins and I would help each other collect the fruit from my grandma’s cactus to eat as a snack. The linoleum cut reduction print of an olla and mortar sitting on either side of a fruited opuntia cactus was created to represent the Indigenous food chain and cultural processes of food preparation passed on by our ancestors, elders, and our tribal leadership.

No$úun :: My Heart

“No$úun” is the Luiseño word for (My) Heart. This design was created as a Linocut ink print in 2020 as a love letter to my family, to my tribe, and to the Luiseño people. The heart was designed after the style of the Luiseño pictograph mazes that were painted in red ochre on the sides of boulders, a style of pictographs distinct to the Southern California region. My intention with this design is to create a symbol that represents the heart of the Payómkawiichum, the People of the West.