Client: Nicolet College

Overview

Anishinaabe traditions tell us when we leave this earth, “we will dance through the doorway to the next world in spirit form”. Our spirits will find our ancestors who have also passed on before us, and we will rejoice and dance in the sky and call it Waawaate, the Northern Lights. The Anishinaabe refer to the Milky Way as a “river of souls” and branches of the river fall down the Earth, and you travel on that river in the After-World, a place where we can reconnect with our ancestors. By first acknowledging our pasts, we can begin to look for our future. This sculpture was commissioned by Nicolet College in Rhinelander, WI and is currently displayed on their campus.

Goals

The main goal was to supply artwork that strengthens the involvement of community partners and celebrates diverse
cultures or groups within the campus and district. We seek artists that have knowledge and/or connections to our
district’s diverse populations. Nicolet College encourages Latino, Black, Indigenous, Asian, LGBTQ+ or other
underrepresented groups to apply.
and Langlade) The final artwork should provide representation on our campus of diverse cultures. This goal applied to the piece because it honored the diverse cultures that originally inhabited the land and represented uniqueness and future possibilities.

Process

I was selected as a finalist for this RFQ and was given time to create and present multiple concepts to the College's board and was fortunate enough to be selected to create one of them. In the design and fabrication process, I worked primarily alone in bringing this sculpture to life and had a few helping hands in the installation.