Nahuatl, Paid Companion
B/W photo, sepia toned with oil paint, 2003, 21" x 17"
Carm
Little Turtle (Apache/Tarahumara/
Mexican) Born to
artist parents, art was an early part of home life. Raised in a multi-cultural
environment, as a child learned to integrate art into life. Exhibited
nationwide. Included in “Seven Directions” group exhibition at the Montana
Museum
of Art & Culture.
The boundaries between photography and painting seem to merge in Carm Little Turtle's work. The iconography in her work (“the props and costumes”), she explains, “is a private symbolism rather than one that is imposed by the dominant [European-American] culture.” Her work often deals with situations unique to Native American women. Nahuatl, Paid Companion reminds the viewer how little has changed for Native American womn esince the Lewis & Clark Expedition: Sacagawea, too, was a paid companion. 200 years later Native American women and girls still have to toil away their youth in sweat shops and at menial work to make a living.