Descriptions

Self-portrait photograph of artist Melinda Schwakhofer wearing a Covid face mask with the words “Este Mvskokvlke Owis :: I Am Mvskoke”.

Created in 2021, this photographic self-portrait won the Inaugural Jessie Ross Cobb Award presented by First American Art Magazine at the 50th Annual Trail of Tears Art Show in 2021.

Melinda’s father Frank is an important source of inspiration for her work. He was traumatised by his heritage. His parents were of Muscogee and European descent, and in the modern Indigenous and American worlds he was rejected by both and considered an outsider. This pain also affected his own family.

She is an American artist and citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation with Austrian-American ancestry, who now lives and works on Dartmoor in the UK.

This object is not on display.