The art that I create reflects and honors the basket and the process of making a basket. Since I am from two different tribal nations, I have learned twice the knowledge of basketry plants from two very different landscapes. This traditional knowledge has taught me the importance of my homelands and the reciprocal relationship with our plant relatives that inherently evolves out of basketmaking. I carry the knowledge of plants and the teachings of basketry into my contemporary practice of printmaking, bookbinding, and paper-weaving as each medium has intentional qualities in their storytelling much like the plants and basketmaking processes.

Rhiannon Skye Tafoya (b. 1989) is an interdisciplinary artist from the Eastern Band of Cherokee and the Santa Clara Pueblo Tribes. She earned a BFA in printmaking from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM. and an MFA in print media from Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, OR. She employs printmaking, digital design, and basketry techniques in creating her artist’s books, prints, and paper weavings. Both of her tribal heritages, cultures, and lineages are manifested in her two- and three-dimensional artworks that range in size from a few inches to a few feet. She is inspired by her family history of basketry and observing her father and maternal grandmother weave baskets from red willow, honeysuckle vine, and white oak. She creates to preserve, archive, and share personal, familial and tribal stories.

This exhibition and related programming are supported in part by a grant from the Tennessee Arts Commission’s Arts for All program, with co-sponsorship from the Denbo Center for Humanities & the Arts, the UT Appalachian Justice Research Center, and the School of Art Programming Committee.