Description

A black and white photo I took with my mom's film camera, which I learned to develop in the darkroom. The photo shows my mom's chickens in Southwest Kansas, a typical childhood sight. Woven into the original photo are artwork cards from one of my first solo exhibitions. The image is of my fiber art collage using a quilt and other fabrics/objects from family and community. Embroidery thread and stitches are added to the woven collage. It all represents the texture of my life: patterns, memories, and experiences that can seem random but are an integral part of the whole.

About the Artist

Hattie Lee Mendoza is a multi-disciplinary artist who grew up in Fowler, Kansas, and now lives in Peoria, Illinois. She is influenced by her great-grandmother and namesake’s Cherokee heritage and stories, desiring to revive and continue that legacy within her family. Her maternal grandmother’s frugal values, stemming from a Depression-era childhood, are also reflected in Mendoza’s practice through the inclusion of repurposed and recycled personal, family, and community items, as well as thrifted and found objects. Mendoza has been published in the #155 Midwest Issue of New American Paintings, Excellence in Fibers VII & VIII by Fiber Art Now, and Art Focus Winter Issue 2024. One of her mixed-media collages is on permanent display in the American Studies department at the University of Notre Dame. She has had solo exhibitions at Oklahoma State University's Gardiner Gallery, Cameron University, and participated in a group show at Gerald Peter's Contemporary, Santa Fe, in the summer of 2025. "My studio is a flux of mediums and objects in constant conversation with each other: A small original gouache painting gets printed on custom fabric, which goes into a mixed media collage, informing a piece of wearable art, or adding to the composition of a new gouache painting. Nothing is off-limits to being repurposed and reimagined. This process is a personal narrative of the Native American Diaspora."

Pickup & Shipping

All artworks sold will be shipped from the gallery after the show closes. Packages should go out no later than September 20, 2025. Visit here to learn more about shipping and handling as well as tax-exempt purchases.