EXCERPT
VAIL, CO—On the morning of May 9, Denver-based artist Danielle SeeWalker received a phone call from Kathleen Halloran, the deputy town manager of Vail, Colorado. During their brief phone conversation, Halloran informed SeeWalker—a member of the Húŋkpapȟa Lakȟóta and citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North Dakota—that the Town of Vail had canceled her scheduled residency and mural project through their Art in Public Places program.
According to SeeWalker, Halloran told her that “residents in Vail are very upset about you being a political artist. We can’t have someone like you coming into our community with these messages.” When asked for comment, Halloran disagreed with the specific verbiage SeeWalker used to describe the conversation, but not the overall sentiment.
The message Halloran explicitly referred to was SeeWalker’s vocal stance against genocide, as it related to a painting she posted to her Instagram account on March 7, titled G is for Genocide.
The painting is a semi-abstract portrait of a woman situated front and center of the canvas on a drab green background. The artist painted the figure’s face in grayscale, devoid of features except for an open right eye. Abstract linework cuts across her face where a nose and mouth should be. A keffiyeh drapes over the woman’s head, while a black and gray feather rests atop her right ear. A featureless braid of monochromatic red hair falls over her left shoulder. It covers part of her garment, which displays a repeating pattern of abstract shapes that look like elk teeth.
Source:
https://southwestcontemporary.com/danielle-seewalker-vail-residency/