2026
Oil on Canvas
28 x 48″
Fringes critiques the commodification of Western identity through fashion, trend culture, and consumerism. The figure, dressed in stylized fringe garments, presents an image that is simultaneously seductive and precarious. While the clothing references traditions tied to labor, Indigenous craftsmanship, and frontier history, its presentation within contemporary fashion culture detaches those forms from their original meaning and transforms them into aesthetic commodities.
The painting also reflects a personal participation in this cycle of romanticization. The fondness toward Western-inspired fashion, material textures, and imagery is not portrayed as separate from the critique, but evidence of how deeply this aesthetics have been absorbed into contemporary consumer culture. The work acknowledges the ease with which historical symbols become visually desirable while their cultural origins and significance fade into the background.
This tension parallels observations made in Native North American and the Frontier West, where traditional Western visual language often continues to romanticize the very histories it attempts to critique. Fringes explores contradiction through fashion, questioning how consumer behavior contributes to the flattening of cultural identity into trend, costume, and performance. By presenting the figure as posed and aspirational, the painting implicates both artist and viewer in the continued consumption of romanticized Wester imagery.
Process
