Hattie Lee Mendoza

 Hattie Lee Mendoza is a multi-disciplinary artist who grew up in Fowler, Kansas, and now lives in Peoria, Illinois. She has an MFA from Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, and a BA in graphic design from Tabor College, Hillsboro, KS.

 She is influenced by her Great Grandmother and namesake’s Cherokee heritage and stories, desiring to revive and continue that legacy within her family after generational loss of cultural connection. She spent three years living in Thailand, as well as traveling to various countries, while working with a non-profit organization on their fine art and media team. The experience gave her opportunities to interact and learn from many people groups and tribes in Asia and the Middle East. Afterward, she returned to the States and was motivated to connect to her own ancestral heritages. Her maternal grandmother’s frugal values, stemming from a depression era childhood, are also reflected in Mendoza’s practice by including 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. She has been in exhibitions in in thirteen states, with two 2024 solo exhibitions in Oklahoma at Oklahoma State University and Cameron University. She also had work in Expo Chicago 2024, with the Center for Native Futures gallery, coinciding with her work exhibited in their inaugural group exhibition in downtown Chicago. One of her mixed media collages is on permanent display in the American Studies department of the University of Notre Dame. Five licensed artwork images will be installed in the indoor waterpark at OKANA resort in Oklahoma City, OK as public art installations.

Generations of stories and values have been layered within material objects. Re-collected from family members, friends, and her community, Hattie Lee Mendoza honors the usefulness and nostalgia of materials while collaging them into new narratives. She reinvigorates materials that might have otherwise been forgotten and tossed in the landfill as generations pass. Recollecting her great-grandmother’s pride in their Cherokee Nation heritage, Hattie uses imagery and methods abstracted or quoted from Native American culture.

Homeplace: Her Memories, Our Heritage (White Oak)

Medium: vintage photos, acrylic, beads, embroidery thread, giclee print of antique document

13.75" x 21.75"

$1,200

This piece incorporates snapshots taken in 1977 during a trip my Great Grandmother Hattie took to visit "The Home Place"- where she grew up in White Oak, Oklahoma. She's pictured in the top left photo. Hand beaded snippets of Cherokee basketry patterns I made on remnants of beading foundation are sewed onto each photograph, which I edged with beads, then sewed onto the background.

The background is a giclee print of the page my ancestors, including my Great Grandma at the age of 1 month, are recorded on the Dawes Roll of Cherokee ancestry. The dates stamped on the document range from 1901-1907.

The nature of the fading photographs, and the abstracted, incomplete basketry patterns speak to a generational line that's migrated, married, and experienced a wide variety of things since Hattie Rafferty was on The Home Place.

Her photographs with a few handwritten notes (which I've replicated in acrylic underneath) stand as a testament to the love and memories she had with her family on that particular land.

Specific memories and feelings can't be directly passed down- the events and emotions which passed on each hill or among the trees faded with her- but the fact that our ancestry stands as a testimony on a piece of paper, and so many photographs were lovingly kept and passed down to me, speaks loudly of a family who values connection. With roots deeper than memory.

Pickup at Red Earth Art Gallery, 100 N Broadway, Oklahoma City, OK 73102.
Interested in having this item shipped? We can arrange packing and shipping for an additional cost. Please call 405-427-5228 or email info@redearth.org before purchase.