I admire people who take a stand and rise up to defend their homeland, tradition, and identity. Like my people, the Jews, who are Israel's indigenous people, the Native American people also suffered genocide and were expelled from their homeland forced to wander. Like us, after centuries of persecutions and sufferings they were given a tiny land back that nobody else wanted previously and they still need to defend it. Like us, they rose up from the ruins with wounded people and formed a nation. Cultural Expression in the 21st Century celebrates the culture that surround us, yet many of us misunderstand or simply miss. It shows that the Native American culture wasn't vanished despite predictions of anthropologists and photographers in the 19th Century. The exhibit invites the viewer to see how art and culture help preserve each other, and how traditional and contemporary can be fused into one. The presented artwork concludes my two year honor thesis project for which I was traveling throughout Arizona, New Mexico, and California to collect testimonials and photographs. The exhibition is also complemented by artwork invited contemporary artists, Steven Yazzie and Tiffiney Yazzie. The artwork varies in media, including inkjet-printed photography, traditional copper photogravures, digital composites, and a short art documentary.

Familiar Places: Ghosts of a Memory is a thesis exhibition, presented in Gallery 100 in Tempe, AZ, accompanied by a written investigation into the function of photography in the home and art. This project is a diaristic photographic record including images of myself, my family, my environment, and mementos or objects that embody family history. I am interested in what we hold onto to keep memories and create our "home". I moved frequently growing up so my sense of home became firmly grounded in family, tradition, and the things we kept close, making home a practiced space not a place. This thesis project explores how material culture, including photographs, is used in creating the space of the home. Questions regarding the nature of the photograph as a memory keeping device or memory trigger is investigated to understand their usefulness and accuracy to the memory. A deeper examination of the difference between an artist's photograph of family and home versus the family photograph is discussed and presented by utilizing installations in the exhibition. The photographs can be seen at www.gwendolynanne.com