Interview with Mikayla Patton

You’re also known to use modern mediums such as papermaking and other mixed media and more traditional mediums such as beadwork techniques. How do you balance these mediums were conveying the rich culture and history of the native person/people who are in your work to the viewer?

 Native people have always been so innovative, and when we are introduced to new materials, there’s nothing we can’t do. At a young age, I remember beading before anything else, but it wasn’t something I was the greatest at, and once I started printing and making paper, it was something I felt I needed to re-introduce myself to.  I managed to incorporate beadwork into my current work because, as a Lakota person, it was my way of bringing and representing beauty and strength into my work. It’s not that I never saw my work in those ways, but it reaches something personal and cultural.

Read the full interview.