Clay Cunningham

My name is Clay Cunningham and I am a painter from Council Bluffs, IA. I\'ve long been interested in cultures and customs of natives of the Americas. With an ancestral lineage to the Shoshone Indians, my connection to Native Americans is an important part of my artistic search. However, as a white male with little physical attributes normally classified as \'Indian\', I refrain from making literal images of traditional \'Indian\' features. To do so could border on the \'hokey\' or drenched in empty nostalgia. Instead I use persons recognized to be from my own modern race (using anglo-saxon bone structure, skin tone) as my vehicle with which to explore ancient rites, customs, and mythologies. Why always girls? I find no greater vehicle with which to explore the physical and temporal possibilities of ethos and mythos that connects all of our human race.