Hi, I’m Bailey. I was born and raised in rural Idaho next to potato fields nestled in the Rocky Mountains. I am a Shoshone-Bannock tribal member, with French and Irish ancestry. I studied Anthropology and Studio Art at Grinnell College (B.A. received May 2017) in Grinnell, Iowa. I began my love for creating at the tender age of three when I curated a collection of lava rocks and created their portraits on printer paper with a thick, black crayon. I self-published my first book about a girl who loved sunflowers at age six.

Now I enjoy working with photography, oil paint, and textiles. I come from a culture deeply embedded in visual and oral history. Elders have always told me that what you say and create in the world is sacred because your energy is woven into your words and art.

In addition to art, I am passionate about Shoshoni language and culture revitalization. Through the process of understanding and communicating with my ancestors through language and culture, I am in turn making my journey toward becoming an ancestor who will be honored and remembered like those who have walked on before me.

I invest a lot time, energy and creativity into creating images, stories, and objects because I attempt to capture ephemeral moments of life and transfer them into permanence. I'm interested in memory and how we recall details; I love the moments where you want to savor them forever so you try to remember every detail for later. That's how my process begins. At the corner of memory and desire. —B.D. 

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