Postcard 4x6 | Spirit of The Great Salt Lake | Past Side

This print is of the Past Side of my permanent installation piece, Spirit of the Great Salt Lake. It is physically located in the heart of Salt Lake City as a permanent street installation. 

4x6 Postcard 

Each Print is handmade, signed, and embellished with acrylic and varnish. Comes with an additional piece of statement card.

Art Work Statement: 

Spirit of the Great Salt Lake: Future and Past honors the ancient waters of Lake Bonneville and the region’s intertwined histories of resilience and adaptation. At its center, a painted vision of the Great Salt Lake—past and present—follows the Bear River’s path, forming a flowing figure in the sky to symbolize water as a life-giving force.

Encased in a teardrop-shaped frame, the piece incorporates imagery of Elrathia kingii, the Cambrian trilobite known to the Pahvant Utes as Timpe khanitza pachavee (“little water bug in stone”). Revered as protective amulets, these fossils reflect endurance and healing. I also draw on my Mexican and Mesoamerican heritage by integrating shield-step motifs, invoking themes of protection and care for our waterways.

Using sunlight-stable fiber yarns, oil paint, and metal leaf, the work layers ecological and cultural symbols to reflect the Salt Lake’s evolving story. It invites viewers to reconnect with water as sacred, and to embrace stewardship rooted in both ancestral knowledge and contemporary urgency.