Rooted in Relations: Authenticity and Power in Indigenous Sovereignty marks a milestone in my creative practice as a fully self-directed body of work. Unlike commissioned design projects, this exhibition series represents independent artistic authorship—developed in response to a call for artists and created during the 2025 winter season.
The series includes two digital linocut-style portraits, Desert Matriarch and Wrapped in Continuance, each centering Indigenous women grounded in land, continuity, and lived sovereignty. Drawing from both Sonoran desert and Diné visual language, the works emphasize matriarchal strength, relational identity, and cultural persistence across generations.
Executed in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, the illustrations reference traditional printmaking aesthetics—bold line work, limited color fields, and carved texture—while remaining digitally constructed. The compositions foreground Indigenous presence not as symbol, but as embodied authority. Landscape, adornment, and textile pattern operate as relational systems rather than decoration, reinforcing sovereignty as lived connection to land.
Exhibited as part of Rooted in Relations: Authenticity and Power in Indigenous Sovereignty (2026), this project represents an expansion of my practice from publication and institutional design into autonomous visual storytelling. The work positions Indigenous identity within contemporary art space without visual essentialism, affirming that sovereignty is both political and personal.
Tools: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator
Deliverables: Exhibition-ready digital illustrations (8.5x11 format), framed presentation
Focus: Indigenous sovereignty, matriarchal presence, cultural continuity, contemporary print aesthetics
Deliverables: Exhibition-ready digital illustrations (8.5x11 format), framed presentation
Focus: Indigenous sovereignty, matriarchal presence, cultural continuity, contemporary print aesthetics
Installation views shared with permission. Exhibition images include work by fellow invited artists in Rooted in Relations.
© 2026 Ray Rivera Design, LLC. All artwork in this series is original and protected by copyright.