Frank La Pena Tribute Lecture

Spencer  Keeton Cunningham and Richard Bluecloud Castenda

On March 5, 2020, I attended the Frank La Pena Lecture that was introduced by Elaine O'Brien and followed by two artists named Spencer Keeton Cunningham and Richard Bluecloud Castenda. The lecture was in the Sac States library annex gallery and was filled with a lot of people including teachers and fellow students.

A little background information on these artists is that both Spencer and Richard are personal artists who work in various mediums of paint, drawing, 2D, 3D and video media. In this following lecture, I found interesting was that the message was garnered to today's social and political issues of Native Lands and the rights of Native Americans and their lands.

Spencer also talked more about the content in his works such as a Dog mural created in reference to the oil pipeline on native land in the United States. He described the dogs as a symbolizing a protection of indigenous land. Moreover, the lecture also emphasized a lot of Standing Rock and displaced issues of gender, race, social and political issues.

Dog Mural