America Meredith (Cherokee Nation, b. 1972), “Stomp Dance,” 2010. Oil-based ink linoleum block print on paper, 13 × 12 1/2 inches. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; Museum purchase. GMOA 2021.259.
AMERICA MEREDITH
i n fall 2021, the museum mounted the exhibition “Collective Impressions: Modern Native American Printmakers.” The show offered an opportunity to place Indigenous artists firmly within the museum’s mission to preserve, exhibit and interpret the history of American art and to highlight Native artists with an- cestral ties to our region. The project has revitalized the museum’s commitment to Indigenous artists, expanding representation of their work in our permanent collec- tion. As part of this effort, we were thrilled to acquire two prints featured in “Collective Impressions”: “Stomp Dance” by America Meredith (Cherokee Nation) and “Emi- grant Indians #1” by Bobby C. Martin (Muscogee [Creek]).
Meredith writes, “we dance counterclockwise so our hearts are always closest to the fires. Men sing and wom - en produce the percussion with our leg shackles.” The print is rich with cultural allusions and ritual symbol- ism. In this cropped view, the artist captures the tightly laced leg shackles and puckered-toe Cherokee moccasins mid-motion. Meredith surrounds the central image with border designs based on Cherokee incised pottery designs, their four sides alluding to the four-square ceremonial dance grounds of the Muscogee. “At the right is a sun circle,” the artist notes, “a widespread symbol of the ceremonial fire lifting prayers to the heavens beyond the sun.” Meredith’s work often emphasizes the enduring impact of women’s work in preserving Indigenous culture amid communal displacement.
In “Stomp Dance,” Meredith shows the rhythmic move- ments of an Eastern Woodlands stomp dance. “At stomps,”
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