Honoring Ancestry

Merchandise Artist Jacob Meders

One of the hallmarks of the annual Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market is the vast convergence of traditions and cultures. This is felt through the exhibiting artists who come from all across the United States to show their works, as well as in the performances and demonstrations. Each year an artist is selected to create a brand-new work of art to appear on merchandise that the museum sells throughout the weekend. This year two-dimensional artist Jacob Meders, a member of the Mechoopda Indian Tribe in Chico Rancheria, California, was bestowed the honor.

For his piece, Meders turned to his Maidu roots to create an image that represent his people as well as the Southwest. The work, which depicts a hummingbird, began as a pen-and-ink drawing that he then scanned and added color to digitally.

“When is the last time that a Maidu artist got to do an image for the Heard Museum? So I really wanted to do something that represented my people,” says the artist. “The pattern that goes around the bird is a wing pattern that is found in our basketry. I personally don’t do basketry, but my sister does and other people in my family do, so I did something that paid respect to that. Then, I do a lot of bird images because they’re a big part of our culture and regalia. They’re in our songs and in our stories…the hummingbird itself is also connected with the Southwest, so I could see how it related to the tribes down in Arizona as well.”

Meders, who lives in Phoenix and is an educator at Arizona State University, is primarily known as a printmaker and runs his own company, Warbird Press, where he makes letterpress, handcarved woodblocks and more. “Printmaking is the main body of my work, but the concept dictates the medium,” he says. “The vehicle of what I decide to have the conversation with changes quite drastically off the original concept or idea.”