Photo: Brandon Vosika
Photo: Jonathan Furlong
Photo: Fernando Decillis
Sáandlaanaay hin uu Xaad kíl dii k’yaang. My name in the Haida language is Sáandlaanaay. In English, I’m Kimberly Fulton Orozco.
I am a multidisciplinary artist-storyteller. My work explores the intergenerational effects of assimilation and the forces that shape personal identity through cultural survivance. I consider the complexity of communication, fragmentation of traumatized memory, transmission of felt knowledge through relationship, loss of language, renewal of belonging through the practice of cultural principles— focusing on beauty and free expression.
I am a Kaigani Haida Raven belonging to the Yaahgw’ jaanaas clan of Craig, Alaska. I received the name Sáandlaanaay, which, put simply, means, beautiful sunrise or first light, referring to a Haida origin story. I am a citizen of the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska. I was born in Ridgecrest, CA, halfway between the homelands of my maternal and paternal grandmothers in Jalisco, Mexico and Craig, Alaska, respectively.
I am based in Atlanta, Georgia, where I earned a BFA in Drawing, Painting, and Printmaking from Georgia State University (2022). I create works that reflect the confluence of cultural inheritances that shape me. My work has been exhibited at the Anchorage Museum and the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts among others, and my writing has appeared in Smithsonian Magazine. I am currently an MFA student at Institute of American Indian Arts Studio Arts program. In 2023, I became one of the first Indigenous artists to be selected for the The U.S. Mint’s Artistic Infusion Program.
Links
https://www.usmint.gov/learn/artists/aip-kimberly-fulton
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/author/kimberly-r-fulton-orozco/