In "Wendigo Piñata," Mary Evangeline Guadalupe Rubi aims to create a fiber sculpture inspired by the Wendigo folktale, a Wabanaki creature that was once man and transforms into a cannibal monster when abandoned and forgotten. Morphing the creature into a piñata, a symbol of a joyful gathering, is a meditation on the human need for connection.
Mary Evangeline Guadalupe Rubi's artistic practice centers around the themes of mixed blood and finding connection in chaos. Her European and Indigenous ancestry, the lines of red from those who have conquered and for those who have been the bounty of conquest, birth a new creation. Textiles and clay are the materials at the center of her work, and her devotion to feminine labor and craft studies. The sculptures she creates are a meditation on memory: the stories we have inherited and the stories we create to remember. Drawing inspiration from the First Nations tradition of the sacredness of the color red, Latin folklore, and the desire to reclaim an Indigenous narrative.
