American Progress and more art by Gina Adams

(Commissioned Print & Gift Print, 2019)

The American political doctrine of Manifest Destiny is literally defined in a text at the top of this print and its other visual elements all refer to that philosophy and the migration related to it. The landscape is a part of Colorado that has been mined by settlers for almost 200 years, and it and the barbed wire, another 19th-century invention, both suggest the damage that can be done by human migration. The bird is a lark bunting, a songbird that follows the same migratory path as the monarch butterfly, and is similarly threatened by the use of agricultural pesticides. The beads are a string of “greasy yellow” glass beads, printed to a specifically match a color desirable in some Indigenous craft traditions, including the artist’s own family background. It suggests hopefulness, and the chance for healing through finding harmony with nature.