As an instrumental songwriter and electric guitar player, the intersection of present and primordial lies at the root of my musical spirit. It is the beating heart of every note and chord I play – every song I compose is a reflection in this meditation, the meditation of our world’s ancestors and the present world we are living through now.

At the Institute of American Indian Arts, I feel this meditation most strongly when I am out on the far grounds of campus, surrounded by the region’s desert vegetation, high mountains, and sky. It inspires me. In the present, I stand with my modern guitar, yet the mountains serve as a reminder that the ancestors’ past is not so far away, that it is still alive, running parallel to this time.

In this photo, I am not posing. I am playing from the heart, inspired by the world around me. I am standing in prayer, whole in my spirit between land and sky.