In November 2025, I attended a retreat led by a feminist Catholic organization trying to find young people to pass the organization onto. That inspired me to create this piece, the Ancestor Tree. I began embroidering the skulls in February, each one a different ancestor from a liberatory Catholic movement.
Raised in Catholic school, I was told the legend that a seed from the Apple remained in Adam’s belly and when he was buried, it grew into the tree that would become the crucifix. Obviously this isn’t true, but it is a powerful story and I was surprised to discover later that most people have never heard it! This is the ultimate ancestor story, which is why I had this tree grow from the ground in which our ancestors are buried.
While creating the tree, James Cone’s The Cross And The Lynching Tree came to mind. The crucifix and the lynching tree cannot be separated, this American legacy cannot be separated from these ancestors and the crucifix growing from the seed of original sin. Although this piece has grown very much since my original idea, each of these concepts are inseparable from each other.
