Indigenous artist Roberto Salas clearly recalls first watching a black-and-white Jackson Pollock documentary one sweltering hot day in second
When his dad needed to go to the bathroom, he asked Salas to take it down, but instead, he encouraged his father to navigate his way out of the web.“I took the whole environment — used something that was repurposed — and I think my life has been like that,” Salas said. “It says something that I see a situation or things, and then from there, it spawns into other things, and it’s beautiful.
“We want to make sure that people have the education, that they can see themselves in the museum, they can see their history,” said Wendy Wilson, Bonita Museum executive director. “It’s really important to show that Kumeyaay are alive and functioning today. As someone from a multicultural background, Salas identifies as Chicano to highlight both his European and Indigenous Mexican heritage, both of which inspire his art and inform how he sees the world.
“Think about having a ball and chain and having to move with it, and carrying that extra weight — that’s what it was to me,” Salas said.