Pachomio Feliz (Yurok, Karuk, Chumash)

Digital Media

This year’s artwork is entitled Meraa ue’lehl. 

"Meraa ue’lehl means smoke house in Yurok Language,  I choose this piece because Yurok people are interconnected to salmon, and they make up a large part of the Yurok traditional diet. So, the Yurok people would catch enough salmon to supply our families and villages with dried and smoked salmon. We smoke them in these shacks we call smoke houses, each house could fit dozens of fish all stripped up. To me this artwork represents not just the smoking of the fish but the hard work behind it, like the making of the net, the fishing and catching of the salmon, the gutting and fileting of the salmon, the striping of the fish, getting the Alder wood for the smoke house, making a smoldering fire in the smoke house that's not too hot, and finally watching the smoke house for hours. For what I want others to take away from this artwork is the hard work that gets put into smoked salmon and most importantly I want them to view the artwork and come up with their own thoughts and ideas of the piece."

Pachomio Feliz (Yurok, Karuk, Chumash) is an artist and active member of the Native community on UO campus.