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On a rare snowy day in Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico, artist Rose B. Simpson assembles a maquette for a new public sculpture. The three small figures are models for the 12 concrete sculptures that stand nearly 11 feet tall at the Field Farm meadow in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Gazing forward with soft expressions and eyes that are hollowed through the back of their heads, the sculptures embody ancestors watching over the landscape. Simpson’s work stems from these moments of observation and connections to the past, emphasizing the processes of making and becoming in which we discover new ways of being and of healing. Working quickly and intuitively in her studio, the artist shapes her clay sculptures by hand using a technique she developed called “slap-slab.” Each of her clay sculptures is embedded with fingerprints and other evidence of the artist’s hand, leaving traces of the act of making that produced the work. “I’m trying to reveal our deep truth,” says Simpson, “and that deep truth is process.”

The history, culture, and land of Santa Clara Pueblo are highly influential in the artist’s practice. Simpson’s ancestors have lived in Santa Clara Pueblo for millennia. On a walk through a nearby mountain range, the artist and her daughter use footholds made centuries ago, and find other signs of the bodies that once shaped the environment. Given the knowledge and heritage of her ancestors, Simpson finds ways of continuing their shared narrative. Building upon the skills passed down to her by her mother, Roxanne Swentzell, and her great-grandmother, Rose Naranjo, both artists and ceramicists, she creates and explores inventive ways of making work, understanding herself and her home, and continuing her lineage.

Living near the “lowrider capital of the world,” Española, the artist became inspired by the region’s car culture. Searching for empowerment, Simpson began work on a lowrider of her own called Maria (2014), which is both a sculpture and a functioning car. Painted with a black-on-black design, Maria references the forms used in traditional pottery of the region. Maria Martinez, a Tewa potter who developed the black-on-black style, is the car’s namesake. In Simpson’s first processional performance, what she calls a “Transformance,” Maria drove loudly alongside the metal and leather-clad performers. However, in a 2022 “Transformance,” the artist decided to omit Maria from the performance, exploring new modes of empowerment and ways of taking up space. Moving between worlds and modes of being is not new for Simpson, and these spaces of in-betweenness have become most generative for her. “When you can’t ever be comfortable in one place, the discomfort can create an incredible environment for investigation,” she reflects. “You kind of have to fall back and close your eyes, and hope that where you land is exactly the place you need to be.”