Kristina Maldonado Bad Hand Responds...

CAW: Which Zane Grey's works (books and/or movies) is your work engaging with?

Kristina: My series engages most directly with the myth‑making found across Zane Grey’s Western novels particularly Riders of the Purple Sage, The Vanishing American, and the many film adaptations that followed. These works helped cement harmful tropes: the “vanishing Indian,” the empty frontier, and the West as a stage for white heroism. Rather than responding to a single text, the series confronts the entire visual and narrative ecosystem through movie posters that still echo his portrayals. By reclaiming the Western movie‑poster format, the work speaks back to Grey’s legacy at the level of spectacle, challenging the images that once erased Indigenous presence and replacing them with illuminated counter‑stories.

How is your artistic style incorporated into your work?

My artistic style is rooted in Indigenous reclamation, bold graphic storytelling, and a commitment to visual sovereignty. In this series, that style manifests through: Cinematic composition backlighting, dynamic poses, and layered landscapes that echo Hollywood aesthetics while subverting their narratives. Relational imagery relatives, landforms, and cultural signifiers placed at the center of the frame, refusing the trope of Indigenous people as scenery or obstacle. LED illumination, transforming each poster into a glowing monument, a billboard for truth‑telling rather than frontier fantasy. The style is both a reclamation and a refusal, it uses the visual language of Western spectacle to expose its distortions and to uplift Indigenous futurity.

Are there specific issues or challenges within Native Communities that you are hoping to address and bring attention to?

Yes, this series brings attention to several interconnected issues Erasure in media- the persistent absence or misrepresentation of Indigenous people in film, tourism, and national narratives. Tourism‑driven fantasies- the way parks, monuments, and Western tourism rely on sanitized stories that obscure violence, displacement, and ongoing Indigenous presence. Stereotype normalization- how harmful tropes become embedded not only in mainstream culture but within Native households through nostalgic media. Narrative sovereignty- the need for Indigenous people to define our own stories, aesthetics, and representations.The series insists that confronting these issues is not about dwelling in harm, it is about clearing space for truth, creativity, and self‑determined futures.

Does Grey’s work evoke nostalgia or conflict for you, and does your work engage that tension?

Absolutely. Like many Native people, I grew up surrounded by media that portrayed Indigenous characters through mythic tropes, the noble savage, the mystical guide, the vanishing figure. Films like The Indian in the Cupboard were staples of childhood, and as a comic and Marvel fan I was constantly confronted by Native American characters that I loved, even though they relied heavily on stereotypes. That tension of loving something nostalgic, while recognizing its harm, is familiar. Grey’s work evokes a similar duality: it is part of the cultural landscape we inherited, even as it misrepresented us. My series engages that emotional complexity directly. By reclaiming the Western poster format, I’m not only critiquing Grey’s narratives. I’m acknowledging how deeply they permeated American culture, including Native households. The work creates space to hold both recognition and refusal: we can acknowledge what shaped us while choosing to reshape it.