Earlier in 2022, Thomas “Breeze” Marcus moved back to the Salt River Pima Community northeast of Phoenix. Coming from a suburb closer to Downtown Phoenix, Marcus remembers those first nights listening to the dogs in his more rural surroundings. Thomas “Breeze” Marcus (Akimel/Tohono O’odham)at the opening of his newest exhibition at Pueblo Grande Museum & Archaeological Park in Phoenix.

“They would start howling at night. Basically anytime a car drove by you’d hear barks and howls. It’s just a part of life there in the community,” he says, adding that after several nights his perception of what he was hearing was slowly changing. “You start to realize that every bark or howl was probably because [of] a police car or ambulance. It just felt like the dogs were alerting each other, or even grieving for something bad that might be happening. Those howls suddenly weren’t howls—they were something more.”

In Darkness They Receive Wisdom, oil on canvas, 24 x 36"

Those thoughts stayed with him and eventually found their way into the title of his newest exhibition, When Rez Dogs Howl, now open at Pueblo Grande Museum & Archaeological Park in Phoenix. The exhibition features 18 works, including nine on canvas and smaller object pieces, including rusted spray cans and even gourds designed with his meticulous maze-like line forms. 

Lights Siren, oil on canvas, 24 x 36"

One of the gourds has deep connections with his own life. It is carved open like a pumpkin, and the inside is filled with broken pieces of beer bottles. “It’s meant to reflect past trauma and what other people go through in their life,” Marcus says. “It’s really about breaking the cycle. I’ve been sober for almost three years, and it’s been a really good thing in my life. I’ve found I’m more truthful with myself when I’m sober, which is important. So I took all those past traumas from our path and gently, mindfully, put them in the gourd. In a way it’s a resolve, a way of letting go of what happens to us.” 

Duality, oil on canvas, 30 x 40"

Other pieces relate to O’Odham creation stories and myths. The painting In Darkness They Receive Wisdom shows a turquoise bridge that cuts through the night. On the floating platform, covered completely with Marcus’ graffiti-like designs, are three coyotes waiting to step through a portal-like prism of magnificent light. In the distance are the flashing radio antenna from South Mountain in Phoenix and the figure of the deity Jewed Makai, or the Earth Medicine Man. “This piece is about the road that is yet to come—the future. We don’t know what will happen, but we know we’re on a trajectory that we can’t always see. It’s about hardships,” Marcus says. “The portal is about the mystery and the coyotes are sort of O’Odham tricksters. We revere them but they are also a bit mischievous. There are dark roads ahead, but there are all kinds of possibilities in life. We are not always able to step through them, but we must make that journey.”

When Rez Dogs Howl will remain on view through May 14, 2023.

Through May 14, 2023
When Rez Dogs Howl
Pueblo Grande Museum & Archaeological Park
4619 E. Washington Street, Phoenix, AZ 85034
(602) 495-0901, www.pueblogrande.com

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