At’ééd (Diné girl) imagines her own growth. At the center of the composition, her hands move in a delicate, almost choreographed pose - like flowers beginning to open. Where her face would be, the green base of a Tsáʼásziʼ (yucca) root takes its place, connecting her identity to the plants and landscape around her.

For Diné, yucca has long been part of everyday life and traditional knowledge. The root can be used to create a natural cleansing lather for washing hair, connecting the plant to practices of care, beauty, and self-maintenance passed through generations. In this work, the yucca becomes more than a botanical form - it becomes a connection to cultural memory and the knowledge carried through the body.

Her hands become a gesture of ambition: a visualization of what she might become and how she might bloom. They suggest flowers opening, but also the act of imagining a future for herself. Rather than depicting growth as something that happens to her, she imagines it as something she can create herself.

The work is intentionally simple. The yucca, the hands, and the gesture carry the image. Together they create a portrait of a young woman in the early stages of becoming - rooted in cultural memory while reaching toward what she might grow into.