Meet 2022-2024 RedLine Resident Artist JayCee Beyale!

JayCee Beyale grew up in the Four Corners area of New Mexico and received his BFA in printmaking from the University of New Mexico. He is now based in Westminster, Colorado, where he continues his work as a founding member of the Creative Nations Arts Collective for Indigenous Artists based at the Dairy Arts Center in Boulder.

In addition to co-curating exhibitions, producing events (including an annual Indigenous Arts Fair), Beyale frequently travels to collaborate with fellow artists and commissioning organizations throughout the Southwest on murals and other projects.

Beyale’s connection to his aboriginal culture is grounded in his artistic practice. His personal identity, background and pride in who he is and where he comes from have always been at the heart of his work.

Beyale’s career as an artist began with his discovery of street art and graffiti. Using a combination of spray paints and acrylics, he celebrates the fusion of technology with Indigenous culture, primarily in paintings and murals.

Beyale’s work is deeply influenced by music, while the combination of traditional Indigenous ideologies with his Buddhist practice is equally important to his artmaking, through which he strives to illuminate core concepts and convictions: the Laws of Movement, Unity, and Impermanence.

Watch the video of JayCee in his studio at RedLine to learn more about him and his practice!

"My name is JayCee Beyale, live here in Denver, Colorado. I'm more of a muralist than a painter, just working mostly in mural work, when the weather is warmer, obviously, here in Colorado, but I spend a lot of time painting as well—large scale canvases, and my work generally ranges from portraitures to animals and such, but I'm really kind of honing in on the meaning and purpose of these different beings and persons within my culture as a Navajo person. And not specifically that, but also to Native American culture overall, as well.

"In the studio, I work primarily with red acrylic paint and golden liquid flow is my favorite, and use a lot of spray paint for murals as well, alongside house paint. I try to keep it to a minimum in the studio by just working directly with acrylic paints to avoid contaminating the environment, but also just really like the textures and the richness of acrylic paint on canvas.

"What made me want to apply was just kind of discovering RedLine itself and then hearing a lot more about it and its purpose within the community. And I've never really had a studio and realizing RedLine was offering studio space, I just took a chance at it and just really went for it, and so I'm really grateful to be here. And I guess being that this space is so large and I have the ability to expand in that direction of going even bigger is awesome, but also just knowing there's people to feed off of in their creative process.

"For me, it's about also venturing into developing a method and a way to work as an assemblage or a sculptural artist, and taking these ideas that I have and expand on them a little bit further, so that way my voice becomes a little bit louder in the arts.

"I've always had these ideas of really creating these assemblage sculptural pieces, and I'm really looking forward to that, and being that there are people here that can be resources. But also just having the space to do that and not have to clean up, and just be like, 'Okay, I'm going to make this and try to make it happen.'"

Meet Resident Artist Autumn T. Thomas

Autumn is an interdisciplinary artist currently working in wood sculpture.

Her work challenges the boundaries of visual literacy by transforming wood into soft, twisting forms, mimicking the endurance required to thrive amidst the oppression and marginalization of women of color.

Watch the video of Autumn in her RedLine studio to learn more about her and her practice >