Blanket Songs stands as an immersive testament to the intersection of tradition and innovation, weaving together a rich tapestry of media to narrate a deeply personal story rooted in indigenous heritage. Drawing inspiration from the cultural practices of Comanche and Kiowa ancestry, this installation is an amalgamation of traditional techniques – screen printing, lithography, assemblage, neon, audio, video, and textiles – harmoniously converging to honor the legacy of the artist’s grandparents.

John Hitchcock is a Wisconsin-based artist and musician of Comanche, Kiowa, and Northern European descent. Raised in Oklahoma on Comanche Tribal lands, he draws on his personal history to create works that fuse frenetic abstraction with layered allusions to indigenous traditions. He earned his MFA in printmaking and photography at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, and received his BFA from Cameron University, Lawton, Oklahoma.

He has been the recipient of The Robert Rauschenberg Foundation Artistic Innovation and Collaboration grant, New York; Jerome Foundation Grant, Minnesota; and the Creative Arts Award and Emily Mead Baldwin Award in the Creative Arts at the University of Wisconsin. He is currently an Artist and the Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he teaches screen printing, relief cut, and installation art.