Sara Bates

Bates is known for her mixed-media mandala and medicine wheel designs. She makes these out of various plant products, like pine cones, seeds, leaves, and flowers. According to Phoebe Farris, these designs "are usually laid on the floor in an 8- to 12-foot circular designs, with the center in an equal-arm cross, the arms oriented toward the four cardinal directions."^[5]

Jehanne Teilhet-Fisk and Robin Franklin Nigh, in their book Dimensions of Native America (1998), wrote that Bates's work was "uniquely contemporary in form and very traditional in spirit".^[6] Similarly, Susan C. Power has noted that Bates's contemporary style is based on "poignant elements of rich historical precedents",^[7] and the San Francisco Arts Commission has also argued that the artist's work is notable for "envelop[ing] elements of their cultural background with European artistic traditions".^[1]

• Farris, Phoebe, ed. (1999). Women Artists of Color: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook to 20th Century Artists in the Americas. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313303746.
• Power, Susan C. (2007). Art of the Cherokee: Prehistory to the Present. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press. ISBN 9780820327662.
• Rushing, W. Jackson, ed. (2013). Native American Art in the Twentieth Century: Makers, Meanings, Histories. Abingdon-on-Thames, UK: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-18003-3.
• Teilhet-Fisk, Jehanne; Nigh, Robin Franklin, eds. (1998). Dimensions of Native America: The Contact Zone. Tallahassee, FL: Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts.