Soft, Steady, Sure
Curated by Josie Hoffman
Curatorial Statement
Soft, Steady, Sure is a group exhibition featuring paintings, photographs, and prints that invite us to reflect on how care is extended—toward ourselves, our communities, and the earth. In a time marked by censorship and violence against vulnerable communities and ecosystems, acts of compassion—expressed through attention, presence, and consideration—become forms of resistance.
The works in this exhibition highlight the importance of conserving and sharing language, memory, and story. They explore what we might learn from others, including human and non-human relatives, through gestures that are deliberate, tender, and enduring.
Artists Isa Estrada, Gidinaty Hartman, Will Raymond, and Tasunka Opi (Wounded Horse) aka Michael Kurtz, offer thoughtful reflections on what it looks like to move through the world with softness, steadiness, and certainty.
Accessibility Statement
Soft, Steady, Sure has audio descriptions available online, and personal media players are available to check out. American Sign Language interpretation of the exhibit description is included in the display.
Interpreters are available for tours and events by request at the Center for the Visual Arts
The Center for the Visual Arts entrance is accessible via step-free access, all levels of the building can be accessed via elevator, seating is available throughout the gallery, accessible all gender bathrooms are available throughout the building, and located on both the B and I Routes of the Wausau Metro Ride Buses.
Isa Estrada
Artist Bio:
Isa Estrada is a queer, mixed-Indigenous artist (San Luis Rey Band of Mission Indians/Luiseño, Chicanx, Scandinavian, and Irish) whose work centers primarily in oil painting but spans across beadwork, glass, performance, and more. Moving between California and Minnesota throughout her life has shaped an interest in transition and relationships; exploring how place, history, and identity intersect in the body and material. Her abstract, process-based work draws from a neurodivergent way of sensing and responding to the world. Isa intuitively layers gestures, textures, and rhythms with emotional weight as exploration. Her practice is rooted in openness, creating work that gives space for conversation and connection.
Artist Statement
When I was three years old, unafraid and ready for adventure, I jumped into a swimming pool when my parents weren't looking. I could swim, but definitely not good enough for how deep it was. Luckily for me, a woman eventually pulled me out. A caring act; an inherently human one of helping when you have the ability to do so. The respect and gratefulness I hold for her stands with me. She could have done nothing, but she chose to take action. The act of care is everything. It how we all are here, by some form of grace and empathy given and received. And how do you show up for those around you without being there for yourself first? How About Another Day? examines the complex nature I have experienced of navigating choice, ciphering through needs and trying to show up for others, especially in community, when it feels like maybe I've never stopped looking up for safety.
Artwork by Isa Estrada:
How About Another Day? | 3'x4' | Oil on Canvas | 2025 | $5000
Tasunka Opi (Wounded Horse) aka Michael Kurtz:
is a Lakota Wildlife Photographer. Michael is an enrolled member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, Lower Brule, South Dakota. Michael has a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from the University of Minnesota Morris. He is a naturalist as well as a volunteer for the Minnesota Valley Wildlife Refuge (USFWS), National Park Service, and Project Coyote. Michael’s love for wildlife and tracking animals is shown through his photography.
Extensive hours and travel to capture the wildlife in their natural habitats have been spent over the last few years. Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, California, Montana and Wyoming are some of the recent States he has traveled to, including areas such as National Parks, State Parks, Bogs and Refuges. His spirit connects with the wildlife; therefore the two capture each other’s attention.
No fear, only their brave spirit. Respecting one another.
Artwork by Tasunka Opi (wounded horse) aka Michael Kurtz:
Mothers trail | 16 x 20” | photo on canvas | 2025 | NFS
Lands that never look BAD | 11 x 16” | photo on canvas | 2025 | NFS
Mirroring Mothers Mountain Ways | 8 1/2 x 11” | framed photo print | 2025 | NFS
Evening Watch Dog | 11 x 14” | framed photo print | 2025 | NFS
Perfect Pair | 8 1/2 x 11” | framed photo print | 2025 | NFS
Love Like No Otter | 9 1/2 x 11” | framed photo print | 2025 | NFS
Protected by Pines | 10 1/2 x 11” | framed photo print | 2025 | NFS
Gidinaty Hartman
Gidinatiy is Deg Xit'an Athabascan and white. They are Deg Xit’an on their mother’s side. They grew up in Wasilla, Alaska. Gidinatiy has a Bachelors of Fine Arts in printmaking from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Their BFA thesis was Dinayetr “Our Breath”: Deg Xinag Language Revitalization. Their artwork is about creating visual manifestationsof the Deg Xinag and other Native languages. They have been hired to illustrate coloring pages, logos, a card game, and a children’s book for various Native people and organizations to help promote Native life and language revitalization.
Artwork by Gidinaty Hartman:
Sits'in Tux Dhitl'donh | 14" x 14" | block print | 2024 | NFS
Nilividz | 16.25" x 16.375" | 3 layer block print | 2024 | NFS
Ginodzets | 16.375" x 16.25" | 3 layer block print | 2024 | NFS
Siq'angine | 12" x 15" | 2 layer block print | 2024 | $130
Da'ak | 15.125" x 12.125" | Intaglio | 2024 | $170
Ghałjin Da'al | 15.125" x 12.125" | Intaglio | 2024 | $170
William Raymond
Artist Statement:
Since I’ve been born, the world we live in has had division as the focal point. The fabric that makes us human has been torn so far apart by the same beings that wish to unite us. Have we forgotten? We’ve been choked for so long we forgot we were not breathing.
We are more than what is in our job description. We are more than what the media portrays. We are more than what is on our driver's license…
Myself, a young queer native person, I am water to oil, fire to ice, positive to negative in this narrative. Radical in identity, contradictory in nature, my brush, my canvas, my art is not an anecdote; it’s a continuation of reclamation. This land/place, especially for me and my people, is ours, entirely. Just as much as the common eurocentric tropes that have tried to wash our identity from this land. In contrast, this exhibition is a love letter to my people and what they are fighting for. Intersectionality in the form of caring about our history is at the heart of the show.
Curiosity for the history and experiences that came from these symbols of culture can better answer our present moment challenges. Where one painting is more radical in identity in the Herstory that the civil rights leader Marsha P Johnson brought to the modern gay liberation movement, to then pivot to an icon with her intellect and thought leadership on display–These icons rest voyeuristically in sight of a young queer couple who are nested in comfort of their own, but pray for intimacy on the outside. We all have our story of fighting for what we believe is just, and I think that's…what it means to care for the people, place, and things that make us who we are.
Artwork by William Raymond:
‘Herstory’ | 36 x 48 inch | Acrylic on Canvas, with Water-based Screen Printed Overlay | 2025 | $1,175
‘Queer’ | 36 x 48 inch | Acrylic on Canvas | 2025 | $1,105
‘Angela’s Dream’ | 36 x 48 inch | Acrylic on Canvas | 2025 | $2,225
Support for this project was provided through the Community Arts Grant program of the Community Foundation of North Central Wisconsin, with funds provided by the Wisconsin Arts Board, a state agency, the Community Foundation, and the B.A. & Esther Greenheck Foundation.
