JVK

JVK are the initials of my great great grandfather John Vernon Kemp. The Kemp family moved to Montana in 1903 from Wisconsin. The family was given land to homestead near Judith Gap, Montana that became the John Vernon Kemp ranch, using the JVK brand for their horses (left shoulder) and cattle (right rib). As the “ranch” was likely a very small operation, John Vernon was a laborer; he worked for the government doing irrigation work and some road laying work in Yellowstone Park. His son, my great grandfather Harry Kemp started work as a ‘gandy dancer’ (a laborer who would align the railroad tracks) for the Great Northern Railroad and worked his way up to be a Section Foreman (the person overseeing the maintenance of the tracks.

These are the origins of the Kemp side of my family I was told by my father, as told to him from his parents, grandparents etc, as well as historical data that he came across while doing further research on the family. In addition, we were lucky to have quite a few photographs of Kemp family, as well as the Greene family (my Jewish ancestors - also early settlers in Montana - that my great grandmother Lotte, originally named Sari was one).

In addition to the family stories that were shared with me, what I have most often noted when reflecting on the memories of my childhood growing up in Montana, is the pervasiveness of the iconography of the ‘American West’, and specifically that of the cowboy. Images of rugged men with their code of stoic endurance, self-reliance, loyalty, courage, and camaraderie, on horseback riding across the plains, wrangling cattle and spitting chew were everywhere - from the paintings of Charles M. Russell, Frederick Remington, and Will James to the landscape itself. Yet, as a young girl I was most drawn to the accouterments of the cowboy - the beautiful ornamentation and floral designs that adorned their trappings and presented such a delicate contrast to the rough and tough image of the wrangler.

However, what was/is often missing in these histories - oral, written, and visual - is the brutal truth of what it means to be a descendent of the early pioneers in Montana and throughout the West (the Wilson side of my family were part of the Mormon pioneers that migrated in the mid-1800’s to Utah and then Idaho). All of the branches on my father’s side were part of the settler colonizer movement of the Americas driven by the idea of ‘Manifest Destiny’. It’s an ugly and painful history to be part of and to know the devastating impact it has had on indigenous peoples throughout the Americas and the Pacific islands, as well as the settler colonial State of Israel and the resulting apartheid. However, it is worse not to acknowledge this truth and to deny it through a revisionist history and all that goes with it - the monuments, the glorification of the genocide committed - and still being committed, the memorializing of supposed “great men,” the stories and visual works told through the lens of those whose ignorance and denial perpetuates pain and suffering, and through ‘holidays’ such as Columbus Day and Thanksgiving.

I took over the JVK brand from my father after his death in 2008 and subsequently had an actual branding iron made to use on suede pieces adorned with decorative elements that represent the beauty in our natural and fabricated worlds. The brand and the works I’ve made with it for family members have become a reminder of our family’s roots and all that is included in that history - the pain and suffering, as well as the prosperity and livelihoods that have all come through this trajectory. It’s a visual reminder that we must change the path of destruction that has been created through the mentality of white supremacy and that we must make reparations for the damage that has been done through the colonial settler mindset and that continues through the disrespect and destruction to Indigenous peoples and lands.

In addition to the human suffering, I’m acutely aware of the suffering of the animals who are deemed ‘livestock” and treated as assets/objects to be owned, branded, and killed. The JVK brand has come to also be a reminder of the pain inflicted on animals by and for humans, and the need to shift our consciousness to better serve and protect all living beings from unnecessary suffering.

Life is filled with contradictions and complexities that almost everyone today faces on a daily basis - e.g. having a smart phones can be perceived as a luxury, yet, it’s also become a necessity for survival for many in which the ability to not have a smart phone has become the luxury. Additionally, our ability to use technology, is dependent on the pain and suffering of many who risk their lives to collect the minerals needed and who work long, grueling hours to manufacture our devices for little to no pay. Without mindful change, we are leading the way to mass extinction.