Gerald Clarke will tell you he’s not a decorative artist. His art speaks to its audience in a more declarative manner.

“I have something to say. I’m not just decorating a room,” says Clarke, a Cahuilla artist in Anza whose work often confronts the Native American identity and its interaction with mainstream culture and politics.

However, Clarke has to admit that the mural he recently completed inside the Agua Caliente Resort Casino Spa in Rancho Mirage is “attractive”…

But what pleases Clarke the most and why he accepted the invitation from the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians to create “Cahuilla Realms” was the audience it would reach every day.