Kelly Church

Kelly Church

Black ash baby basket with sweetgrass turtle charm, by Kelly Church
Born Kelly Jean Church
1967
Michigan, United States
Nationality Odawa-Ojibwe
Education Family, self-taught
AFA Institute of American Indian Arts
BFA University of Michigan
Known for Basket weaving, painting, Mazinibaganjigan
Movement Woodlands style
Awards Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Award, Southwestern Association for Indian Arts Fellowship
Website http://www.woodlandarts.com/

Kelly Jean Church (Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians) is an award-winning black ash basket weaver, Woodlands style painter, birch bark biter, and educator.

Background

Kelly Church, a fifth-generation basket weaver, was born in 1967. She grew up in southwestern Michigan. Her mother is English and Irish, and her father is Odawa and Ojibwe. Kelly studied the Odawa language from her paternal grandmother and learned black ash basketry from her father, Bill Church, and cousin, John Pigeon. She in turn has taught her daughter, Cherish Parrish (Gun Lake Band Potawatomi).[1]

Church returned to school in later life, earning an Associate of Fine Arts degree from the Institute of American Indian Arts in 2006 and Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Michigan in 2008.[2]

Artwork

Basketry

Kelly harvests her own trees with her family in swampy areas of rural Michigan. Preparing the materials takes far longer than the weaving. She removes the bark from the felled log, and then splits apart the growth rings into finer and finer splints for basketry. The splints are dyed and soaked before weaving.[3]

Her baskets range from the utilitarian fishing creels, market baskets, and bark baskets to traditional, rectangular wedding baskets and whimsical strawberry baskets.[4] She also creates experimental baskets, with materials such as copper, photographs, and plastic window blinds – the latter a warning of what the future might look like without black ash trees.

Birch bark biting

Kelly is one of fewer than a dozen birch bark biters. This traditional Great Lakes art form involves biting designs with one's eyeteeth into folded sheet of young paper birch bark. The bit areas turn a dark brown that contrasts with the pale surface of the bark. Her designs are both abstract and representational, featuring turtles, dragonflies, and other designs.[4]

Painting

Inspired by the Woodlands style of painting created by Norval Morrisseau, Kelly paints characters from her tribes' oral histories, such as Nanabozho, or the wildlife native to Michigan, such as sandhill cranes. She typically works in acrylic on canvas and uses contrasting colors for maximum optical brilliance.

Honors and projects

Kelly has won many awards for her basketry, including the Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Award[1] and the 2008 Southwestern Association for Indian Arts Fellowship. In 2006 and 2008, she organized a symposium about tactics to save the black ash tree from the emerald ash borer,[1] with funding and support from the National Museum of the American Indian.

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Kelly Church (Grand Traverse Band of Chippewa and Ottawa), Hopkins, Michigan. Carriers of Culture: Living Native Basket Traditions. 31 Dec 2006 (retrieved 17 March 2009)
  2. Resume, The Art of Kelly Church and Cherish Parrish. 2009 (retrieved 16 December 2012)
  3. "Art Market at National Museum of the American Indian". Smithsonian Magazine. 5 Dec 2008 (retrieved 17 March 2009)
  4. 1 2 Programs and Activities: Kelly Church. Great Lakes Folk Festival. 2008 (retrieved 17 March 2009)

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 4/20/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.