User:Mnooj/Kelly Church

Background[ edit]
Kelly Church, a fifth-generation basket maker, was born in 1967. She grew up in southwestern Michigan. Her mother is English and Irish, and her father is Odawa and Ojibwe. Church 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).

Church has completed degrees in Fine Arts and Painting & Sculpture at the Institute of American Indian Studies, Western Michigan University, and the University of Michigan.

Basketry[ edit]
Church practices traditional Anishinabe process of creating a black ash basket from start to finish harvesting 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.

Her baskets range from the utilitarian fishing creels, market baskets, and bark baskets to traditional, rectangular wedding baskets and whimsical strawberry baskets. 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. Her work reflects on the potential extinction of the black ash due to the infestation of the emerald ash borer, which is estimated to kill 99% of the ash trees in the United States.

Birchbark biting[ edit]
Church is one of the few birchbark biters active today. This precontact 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 subjects. Her designs incorporate storytelling as well as serving as templates for quillwork and beadwork designs.

Painting[ edit]
Inspired by the Woodlands style of painting created by Norval Morrisseau (Anishinaabe, also called ‘lead’ or ‘medicine’ painting ), Church 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[ edit]
Kelly Church has won many awards for her basketry, including the Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Award 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, with funding and support from the National Museum of the American Indian. More recently, Church also received the National Museum of the American Indian Artist Leadership Program Award (2010), as well as the Michigan Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Award (2011).

Church was awarded best of basketry classification by the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts at the Santa Fe Indian Market in 2016. The Smithsonian Institution awarded her a Native Scholars Fellowship in 2016. In addition, she has served as Eiteljorg Artist in Residence, and is a recipient of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation's National Artist Fellowship.

The National Endowment for the Arts named Church as one of its 2018 National Heritage Fellows. The citation noted her teaching and mentorship work, which "goes beyond the artistic practice to include discussions in biochemistry, forest management, invasive pest control, traditional language skills, and deep personal memories of family history."

Exhibits[ edit]

 * 7 Artists, 7 Teachings, (2009), Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, Evanston, Illinois, United States. Artist & curator.
 * Before and after the Horizon: Anishinaabe Artists of the Great Lakes, (2014), National Museum of the American Indian, New York City, New York, United States.
 * Gifts of Art, (2015), University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. With Nancy Bulkley.
 * Hearts of our People: Native Women Artists, (2019), Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Frist Museum, Nashville; Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.; Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States.

References