Something to Do with Being Held

2019 - Painting (Painting)

101.6 x 101.6 cm

Jordan Ann Craig

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Something To Do With Being Held by Jordan Ann Craig is inspired by a Cheyenne bead bag. Intrigued by the two shades of blue used for the source object (a deep dusty blue and a bold vivid cobalt blue) the artist replicated these shades in her painting. Craig then added in her own colors, including the pink-orange hues, to achieve a bold but soft quality about the work, as she states that she intended the work to convey vulnerability. A rectangle with a broad, horizontal line through it is the Cheyenne symbol for coyote tracks. Utilizing this symbol on a large scale, and translating a small three-dimensional artifact into a large painting, Craig transforms the original source object into one that engages with the history of modernism, as well as Indigenous culture. The resulting image not only evinces the patterns of the bead bag, but also the history of minimalism. Whereas the original object has all the imperfections of the handmade, the final composition, created using digital aids, has an intentionally impersonal appearance, even though it is hand-painted. Pattern is important to Craig, as it is a way of creating and communicating new stories about historical Indigenous art. The pattern on the bead bag, once translated to a large canvas, is more redolent of a blanket; a protective object to counterbalance the vulnerable sensibility of the work.

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Jordan Ann Craig is a Northern Cheyenne artist born and raised in the Bay Area; she invests her work with a strong interest in Indigenous culture and the history of its destruction by settlers. Working in series, the artist tells eclectic stories of forgetting how to sleep, her relationships with her sisters, the life of an unlucky ladybug, and the translation of language and dreams. Craig makes drawings of Indigenous objects and then digitally enhances the drawings by creating designs that help predict the final outcome of the work. Much of the creative process occurs through technology; the actual painting becomes a matter of execution and precision, offering a contemporary perspective in seeing and understanding Indigenous design. Craig writes, “my work is often beautiful, masking ugly histories. I keep Indigenous textiles, beads, and pottery, Aboriginal paintings, and landscapes in my periphery when I make art.” The artist’s process is meticulous and meditative, often obsessive in mark and repetition.

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Colors:

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• painting.n.02
• cheyenne.n.03
• art.n.01
• form.n.03
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• minimalism.n.01