RAIR | 2019-20

JORDAN ANN CRAIG | OAKLAND, CA

Jordan Ann Craig is a Northern Cheyenne artist based in the Bay Area. She earned her BFA from Dartmouth College studying Studio Art and Psychology. Craig has participated in numerous artist residency programs and exhibitions nationally and internationally. She was an artist fellow at the School for Advanced Research (SAR) and Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Craig is most recently the recipient of the Roswell Artist-in-Residence fellowship program, and currently paints in her studio in Roswell, New Mexico.

I used to be wildly shy and a little superstitious. I feared crinkled paper and olives. I thought it was bad luck to clip my fingernails before big tests or competitions. I dreaded sleeping alone or speaking on the phone. Coloring outside the lines was a big no. I was incapable of telling lies, even white ones. I have not changed too much.

My mother tells me her greatest gift is Native American blood: Northern Cheyenne and a little Zuni. She also gifted me her odd sense of humor, extreme competitiveness and tremendous resilience. We should not be here. We are.

My work keeps me up at night and gets me out of bed in the morning. I've forgotten how to sleep. I tell stories about my childhood, family, trauma, healing and the appealing mundane. Working in series, I explore subjects like the feeling of forgetting how to sleep, my relationships with my sisters, and the translation of language and dreams. The dots and shapes are my words; the stories are in their rhythm.

My work is often beautiful, masking ugly histories. I keep Indigenous textiles and pottery, Aboriginal paintings, and landscapes in my periphery when I make art. My work is the exploration of existence, time and space, woven from cultural memory and epiphany. The process is meticulous and meditative, often obsessive in mark and repetition. My culture, personality, quirks, history, and family are inevitable influences, all fundamental to how and what I create. I seek to balance the familiar and the mysterious, shared stories and secrets.

www.jordananncraig.com

Roswell Museum and Art Center

Rair exhibition • Jordan Ann Craig “Your Favorite Color is Yellow” • August 14 - September 27, 2020

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