Celebration of Women’s History Month, Reception and Panel Discussion

News

Please join us on Thursday, March 28 at 2:00 PM in the Besse Theater for panel discussion and reception to Celebrate Women’s History Month. Participants in the panel lecture are Claire Moore, April Lindala and Kristine Granger.

Bay College announces the exhibition Stories of Self, artwork by Claire Moore. Moore’s exhibition opens Wednesday, March 6, 2019 in the Hartwig Gallery. Her exhibition is in conjunction with Bay College’s- Celebration of Women’s History Month.

Artist Statement: Claire Moore

Stories of Self- A Period Piece

A Period Piece, an on-going feminist art series, depicts the inner strength I’ve cultivated as a woman. Carved into the shape of a wild rose, the block represents the consistency of life in its patterns and cycles. The thorns are hardships, the blooms are triumphs, and the buds are new possibilities. Before I hand pull each relief print, I ink the block with my own menstrual blood. Representing the creativity that’s within me, the blood varies each cycle. Much like the creative process, my period can be painful, even irritating, but is proof I am healthy, I am changing, I am living!

A Period Piece represents empowerment. Like many women, I never really looked forward to menstruating each month. After involving my art, however, I have a renewed respect for my body’s functionality and for my own tenuous connection to the earth and all of its ever-progressing patterns.

Stories of Self

The first portrait in my Stories of Self series wasn’t actually created by me—but it does depict me. A young Claire was sketched on the back of a Detroit Chinese restaurant menu, by my incredibly talented Aunt Cher. I remember watching her draw with pure awe; how was she able to do that? Draw so effortlessly, yet create something so exact? I was most impressed with how well my excitement had been translated onto the paper.

Though only the tender age of seven at the time, I already knew art was my passion. Aunt Cher had just shown me where that passion could take me. Thus, began my life-long fascination with drawing and painting the portraits of those around me, of trying to capture their personalities, their emotions...who they are and not just how they appear. Stories of Self includes images of my friends, family, and numerous self-portraits, portrayed in a variety of media. These portraits have been created over the course of the last two years and share the visual history of my relationships with the subjects, as well as the progression of my abilities and expansion of my creative experimentation.

The exhibition of her work can be viewed in the Hartwig Gallery from March 6 – April 16 2019.

April Lindala, To Be a Clan Mother 

Bio

April E. Lindala (Grand River Six Nations) is the director of the Northern Michigan University Center for Native American Studies. Professor Lindala was the driving force behind the creation of the first baccalaureate degree in Native American Studies in the State of Michigan as well as the new Native American Community Services associate degree. Professor Lindala was the primary author and was the Lead Principal Investigator of a National Science Foundation INCLUDES pilot project award for the Indigenous Women Working within the Sciences project. She was the primary author and is the co-Principal Investigator of an Office of Victims of Crime pilot project award – one of only three in the nation – for the Serving Native Survivors Circle project; a collaboration with the NMU Department of Social Work. Lindala served as a project director and co-editor for The Decolonizing Diet Project Cookbook and the anthology, Voice on the Water: Great Lakes Native America Now. Lindala’s original creative writings are featured in numerous anthologies and online media outlets. Lindala is the host and writer of the weekly Anishinaabe Radio News program on Public Radio 90, WNMU-FM. Lindala is also a peer reviewer for the Higher Learning Commission.

Kristine Granger, “a little bit…” Besse Gallery.

Artist Statement

The exhibition, “a little bit…", is a small retrospective of selected works.

When I was a child and would visit my grandparents, I was always intrigued with the bookshelf behind my grandpa’s chair. The shelves held books such as “The World Encyclopedia”; big pictures and words for such a small child. I would go through all of these books, but my favorites were the ones that held the human form in transparent pages. These pages could be lifted to show the skeleton, muscles and the separate organs, all of the layers of the human form. It fascinated me that they broke down the body into layers and that you could simply lift the pages to discover another layer, one that was just as important as the first for the function and completion of the human. I saw this as a greater picture, and this concept of layering has intrigued me throughout my life. I struggled growing up about the notion of what made me and where I belonged. I struggled to accept all the facets of myself. I struggled to understand that events, whether positive or negative, had to be accepted and seen as creating my existence. It is a theory that I have continually nurtured and dissected. The layer of living: the construction and destruction of self that is necessary for growth. This is a process that is articulated for me best through the creation of my work".

Bio

Kristine Granger is Art Faculty and Fine Arts Coordinator for Bay de Noc Community College in Escanaba MI. She is an interdisciplinary artist who investigates memory. Granger’s artwork invites the viewer to reflect on the indelible recollections that define our own realities. She earned her Master of Fine Arts degree and Women’s Study Certificate from Stony Brook University, NY in 2010. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, focusing in Photography, from University of Oregon-Eugene, School of Architecture and Allied Arts in 2005. Granger also received a Certificate of Completion from The Paris Fashion Institute in Paris France in 1986 and an Associates of Science in Fashion Design from Plaza Three Academy in Phoenix Arizona in 1985. Granger is the current recipient of 4-week Artist-in-Residence at Chateau d’Orquevaux in Orquevaux, France. She was also awarded the Denis Diderot grant and one of her artworks will become part of their permanent art collection.

Reception and Panel Discussion, Vision and Voice to coincide with Bay College’s Celebration of Women’s History Month, Thursday, March 28 at 2:00 PM in the Besse Theater. For more information contact Kristine Granger.