Works by Cherokee carver Grant on display at ETSU
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Grant will be on hand to discuss his work during an artist reception on Tuesday, Jan. 19, from 4-7 p.m. in the center, located on the second level of the D.P. Culp University Center next to the atrium.
This reception is planned in conjunction with the center’s grand opening, which will also take place Tuesday, beginning with a ribbon-cutting at 10 a.m. and continuing until 2 p.m. with refreshments, tours and the university’s annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration.
Grant uses soapstone, pipestone and alabaster stone in his carvings, which sometimes take him well over 100 hours each to complete.
He lets each stone dictate what the finished product will be. “The stone tells me what’s in there,” he said. “It’ll tell me, ‘I’m a fish’ or ‘I’m a bear.’”
Grant works on 10 to 15 carvings at a time.
“I’ll never finish a piece start to finish,” he said. “I just dream of different things and I want to do different things. The concept of a Native artist is that you do Native things. I want to take the Native concept and meld it with the new modern-art style.”
Grant, following his mother’s encouragement, first began to carve with soapstone found on the banks of California’s Folsom Lake during his four-year stint in the U.S. Air Force.
When his small carvings caught the eyes of others, he entered local art shows and began winning ribbons for his work.
After leaving the Air Force, Grant became a federal police officer with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, working on reservations on the West Coast and in the Southwest.
He stopped doing his artwork for seven years, but his interest was rekindled when he was stationed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and had the opportunity to observe many artists at work.
He began to make the traditional fetishes — stone animals – of that area. His art gradually took on a life of its own and he moved on to making contemporary jewelry.
In 1995, Grant left his law enforcement career due to health issues. He returned to Cherokee, North Carolina, where he worked as a casino host for several years and shared his artistic talent with his tribe.
He attended the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 2002, and the first sculpture he entered in a competition while studying there was bought by the IAIA for its permanent collection.
Now back in Cherokee, Grant demonstrates his art to schoolchildren in his hometown and as far away as Macon, Georgia.
His work is sold at the Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual, the Medicine Man Craft Shop and his own Traditional Hands Art Gallery, all located in Cherokee.
He also created a 14-foot-tall sculpture, “Spirits of Mouse Creek,” which is on permanent display on the Cleveland/Bradley County Greenway.
ETSU’s Multicultural Center will provide students of all cultural backgrounds with educational support programs and services, a place to meet, opportunities to talk about issues that affect their lives and more.
Current operating hours are 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday. For more information, call the center at 423-439-4844.
Click here to view original web page at www.johnsoncitypress.com
January 18, 2016