Velma Kee Craig | Textile Work
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The first piece is titled “Peaceful Transition.” The second is “Sound and Creation,” based on a Noise music track by Ryan Dennison. (Below is an audio performance by Ryan Dennison.)
“Sound and Creation” is the weaving with the audio tape. The audio tape is very thin, the bands within the DNA helix stretched between the spirals. I used it because I was at the time very into Creation stories and the similarities of some of them across cultures, in that a sound or voice was the spark for the initial creation of life or the Universe.
The Bible has the voice of God speaking the phrase, “Let there be light.” In Navajo, we named ourselves and then the components of our world, and only then did they exist.
— Velma Kee Craig
About Velma Kee Craig
Velma Kee Craig (Diné) is Naasht’eezhi Tabaha (Zuni Edgewater) and born for Todich’ii’nii (Bitter Water). Her maternal and paternal grandfathers are Tl’izilani (Many Goats) and Kinya’aanii (Towering House). Velma is from Tonalea, Arizona, and is the oldest of five children. Her parents are Laverne Marks and Larry Kee. Velma grew up on the Navajo reservation and now resides in Mesa, Arizona with her family.
Velma is a textile artist, a writer of poetry and short screenplays, and a teaching artist. Velma’s weavings have been shown as part of exhibitions such as Connective Tissue: New Approaches to Fiber in Contemporary Native Art; Color Riot! How Color Changed Navajo Textiles; WOVEN: The Art of Contemporary Native Weaving; and WEAVE: construct. code. connect.