By SCOTT MCKIE B.P.
One Feather Asst. Editor
Lenoir-Rhyne University students participated in an exhibit at the Hickory Museum of Art recently entitled “The Art of Profession” which featured students in the Advanced Studio Practices, and a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) was one of those featured. Tishara Sneed, an EBCI tribal member who also has Dine’ (Navajo) heritage, displayed three ceramic masks for the exhibit.
In her artist statement for the exhibit, she wrote in part, “The creation of these masks allows me to explore and connect to my culture. The process of making these masks also gives me the opportunity to contribute new dialogue that reflects on my culture, such as the importance of stickball. My goal is to continue this series and expand it with the creation of the seven clan masks. Through my art, I seek to celebrate the traditions of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and Dine’.”
Tishara Sneed, an EBCI tribal member who also has Dine’ (Navajo) heritage, displayed three ceramic masks for an exhibit held recently at the Hickory Museum of Art entitled “The Art of Profession”. (Lenoir/Rhyne University photo)
She told the One Feather, “I’ve never done anything like that before and things like that make me kind of get out of my shell because I am a really shy person. So, something like that made me think, ‘I kind of want to do that again’. It was really fun. And, also, people who are not from Cherokee had never seen it so that gave me a chance to tell them what it was and explain. And tell them, ‘if you want to see more like that you should visit Cherokee. There are a lot of artists out there that have the same type of work as I do.’”
Sneed, a visual arts major at Lenoir-Rhyne, is set to graduate this May. “It (the exhibit) could be whatever we wanted it to be. At the time, we were starting our senior portfolios. So, our senior portfolio could be on whatever you wanted it to be. I wanted mine to reflect more on my culture, so I did it on something to do with Cherokee.”
When asked what drew her to the idea of masks, she commented, “I made a bunch of masks my junior year. They started out really small, so I ended up giving them all out to family members. So, then I thought for my senior portfolio I wanted to do bigger ones. I wanted to make more face-size.
I’ve always really loved the wood carvings of the masks. I just liked how they do it – they sit there and carve it. I used to work at the Museum (of the Cherokee People) my junior year of high school. I would see some of the people that would display how to make them, and I would watch them sit there and carve the masks. I just thought, ‘whoa, that’s really cool’.”
Sneed is happy that her art helps to bridge gaps. On the public’s reception to her masks in the exhibit, she said, “They thought I was doing some kind of African masks. Some of them just thought I was doing this for fun. They said, ‘Oh, these are pretty cool. I’ve never seen something like this’. And they were asking me a bunch of questions like ‘what kind of mask is this?’ I told them I’m from Cherokee. I’m Cherokee and Navajo so I kind of look back on some of those things just to get my ideas. They were like, ’that’s really cool. That’s really great.’”
She takes inspiration from other EBCI artists. “With Cherokee artists, I like to look at Michelle Long. I really love her polymer clay masks. I love them. And then John Henry Gloyne’s…his detailed paint masks, the paintings that he does, I just always look at them because they’re so detailed.”
In a press release on the exhibit, Claire Pope, M.A., M.F.A., assistant art professor, visual art program coordinator, and instructor for the Advanced Studio Practices class, commented, “It’s rare to have a museum show early in an artist’s career. This platform allows students to express their unique visual voices to a broader audience. It’s about helping students realize who they are as artists and supporting them as they evolve.”
Sneed was joined in the exhibit by classmates Meredith Cecil, Connie Dale, and Vivien Becker Peralta.
