Accomplished artist and CCC alum Jerrel Singer paints landscapes and portraits of his home on the Navajo Nation. Courtesy photo.
FLAGSTAFF — The deep reds, oranges, purples and blues evoke a taste of dust, a dry feeling, a sense of expansiveness.
The art of Coconino Community College alum Jerrel Singer sings a heartfelt song of his Navajo Nation home of Gray Mountain and Cameron and what home means to him.
“Mostly, they’re places people don’t see much of the time because they’re literally driving by to get somewhere else,” Singer says.
His powerful work and the work of other CCC students and faculty are on display in the Comet Art Gallery, which recently returned home to the CCC Lone Tree campus after an extended exhibition at the Aspen Place. And even though the COVID-19 pandemic has closed the CCC campuses to public visitation, the gallery will still make its way out to the world digitally, with virtual exhibitions via social media, said Alan Petersen, CCC Fine Arts faculty.
“I wanted to continue the programming that we had begun at the Comet Gallery when it was in the Aspen Place,” Petersen says.
He adds that although the public won’t get a face-to-face interaction with the art, students, staff and faculty at CCC will have the opportunity to enjoy art in the Lone Tree Commons to brighten up the space and give it more life and vitality while the majority of students are learning remotely this semester.
Petersen says he chose Singer’s work to show how student and faculty work together.
“It’s our little community,” Petersen says. “In addition to the work of current students and faculty, we’re also featuring the work of former students, like Jerrel, and the work of some of the well-known artists in Flagstaff.”
For instance, the famed watercolor work of Roberta Rogers was featured at the gallery. Rogers formerly taught watercolor painting at CCC for several years. Upcoming featured artists include David Christiana, Darcy Falk, Leancy Rupert and Randall Wilson.
Singer says his paintings remind him of places where he grew up, riding horses with his father, chasing down cattle. Now living in cities, he misses the big, open spaces.
He’s been painting for the last 15 years.
“I didn’t want to do it at first,” Singer says. “I was an Engineering student.”
But, his father became sick, and Singer says he quit school to take care of his father. During that time, he picked up a pen and paper and started drawing. Art became important for him.
“Art was always there,” Singer says. “It helped with my father’s passing. It provided me with a goal, with a purpose to create.”
Even though he has rather famous uncles who are artists – Shonto Begay, Baje Whitethorne Sr., Ed Singer – he decided to attend CCC to study art.
“I needed to have direction on really how to paint,” Singer says. “I needed that formal education to get things started. I didn’t want to rely on family.”
Now, he regularly has work showing throughout the Colorado Plateau and beyond. His work is currently scheduled for the Pueblo Indian Art Center in Albuquerque, N.M., and he has work showing at Fort Collins College in Durango, Colo. Additionally, he’s going to be on the PBS special, “Art in the 48,” which will be airing in November.
Singer is also a member of Art of the People, which is an organization dedicated to bringing Native American art to a wider public, and to show Native Americans of all ages that they, too, can aspire to become artists.
“It’s the act of creation,” Singer says. “Something becomes out of nothing, with you, as creator, only limited by your imagination.”
Petersen said that the Comet Art Gallery will be rotating the art on a regular basis, and the current exhibit will be up until mid-November. For more information about the Comet Art Gallery exhibit, visit https://www.coconino.edu/art-gallery