Race, Arts and Democracy

Debra Edgerton is an Assistant Professor in the School of Art at Northern Arizona University. Her work speaks to issues concerning identity, perception, race politics, and environmental justice. She received MFAs at the San Francisco Art Institute and Vermont College in Interdisciplinary Art. In 2020 she merged arts and science to discuss water issues and sustainability in the exhibition Parched: the Art of Water in the Southwest. Her research and collaboration with leading biologists, scientists, and engineers demonstrates the importance of creative thinking in the development of a body of work. In 2021, Professor Edgerton completed a grant through the Arizona Commission on the Arts that tackled the issue of image perception for women of color related to the topics of grief and spirituality. A component to the project consisted of in-depth interviews with women from various belief systems discussing how they deal with death and loss. Two paintings in this series have garnered the High Winds Award through the American Watercolor’s International Exhibitions. One of these painting was displayed in Italy for the Fabriano in Acquarello exhibition in both Bologna and Fabriano, Italy.

Professor Edgerton received a 2022 Scholarly and Creative Activity Award Grant, a 2022 McAllister Fellowship, and received a Research Associate position with the Museum of Northern Arizona. Her work will examine fresh water ecosystems in the Colorado Plateau, their community relationships, and their correlation to human communities of color. One of her paintings is in the permanent collection of the Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Other distinctions Ms. Edgerton has received include the Provost Award for Faculty Excellence in Global Learning, Commission on the Status of Women Outstanding Achievement and Contribution to Diversity, Arizona Commission on the Arts Research and Development Grant, VanDenburg Grant, and Contemporary Forum Artist Grant.

She has received multiple honors and awards for her art highlighted by the Edgar Whitney Memorial Award, TWSA Master Status Award, and Master status through the National Watercolor Society. She spent a residency in Venice, Italy and a fellowship in Osaka, Japan. The fellowship lead to an invitation to present on the topic of race and culture at Kansai University. Diversity is key to Professor Edgerton’s scholarship. She was in a groundbreaking exhibition entitled Cinema Remixed and Reloaded: Black Women Artists and the Moving Image.

Dorrell Bradford is an American photographer who was born and raised in South Phoenix, Arizona. He documents moments in which he seeks pause and wonder. His minimalist compositions of everyday settings emphasize shape, design, and dimension, encourage viewers to find their own moments of contemplation and discovery.

Bradford graduated from Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Science in Sociology in 2012. Shortly thereafter, Bradford moved to New York City. During this time, he fostered close friendships with artists from a wide array of backgrounds and these provided him with firsthand understanding of an artist’s lifestyle and work. Access to the NYC art world was crucial and became a learning ground for Bradford.

George Welch began his studies at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York in 1961. One year later he began his apprenticeship at the Queens Litho Corp. in the Graphics Department. He continued his Graphic Arts studies at Pratt, became a full-time graphics layout artist in the Art Department and met John Chamberlain, whose work he admired. When Welch decided to leave New York, he continued his studies at Central State University in Wilberforce Ohio. There, he worked on literary magazines, the school newspaper and became editor of The Fraternity Journal. He began to focus on painting, jazz, poetry, Paris and the Harlem Renaissance. After travels around the world, Welch began a studio-gallery in Chelsea- Clinton area of Manhattan called Solution3. In 1970, He worked there with his partner and invited community artists to show their works.

George moved to Tucson, Arizona in 1971 and taught at Pima Community College for over 40 years.

Arizona native Isse Maloi has always been captivated by the street and pop art scene. His appreciation of the diversity each genre has to offer, and finding a way to bring those ideas to canvases has been a lifetime in the making. As an art enthusiast, Isse has a passion for supporting artists that inspire him. His keen eye and detailed work shows his interpretation of past and current styles. His large scale pieces evoke nostalgia with a modern perspective. Inspired by different elements and heavily based in type font, character, and iconic pop references, he sparks passion and conversation.

Jacqueline Chanda, born in Detroit, MI, is now a full time artist living in Tucson, AZ. She earned her undergraduate degree in painting and drawing from UCLA. Upon graduation she traveled to Paris, France where she obtained graduate degrees from the Sorbonne University and studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts and the Academy de Porte Royale.

Jacqueline is a representational figurative oil painter who loves to create narrative works that capture the beauty in the expressions and movements of common people doing everyday activities.

Jerome Fleming is heavily influenced by people, architecture, graffiti, music, and pop culture. His abstract and geometric portraiture finds the extraordinary in the ordinary. His love for the human face and his attention to fine details drives him to create with an out-of-the-box-perspective. He works in a number of mediums ranging from traditional to digital. He seeks to reimagine the world around me one line, shape, paint stroke, or pixel at a time.

From her birthplace of Chicago, through 20 years in Atlanta, GA, and Goodyear, AZ, Patricia Bohannon has left an indelible mark on the various art communities of which she’s been a part. Patricia was introduced to the world of art in elementary school by a neighbor and honed that interest later in High School. She knew one day she’d be a painter and sculptor, and was successful creating with paints, glass, fiber clay, ceramic, metal, and mixed media over the years. She graduated with high honors from Chicago State University in 1987. Over her astonishing 60-year career, she participated in countless individual and group exhibitions, taught art in the Chicago Public School system and the Fulton County Board of Education and received numerous honors and awards. She was celebrated as 2022’s Extraordinary Woman of Color during Black History Month and featured on ABC15’s Sonoran Living. Patricia Bohannon used her gift to inspire and lift the social consciousness of her viewers: “What sustains me as I create, is my passion and desire to connect with people and share through visual expression, historical information on the unfamiliar.” Patricia passed away in July 2023. Her work is still on display at Sedona Art Center.

Born and raised in Phoenix Arizona, Shoreigh Williams is known for an elegantly morphed, dream-like style. Mostly using Micron and acrylic, her experimentation with the scribble texture has bled its way into a permanent style. Previously stating “When in doubt, draw it out.” Influences include her mother Cassandra Hansen, mentor Antoinette Cauley, Travis Rice, and Ivan Lopez.