Jim Fenzel
Artist Statement
For over one hundred years in the United States and Canada, government and church-run schools carried out a mission to assimilate Native American children and save them by “killing the Indian in the child.” Operated by trusted organizations, some schools propagandized their “successes,” but all hid their abuses; many, too, hid the bodies of children who died in their care. Only recently did the ongoing discovery of unmarked graves shine a light on the darker history of Residential Schools. My work for this show looks at the Native experience not just at the schools but how the removal of children from their culture impacted generations. The schools existed in grey areas of trust and secrecy, and the lives of the survivors and their descendants continue under the heavy shadows of those institutions.
Artist Bio
A former English teacher, Jim Fenzel takes some rules (“omit needless words”) and philosophies (such as Hemingway’s “iceberg theory” of omission) that he taught in class and applies them to his compositions with a straightforward style. Fenzel earned a Master’s of Architecture from Pratt Institute in 2011. His work has appeared in galleries and juried shows throughout New England and upstate New York.