Black Butterfly: Arts and Culture from Brooklyn to the Bay and Beyond

Black Butterfly Has Moved!

2011-07-01T14:29:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers of Black Butterfly,

This blog has officially migrated! Somehow all of Blogger's new bells and whistles (which make writing and posting way easier for this analog girl) missed Black Butterfly. So I've switched over to http://blackbutterflyarts.blogspot.com/ , and I hope you will continue to follow there. All the earlier posts are there, and be on the lookout for some new stuff about artistic adventures in Oakland!
You may have noticed that this blog has been on a bit of a hiatus as of late. Aside from cranking out a bunch of new work over the past year (I'll be posting some recent projects on the new blog soon) I've also been a bi-weekly arts and culture contributor for Her Blueprint: Art & Ideas for Women Everywhere since January. Check out some of my features as well as great stuff from a host of other women writing about a wide array of topics.
You can also "Like" my art page on Facebook and check me out on Tumblr, where I celebrate my endless obsession with color.
Summer is here, I hope everyone is savoring the sun, the great outdoors, and most importantly, taking some time to enjoy what the arts have to offer in your community. I'll see you over here!

Wishing you endless inspiration,
Marissa

A Creative Life: The Art of L. Frank Manriquez

2010-12-27T12:17:00.000-08:00

The Bowl Twists by L. Frank Manriquez

Sometimes in life we are lucky to come across people who make us stop and think, and appreciate our surroundings, history, and experiences on a deeper level. Artist L. Frank Manriquez is just such a person. Her strength and creativity extends to so many realms, from visual arts and storytelling, to singing, weaving, gardening, and preserving the rich history of California's Native Americans.
Condor Time I by L. Frank Manriquez

L. Frank is from Southern California and belongs to the Tongva and Ajachmem tribes. A tribal scholar and self-described "decolonizationist", she is a Board Member of the California Indian Basketweavers Association (which does awesome stuff like making sure that parents of adopted Indian children receive the handwoven baskets babies were traditionally carried in), and co-founder of Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival. She has a wonderful way of making folklore and history come to life with her engaging stories and extensive knowledge. Her colorful paintings have been featured in galleries and museums nationally and internationally. This Is Yo Luck by L. Frank Manriquez

Manriquez also cultivates an extensive garden at her Sonoma County home. She lives on nearly a half acre of land in Santa Rosa, and has three gardens: one for growing basket weaving materials, herbs, and medicinal plants, another for vegetables, and a cactus garden. She grows corn, butternut squash, radishes, onions, lettuce, acorns, and watermelons. The garden also produces many fruits, including blueberries, Santa Rosa plums, raspberries, and blackberries. "Gardening makes it necessary to value a season's passing," she says. "[It's] not something somebody tells you; it is something that you learn for yourself. It is not as technical as people think. It is an emotional relationship, it's all about how you feel." L. Frank is passionate about sustainable living, and builds straw bale and waddle and cob buildings.

One of the things L. Frank is best known for is her "Acorn Soup" cartoon, which appears in News From Native California. The cartoon features the adventures of Coyote, who is the mischievous trickster of Native American folklore. Coyote is also the subject of many of L. Frank's paintings. Female Coyote by L. Frank Manriquez

Stop the Dance by L. Frank Manriquez

Many of Manriquez's paintings are of animals, and contain symbols of nature and spirit. A core theme in her work is respect for the land and those we share it with, and showing appreciation for the animals, plants, and people whose homeland we are guests of wherever we go.
Not to give the cockroach a bad name by L. Frank Manriquez

In addition to her works on canvas, L. Frank paints murals, creates jewelry, photography, and weavings. The mixed media installation in the above photo reflects her wry sense of humor. Most recently she was part of a workshop at this year's Bioneers Conference focusing on "native efforts to revitalize indigenous watercraft and navigation systems as a way to restore indigenous knowledge and address climate disruption."
L. Frank Manriquez is a powerful force for good. She has done so much to preserve Native American history and culture, and constantly expresses her deep knowledge in new and different ways. She is an inspiring example of how we can preserve and share our traditions.

For more about L. Frank and her work:
http://crowsonthenose.com/home.html
http://www.nativeland.org

Otherworldly Creativity: Karine Fleurima

2010-10-16T15:02:00.000-07:00

So many words come to mind when describing multimedia artist Karine Fleurima: soulful, surreal, transformational, fluid, muse...I could go on. The Haitian-born artist creates a hybrid sound and visual experience: If Gal Costa, Grace Jones, and Bjork had a musical love child, it would be Karine.
Her latest offering is "An AfroFuturistic One Womyn Show" entitled AIN'T NO RESPECT (for the Soulsinger) which has its debut at FiveMyles Gallery in Brooklyn next Saturday. The story goes a little something like this:

After several years of singing on planet Earth and getting no respect, soulsinger Xyana (zhy-ana) decides to leave Earth and explore the solar system for other performance possibilities. After being lost in space for 20 years, she finally lands on an unknown planet in the outer regions of the solar system. Join her as she embarks upon her epic journey to find other beings on this NuPlanet and discover the different realms that force her to confront the realities of her new home and her true nature... Catch Karine Fleurima's AIN'T NO RESPECT (for the Soulsinger) at FiveMyles Gallery, 558 St. John's Place in Brooklyn, New York. Saturday October 23rd at 8pm and Sunday October 24th at 2pm.
For more about Karine and her body of work, check out her website:
http://www.karinefleurima.comPhotography: Carlos Ramirez
Styling: Afua Addo
Makeup: Alsarah Abunama-Elgadi

Deep Soul: Roberta Flack

2010-07-07T16:27:00.000-07:00

Many singers have beautiful and strong voices. But then there are those who can sweep the listener away, the ones who can make you feel every single note, and their words feel etched upon your soul. You close your eyes and it's not just a song on a record, it's your man walking out the door for the last time, it's you sitting in a dimly-lit smoky nightclub being killed softly with someone's song.

Roberta Flack's music is like a rolling thunderstorm. It kind of creeps up on you at first, and then suddenly it surrounds you, enveloping you in its powerful depth and grace, and crackling with electric energy.

Born Roberta Cleopatra Flack, the singer grew up as a member of a musical family in Black Mountain, North Carolina. She started playing piano at age 9 and studying music at Howard University (where she earned her Bachelor's degree in music) at age 15. She was discovered playing at a D.C. nightclub by piano great Les McCann, who presented her debut album 'First Take', and wrote that "Her voice touched, tapped, trapped, and kicked every emotion I've ever known. I laughed, cried, and screamed for more..." in its liner notes.
Roberta went on to have a string of Grammy-award winning hits such as 'The First Time (Ever I Saw Your Face)' and 'Killing Me Softly', and while those amazing singles speak to her incredible talent as an artist, if you just listen to her greatest hits you are not getting the whole story. My favorite Roberta Flack songs are those unsung gems that never made it on the radio. I have almost all of her albums, and each one in its entirety is a masterpiece. When it comes to Ms. Flack, it's best to go off the beaten path with incredible songs like 'I Told Jesus', 'Feelin' That Glow', and her gorgeous string-filled version of the folk classic 'Suzanne.' And of course the entire 'Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway' album of duets is EPIC.

Funk and Soul from Coast to Coast

2010-06-24T11:36:00.000-07:00

Okay folks, I hereby declare July Funk and Soul Month on both coasts! We're gonna kick it off early because the festivities are already getting started. And watch this space throughout July as we continue the Black Butterfly Funk and Soulabration. So what's happening in July?

For all you Brooklyn funk fans, George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic and The Ohio Players (!!!!) will take the stage July 12th for a FREE Concert at Wingate Park in Brooklyn, park of Wingate's Martin Luther King Jr. Free Concert Series. I have a feeling this show is gonna be EPIC. For more info. check out their website:

http://www.brooklyn.com/modules.php?name=Wingate_Field

Meanwhile, Guerilla Cafe continues to add soul to the Left Coast...

Guerilla's game was already tight, but they just keep stepping it up. Over the past year this Berkeley, California favorite has extended its hours, going from the prime spot for coffee and brunch (Waffle of the Day, anyone?) to including an evening menu with scrumptious appetizer plates, wine, and sangria. And they are always throwing fun events (get on their mailing list so you don't miss out). This month the house of art, coffee, and vibes debuts Bay Area Funk & Soul Legends, an art exhibit celebrating the anniversary of Ubiquity Records, and the reissue of music by their Bay Area funk and soul artists on the Luv N' Haight label.

The exhibit will feature the work and inspiration of Darondo, Eugene Blacknell, Sugarpie Desanto, and Twilight.

Opening reception is Friday, June 25th from 5-9pm and the show will be up until August 29th, 2010 with special events featuring DJ sets and guest appearances by the musicians throughout the summer. For more info, check out:

http://www.guerillacafe.com/

Camille Rose Garcia: Sweet and Sour Storyteller

2010-06-03T11:55:00.000-07:00

Camille Rose Garcia tells stories in which sticky sweet characters maneuver through monstrous worlds of greed, temptation, and destruction. She uses pink swans and smiling cupcakes to tackle issues like addiction, environmental destruction, and corporate greed.
Each of Garcia's paintings has an accompanying story or theme. If you have the chance to catch one of her gallery shows, you'll see the paintings are usually displayed with a beautifully lettered painted piece outlining the story for that particular body of work. The story behind the Dreamtime Escape Plan series (featured above) was "Created a short time after the giant tsunami that wreaked havoc on parts of Asia. Disaster is an everyday occurrence in this flooded world, the characters take pills, sleep a lot, and plan elaborate escapes from the quagmires implding around them."
Camille's paintings have a balance exhibits her incredible skill as an artist. Her pieces are elaborately layered and have a real sense of depth and texture while also being "super flat", so they look like the pages of a storybook.
Camille grew up in Orange County, California, and was very much influenced by living in close to Disneyland, the "happiest place on earth", while witnessing darker things happening just outside Disney's walls.

Visiting one of Camille's exhibits is literally like stepping into another world. There are huge sculptural pieces surrounded by theatrical looking sets, and plush dolls that scale the walls. In addition to her amazing artist books, she also has a series of limited edition vinyl toys.
Camille Rose Garcia holds a wonderfully distorted mirror up to our society, and tells stories we all know in a new and different kind of way. She blends the sweet with the sour to create a mix that is intoxicating and irresistible.

To see more of Camille Rose Garcia's work, visit her website
http://www.camillerosegarcia.com

Spoken Truth: The Art of Talia Taylor

2010-04-17T18:42:00.000-07:00

It is hard to put into words what a treat it is to witness Talia Monique Taylor aka Klassiq bless the mic. Her poetry washes over you like colorful waves, the beauty and light of her message is powerful, her delivery intoxicating. Talia steps to the stage, grabs her audience, and draws us upward to the heavens.

The Oakland, California based poetess and emcee has been writing and performing for over 10 years, and has performed alongside artists like Janelle Monae, Mystik, and Ursula Rucker. One pf her most recent performances was at Momma's Hip Hop Kitchen in the Bronx.

As of late, Klassiq has been rapping, transforming her poetry into lyrics and laying down tracks with beats by Bay Area producers Gavin Grant, Nick James, and Bicasso. Talia has talent for days, and even sings the hooks on some of her tracks.
photo by Ian Davis

A graduate of the Creative Writing and Africana Studies programs at San Francisco State University, Talia has also started a scholarship fund, the FLOW Scholarship, to assist students interested in traveling abroad, an experience that enriched her own life.

We'll definitely be hearing a lot more from this talented wordsmith.

Here are some ways to keep up with Talia's offerings:

Hear her tracks on myspace music: http://www.myspace.com/taliawashere
Follow her on twitter: http://twitter.com/eyekneeduhname
Her blog: http://since84.wordpress.com/
Her youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/Klassiq84

The World of Mallory Michelle Dover

2010-03-07T18:23:00.000-08:00

Mallory Michelle Dover is a Kentucky-based artist who addresses themes ranging from black women's relationships with their hair to domestic violence with vibrant color and texture. Dover, who is currently an M.F.A. candidate at the University of Kentucky, says her work "is rooted in cultural acceptance, perceptions and identity. " Mallory has literally created her own universe, a language of elaborate shapes and symbols that are both eye-catching and thought-provoking. When she isn't teaching, Dover spends just about every waking moment hard at work in her studio, as she gears up for her M.F.A. Thesis exhibition, Strange Malaise, on April 2nd.

What was the inspiration behind your most recent body of work, The Angry Hair Series? What did you discover in the process of making and exhibiting this work?
My inspiration behind The Angry Hair Series came from personal experiences with relaxed and natural hair, along with the experiences of other women of African decent. At age 21, after 14 years of relaxing my naturally thick, curly hair, I cut it all off and began wearing it natural. I was angry with all the women in my life that encouraged relaxed hair and discouraged natural hair. After awhile, I realized that even with my hair in its natural state, I felt that similar need to always do something to it. In the Angry Hair Series, I include women with natural and relaxed hair. I also include expressions that don't look so angry at all to comment on how we often mask our true emotions because of social constructs.
While making and exhibiting this work, I discovered that the issue of Black hair is multi-layered. When older women see these paintings (i.e. my Gramma), there is a completely different discussion that occurs than when people in younger generations view them. With them, there is a stance that has been taking against natural hair that runs deeper than vanity, it is a means of protection. With these works, I leave traces of my actual thought process because of my desire to get people to talk about what is actually driving the need to permanently alter the natural state of their hair.
What was the inspiration for your extensive crocheted installations? What has the process of creating them been like?
My crochet installations are inspired by issues of domestic violence and family dynamics. The process is monotonous, yet comforting. Tedious and uncomfortable, yet familiar and necessary. Crochet for this project is ideal, to me, because it serves as an umbrella for emotions that run deep within the dynamics of family.
The wigs you create are colorful and very tactile. What inspired you to create wigs "no one would actually wear in real life"?
The Wigs are a direct result of the Angry Hair Series, haha. I was doing public projects and interviewing so many people about hair--people of all races, both male and female and realized that no one was satisfied with the hair they were born with. I had people draw their favorite hairstyle and not one person ever drew something the resembled what they already had. So these wigs were created by drawing from the imagination and asking the question, "How would you like to see yourself?"

What artist has been particularly influential to you and why?
There are so many artists that I enjoy, but I would say Chakaia Booker has been one of the most influential. I admired and met her when I was in undergrad and she is just amazing. The way she dresses is uniquely and is unapologetically her. I am also always drawn to artists that think outside of the box. I love materials that are clever, so automatically I am wooed by what she does with tires. Her sculptures have such presence. You have to see them in person-photos just don't do justice.You explore various aspects of African American culture in your work. What places and people have you drawn inspiration from?
I am very interested in African American history and varying family dynamics within this and other cultures. I draw inspiration from my grandmother and the older people in my family. I love listening to old stories-it's like a free history course. I also observe my own relationships with people-not limited to people of African decent-and am very much inspired.

You are currently working towards your MFA in Arts Education. Has working on art with young people influence your practice in any way? And what made you want to go into arts education?
I am currently a MFA candidate in studio art, although there was a period of time that I was going to get an additional degree (Masters in Arts Education). I am no longer pursuing that at this time but working with young people is still very important to me because these people need someone to help nourish their dreams. Working with young people has inevitably influenced my practice--I want to create work that inspires, encourages, informs, and transforms.

What is the legacy you hope to leave as an artist?
I want to make great art that opens the minds and hearts of all people. I want to make art that touches lives. That's the legacy I intend to leave as an artist.

Mallory Michelle Dover's MFA Thesis exhibition, Strange Malaise, opens April 2nd, 2010 at the Tuska Center of Contemporary Art on the University of Kentucky campus in Lexington. The reception is from 5-7:30 pm

For more on Mallory's work, check out her blog: http://mallorydover.blogspot.com/

Karen Seneferu Presents: Techno-Kisi

2010-02-28T12:59:00.000-08:00

A few months ago I shared an interview with artist Karen Seneferu, who was then installing her latest work Techno-kisi, at the Skirball Museum in Los Angeles, California. Seneferu's piece got a lot of positive feedback, and was recently the subject of an interview for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's Open Space blog, which you can read here:
http://blog.sfmoma.org/2010/02/techno-kisi-interview-with-artist-karen-seneferu/#more-9489

Check out some video of the installation here:

And here is the artist's statement on Techno-kisi

Karen Seneferu – Techno-kisi, 2009
http://anideacalledtomorrow.wordpress.com/category/karen-seneferu-and-kwahuumba/
Technology has become the primary vehicle to navigate multiple discourses. But to some cultures, a future embedded in technology alone is not possible without engaging multiple mediums of communication for a sustainable future. Thus, collaboration will be at the center of inclusive change.

The ancient force and form of the Nkisi is to protect. Out of the Congo Basin in Central Africa, the Nkisi literally means sacred medicine; the Nkisi takes a variety of forms from sculpture to container to a charm. Seneferu’s piece Techno-kisi is the first of its kind for the entire piece is made up of charms symbolic of individual community members in need of healing while multi-media, the center of the power force, protects the community.

The technology symbolizes the belly. In this case, the console created by Buglabs shows a slide presentation of people Kwahuumba and Seneferu interviewed on film, named after the exhibition: An Idea Called Tomorrow. In collaborating with Buglabs, Seneferu attempts to unhook the seat of power, by enclosing the images of those who are often times outside of it.

In a third element of the project, Kwahuumba and Seneferu recorded interviews of people from a broad cross-section of society to answer the questions “what is a sustainable future” and “who and how is it determined?” They were interested in looking at historically excluded communities who have been deterred from participating in the dialogue and the actions needed for change. They interviewed a wide range of activists both prominent to the world of the Green Movement, such as Majora Carter, an environmental justice advocate, who promotes green-collar jobs as a route out of poverty to Tyrone Stevenson, aka “Scraper Bike King,” a youth from East Oakland California who created a mobility craze that has gained worldwide fame by incorporating art and an eco-green philosophy to change his community. There are other diverse individuals who are just as relevant. What they all have in common is that they point out that in order for us to have a sustainable future, that “everyone on the planet must be seen as having a particular value that should be shared with the world.”

Techno-Kisi is on display as part of the exhibition An Idea Called Tomorrow until March 7th, 2010. http://www.skirball.org

Performance: grunge*quest movement 10

2010-02-08T17:25:00.000-08:00

The atmosphere in Jon Delorme's playspace one cold February night was one of hushed awe. Audience members descended the staircase into a darkened room to find the floor scattered with "Kellyisms": purple glitter, a mirror framed in gold, candles, safety pins, honey, panties. A technicolor image of gumballs was projected on the back wall, casting a soft glow over a host of instruments: a drum set, an accordion, a keyboard, guitars. Tonight would be a special performance for many reasons: it was the 10th movement in Kelly Shaw Willman's remarkable grunge*quest series, her first live collaboration with avant-garde musician Jon Delorme, and the end of her New York residency. Willman will return home to Iowa for some quiet and space, along with a lot more bang for her buck.
The 10th installment of grunge*quest was delicate and magical in sound and imagery. Kelly utilized her voice, chanting her desire for "a quiet year." Delorme moved between a tabletop steel guitar and a Turkish banjo, building a sound that went from pixie dust to a thrashing crescendo. Kelly moved ritualistically through the space, cutting apples, placing panties at the feet of an audience member, spreading glitter. grunge*quest 10 was a perfect finale to the Brooklyn-based phase of this series of movements. It was the work of a woman coming into her own, and sharing that transformational journey. Her creative presence will truly be missed here, but I'm certain we'll be seeing much more of this energetically rising artist. Here is the full video of Kelly and Jon's performance:

grunge*quest movement 10 from Marissa Arterberry on Vimeo.

photos by Arhia Kohlmoos
Kelly Shaw Willman's blog:http://www.kellyshawwillman.blogspot.com
Jon Delorme's blog: http://www.jondelorme.blogspot.com

Marissa's Visual Diary: African Inspiration

2010-01-22T15:44:00.000-08:00

Africa is the root of so much creativity which has spread throughout the world. Whether it's music, visual art, or fashion, you can find the presence of African aesthetics. I study a lot of images to feed my own creativity, and I wanted to share some of what I have in my "visual diary" that comes from Africa. The majority of these images were taken in two locations: The main library in Philadelphia had a wonderful exhibit of photography and sculpture over the summer that I was fortunate to get a look at, along with the Brooklyn Museum's permanent collection of African art. My work is heavily influenced by African imagery and sculpture, and I create facial markings, jewelry, and symbols for the characters I paint based on images such as these. Often it's not easy for African Americans to pinpoint what country in Africa they came from (although we do know that most descendants of those brought to the US during slavery have roots in West Africa), and my response to this has been to draw on the continent's rich cultural history and use my imagination to tell the story of my ancestors, powerful survivors and creators. My purpose is also to infuse the current phase of our journey with magic. Because as Mos Def says, we are living "life in marvelous times." I also must give honorable mention to Harlem's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. What a resource! They have a photo archive where you can go in and request photos from a particular group, era, or topic, and they'll bring out boxes and boxes of archived material. You can lierally spend a day there just looking and soaking up visual information. I recently spent time there viewing photos from Bahia in the 1800s.

Now Showing: Marvelous Color

2010-01-10T11:25:00.000-08:00

The Caribbean Cultural Center and African Diasporan Institute in Manhattan's latest exhibit is Marvelous Color, a tribute to Black superheroes of the Marvel Comics universe. The exhibition includes artwork from various comics series from the 1960s to the present. In addition to comic book sketches, covers, and illustrations, each wall was hand painted with these superheroes in larger-than-life size. The exhibition was produced by Somos Arte with the help of Marvel's editor-in-chief, Joe Quesada (who also created The Santerians, a team of superheroes based on the Orishas of the Santeria religion: www.santerians.com), and includes some of Marvel's most popular superheroes, such as Storm from the X-Men and The Black Panther, along with other heroes who had their heyday in the 60s and 70s, such as Luke Cage and The Falcon.

My personal favorite ( I was a HUGE X-Men comic book fan growing up) was the wall devoted to Storm, particularly the illustrations of her in that fabulous 1970s costume (she looks part superhero, part Bond girl!) Marvelous Color is on display until February 26th at CCCADI, 408 West 58th Street in New York City. For more information, log onto:
http://www.cccadi.org
http://www.marvelouscolor.com/

Now Showing: Live To Change Something Through Art

2010-01-04T16:21:00.001-08:00

There's an arts renaissance happening in Brooklyn. The lens of the New York art world, typically trained on Manhattan and its established artists, museums, and galleries, is shifting its focus towards Brooklyn, a borough fast becoming hotbed of emerging artists, galleries, and alternative spaces. Coup d' etat Arts Collective has captured much of this lively energy in their latest show, Live To Change Something Through Art. The show, featuring a variety of Brooklyn-based emerging talent, was curated by Brownsville native Nakeisha Gumbs, and drew quite a crowd to the Skylight Gallery at Restoration Plaza in the heart of Bed-Stuy for its November opening reception. The show was sponsored by Puma (some of the artists even received pairs of complimentary sneakers) along with local Brooklyn businesses Karen's Body Beautiful and Kush.

Says Coup d'etat co-founder Rasu Jilani, "the voices of urban image-makers have too often been dismissed as inarticulate and underexposed. This exhibition was developed to help my fellow creators build positive awareness of their work while exposing our youth to the many vehicles of self-expression."

The works chosen for the show reflect a variety of perspectives, from the deeply personal, to political, and even spiritual. Live To Change Something Through Art is on display until January 31st at Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Plaza, 1368 Fulton Street, 3rd floor, Brooklyn, New York. Skylight Gallery hours: Wednesday through Friday 11am-6pm, Saturdays 1pm-6pm

The Art of Sesame Street

2009-12-26T21:16:00.000-08:00

Many of us grew up on Sesame Street. It was how we learned about colors, numbers, and letters. For me, Sesame Street became a major creative influence, and I often revisit its imagery for inspiration. The Brooklyn Public Library is celebrating Sesame Street's 40th Anniversary with an exhibition of artwork from yesteryear and now. I love this illustration (above) from the 1970s, with Bob sitting on the stoop (how Brooklyn is that?) and Big Bird looked so different!
Sesame Street introduced young audience to everyone from Richard Pryor to Buffy Sainte-Marie. Its multiracial cast (and multicolored puppets) taught kids about getting along with people from all backgrounds, and respect for different cultures. Here are some wonderful examples:

Sesame Street was a mirror of the times, delving into folk music with the likes of Steve Zuckerman, and some segments were downright psychedelic, like pinball with the Pointer Sisters.

Sesame Street: A Celebration of 40 Years of Life on the Street is on display until Feb. 21st, 2010. Check it out and take a colorful stroll down memory lane. Log onto: http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/events/sesamestreet/ for more info

Updates: Work in progress!

2009-12-26T20:14:00.000-08:00

As the year draws quickly to a close, I have a lot to reflect on, and a lot to be thankful for. January will mark Black Butterfly's one year anniversary, and so much has changed since then! I started this blog not long after the inauguration of Barack Obama, after having moved back home from New York at the height of the economic recession. I was unemployed, broke, and feeling kind of useless, but at the same time feeling so much optimism and hope for the future. After all I had just witnessed history unfold with the election of this nation's first Black president. How could one not be inspired to follow their dreams, to do more and be more? It was in that spirit that Black Butterfly was created. When not in search of employment, I spent my time researching artists at the local library in San Jose (The Martin Luther King Jr. library has a stunning collection of artists' books), painting, and taking photographs and writing about artists I love and shows that inspired me. Black Butterfly has truly been a labor of love, and I'm thankful for every reader, every comment (they literally make my day), and that yall take the time to read this blog ;)
That said, the past few weeks I've been going a little nuts because computer failure kept me from making my updates. I'm happy to say the problem has been fixed, so expect a flurry of posts this week (I usually try to space them out a bit), there's so much I want to share!
The photo above is a watercolor painting I'm working on as part of an installation piece, and she's resting on my favorite heirloom quilt. More pictures of the finished project coming soon!
I think 2009 was a year that tested us all. And if that's the case, I hope that you learned something about yourself and were able to tap into your own resilient spirit in the process. I hope it's caused you to think outside the box, chase your dreams, and delve deeper into your passions, goals, and reconsider what's important to you. I hope that 2010 brings the realization of your wildest dreams, and alignment with your vision and purpose. Thank you for reading.

Now Showing: An Idea Called Tomorrow

2009-11-18T19:48:00.000-08:00

You may remember artist Karen Seneferu from her inspiring interview featured on Black Butterfly a few months ago. Well since then she has been hard at work literally taking her Techno-Kisi concept to new heights. The life-size figure, this one done in warm shades of red and yellow (and with new interviews broadcasting from its belly), is on display at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles as part of their latest exhibition An Idea Called Tomorrow. This is one piece that is definitely worth seeing and experiencing in person.
An Idea Called Tomorrow runs from November 19th to March 10th. Log onto their website for more info. :
http://www.skirball.org/index.php

Kelly Shaw Willman: grunge*quest, Movement 7

2009-10-12T14:09:00.000-07:00

Performance artist Kelly Shaw Willman's grunge*quest continues, with the most recent glittery installment, Movement 7, taking place within her apartment in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The performance space (Kelly's shared living room) was dimly lit, her audience encircled on plush couches and chairs, surrounding a sculptural installation. The installation evoked feelings of intimacy and girlhood with toys, candy sprinkles, and brightly colored panties carefully arranged. There were three sets of small shelves in the space, containing an array of small spheres covered in glitter, and panties bundled into more sculptural pieces hanging from the ceiling. The piece that most struck my fancy was a brightly colored toy bunny head sitting in a bowl of sprinkles. As the performance began, Kelly started two tape players, one playing recordings of a conversation between several people, and the other playing what seemed to be the sounds of some kind of airplane or engine.
Willman moved through the space doused in flour (or baby powder?), performing a series of almost ritualistic actions. She was a woman stirring her own pot, making her own magic right before our eyes. At one point, she sliced open some apples and filled them with crimson glitter. They looked as though they were oozing a beautiful blood.
At another point, Kelly poured a bowl of honey over her head, most likely as an ode to Oshun, an African deity of love, sensuality and fertility. Oshun's energy was a perfect addition to this very womanly performance piece. And one can't help but make connections between the use of apples in the space and the temptation of Eve in the garden of Eden.
Further into the performance, Kelly picked up the various pairs of panties that were on the floor, and placed them at the feet or on the laps of her audience members, along with a small bottle of blue water. Then she walked into the bathroom. Everyone followed her in, and there we witnessed the grand finale, which was Willman sitting in a bathtub full of blue water, covered in red glitter.

Audience members took the bottles full of blue water they'd been given earlier and added it to the bath water. It was almost like a communal baptism of some sort. There she sat peacefully in the tub, as sounds from one of the tape recorders squawked and sputtered in the background. I was reminded of a scene in Ousmane Sembene's 1966 noir film Black Girl, where a French Family's Senegalese maid commits suicide and is found in the bathtub, killing herself in anguish over being mistreated and feeling out of place in a strange new land. Kelly is indeed far from home, but her bathtub scene marked a rebirth of sorts. I cannot wait to see what this remarkable young artist offers up next.

Performance: Aisha Tandiwe Bell

2009-09-12T11:17:00.000-07:00

Bear with me folks. I'm going to try really hard to describe what defies description. Artist Aisha Tandiwe Bell's performance at Brooklyn's Corridor Gallery was mesmerizing and soul-stirring. I've never seen anything like it.
Aisha is a multimedia artist. She works in performance, sculpture, and painting, so I arrived at Corridor not knowing what to expect. I found a space that was alive with her installations of Black girls gracing the walls.
When viewing Bell's visual works, I was struck by the skilled rendering of her figures. The Black girls were drawn with sullen expressions on their faces, and had hollow white ceramic faces attached to their heads. I loved the fact that the ceramic faces cast shadows onto the girls' heads.
Other figures incorporated fabric and more of her beautiful sculptural pieces. The repetition of faces and forms, with some emerging out of bodies suggest connections to ancestry. And for people of African descent, ancestry can be fraught with pain and mysteries to unravel. Bell's characters appear to carry around ghostly weights. Aisha says her work "is about our individual burdens, insecurities, and self-prescribed traps, walls, armor, masks, stereotypes, that we wear/carry out of habit, comfort, fear, sloth, and shame. However, my work also explores our ability to transform, resist and escape these traps." In the center of the room was a tin tub filled with blue water and surrounded by rows of ceramic faces. When the performance began, she handed each member of the audience 2 faces and instructed us to bang them together in a particular rhythm. As we beat the faces together, Aisha donned a white skirt and top, and a belt with the ceramic faces hanging from it. She began to wind her waist in time to the beat, and the faces began to clatter and crash together. The sound it created was otherworldly. Bell danced until the faces broke in pieces and fell to the floor. When all the faces had broken and fallen off, Aisha got into the tin tub and began bathing herself in the blue water. By this time the energy in the room was so heightened that the rhythm the audience had started beating with the faces sped up to a feverish pace.
The performance and installation were so powerful. It was the finale of Bell's month-long residency at Corridor Gallery, and what a finish it was! Aisha Tandiwe Bell is definitely an artist to watch. Expect to see much more of her here on Black Butterfly. For more on Bell and her work, check out her website:
http://www.superhueman.com

And for more info. on the Corridor Gallery:
http://www.corridorgallerybrooklyn.org

And check out this amazing video of one of Aisha's past performances:

Brooklyn Loves Michael Jackson

2009-08-30T08:01:00.000-07:00

As the whole world probably knows by now, yesterday would have been Michael Jackson's 51st Birthday. Folks in New York were doing it big, there were parties galore, MJ flash mobs, and all kinds of events. And Spike Lee put together a very special gathering at Prospect Park in Brooklyn. The buzz on Spike Lee's big free MJ dance party in the park had been growing for weeks. The event was even moved from Fort Greene Park to the much larger Prospect Park because about 10,000 people were expected to show up. The music was provided by DJ Spinna, and he dug deep in the crates, pulling out gems like "Enjoy Yourself", "Got To Be There", as well as anthems like "Thriller" and "Beat It".

The huge gathering was not only peaceful but entirely positive. People of all ages sang and danced together, with the lyrics to some of Jackson's songs projected on big jumbo-trons so everybody could sing along. There were also cameramen who moved throughout the crowd and projected wonderful shots of people dancing, and folks in costume. One highlight was a little body who couldn't have been more than four (he was tiny!) jumped out in a fedora and white glove, and started moonwalking, hit all of Michael's signature moves, and then he went up on his toes! The crowd went nuts.
Legendary director Spike Lee also doubled as hype man, commanding the crowd to sing and put their hands in the air. He, Tracy Morgan, and Taraji P. Henson lead the crowd through rounds of "Mama se mama sa mama koo sa" on "Wanna Be Starting Something." The Reverend Al Sharpton also spoke about how Michael broke down barriers and changed the face of music, and tied Michael Jackson's legacy to that of Ted Kennedy's and other pioneers. He also reminded us that this weekend marked 4 years since the Hurricane Katrina disaster, and it meant we still had a long way to go. DJ Spinna played a perfect mix of dance tunes and ballads, and gets props for busting out sister Rebbie Jackson's classic hit "Centipede". He knows his stuff.

A huge part of what made this event so positive and special was the wonderful people of Brooklyn. There is truly no place like BK, and folks bring a communal vibe and high spirits whenever they come together. The energy of the crowd was electric, and also felt like one big neighborhood block party. We woke up to steady rainfall in New York that morning, and at first I worried the event would get rained out. Everyone showed up in their boots and armed with umbrellas just in case. But the rain held throughout the event, and towards the end as we all sang "Man In The Mirror", the sun came out. It was beautiful. Here are some of my favorite shots of people in the crowd. Props to the guy who got real creative and showed up as Mars, Spike Lee's character in She's Gotta Have It. And the brotha knew how to pose. Fierce!! Thank you Michael Jackson for all the wonderful music, and thank you Spike Lee for throwing one helluva party in his honor.

Artist In Depth: Karen Seneferu

2009-08-09T20:24:00.000-07:00

Karen Seneferu is a mixed media artist based in Richmond, California. Her ancestral-inspired creations have made her one of the Bay Area's artistic treasures. Read on for insight into her creative mind.

How long have you been creating art? What first sparked your interest in it?

I have been making art and recognized as an artist for about 5 years. I am a late bloomer, but I had been told by a number of people, at least 15 years ago, that I was an artist. It took me 10 years to acknowledge myself as one, but since then I have received immediate recognition in the galleries and just recently museums.

How does your community influence your creativity?

I make art with them in mind, that is my immediate community, the people I work on behalf of, family, and those I live with are on my mind when I create, yeah even other artists, I am creating with them in mind. I want them to be cleansed, then struck, then compelled. I want them to see how beautiful they are. That is at the core of my work to reveal the beauty within. But since the African Diaspora represents, also, such dehumanizing experiences that history as a way of dusting off and returning to the core of the self. I try to mediate the relationship between the public and private for the community, establishing memorial, and I hope it extends beyond my own.

Who are some of your favorite artists?

Betye Saar, the Saar Women, Dominique Moody, Willie Little, Toni Scott, Joe Sam, Malik Seneferu, my husband, fill me up with energy to move as an artist, and Renee Stout, her influences are so compelling, she is such an exciting artist, that I would have to say she is my spiritual guider since the first time I showed my art, publicly. I know there are others; some I have not seen or connected yet.

You've created some amazing dolls of intricate detail. What inspired you to make these dolls, and what is your process for creating them?

Thank you, Marissa. I made them originally on behalf of Sara Baartman, labeled “Venus Hottentot.” In 1810, 20 year old Baartman, was taken to England by a British sergeant, where she was caged and displayed naked for European society to gawk at her buttocks and genitals, for they thought her body an oddity different from their own. She was traded to a French animal trainer, and when the novelty of her difference wore off, the French trainer threw her out, and she was forced into prostitution, dying at the age of 25 from alcoholism and venereal disease.

Sara’s experience typifies, for me, the conception of black sexuality and the impact this exploitation has on the African community. It creates an environment where the mother is incapable of providing, or she does not produce a legacy to continue the culture of that group.

Therefore, the soft figurative sculptures symbolize Sara Baartman’s legacy; the figurines are not dolls, not play things.They are sacred images that evoke the ancestors of the past as they preside over present living ancestors. These sculptures are relics.

In terms of making them, I think about a design, a pattern I like in an art book, the museum, or sometimes, it is a style of art from an artist. Once I tried to create a pattern that Joe Sam designs of his face when he signs his signature. I implied it to one of the dolls, and I really liked how that one came out. Or, it might be a pattern I see on a street or sidewalk. Now, I am working on a piece that has been taking some years to finish that reflects the quilt patterns of the Gee's Bend.

How does the African diaspora influence your work?

The reservoir is so deep and wide: it is the pulse of my existence and creativity. However, my new work is an integration of the ancient past and present technology, so I am aware of today's forces to the extent that it has become mediums of communication, and I use it as a frequency of that-but as a form to hearken back to something deeper.

You also create extensive installations. Can you talk about what inspires these and your process for creating them?

Well, my second exhibition was at Pro Arts Gallery in Oakland. I came in second place out of 60 artists for one of my sculptures. However, a chair that I created that was covered in beans, rice, seed, beads, stuff I like to put on found objects, was also in the exhibition. When I went to the gallery, days before the exhibition, I saw my chair and sculpture standing in white space, and my pieces felt dead to me. In my work, I like to create narratives around the pieces, an environment where the pieces watch or preside over the objects that surround the sculptures.

I looked at the chair, and finally I decide that I would put the African continent around it. So, I rallied my husband for pieces of granite we had around our cottage, my mother for flowers, and my father for pennies, and arranged candles, flowers, and various objects inside and on top of the granite. Initially, I did not know what I was doing. I did it because it felt good to me, and it conveyed a story I wanted to tell. I did not know that process was called installation or altar. Since I am a self-taught artist, I find out what the thing is sometimes after the experience. Now, at some point when I create an installation, the family, the community assist in the development of it. It is a tricky commitment. Everyone wants to create, and I believe everyone has the ability to do it, but when the community is involved, I have to be careful with them. Because of their own desires to create, they tend to want to put their paint on my canvas, so to speak.

One of your most recent sculptures, Two Degrees, merges technology with Yoruba spiritual tradition. What was your vision in bringing these elements together? Will you continue to use technology in your work?

I am influenced by Renee Stout, particularly her piece "Fetish II" where she created an nkisi of herself. An nkisi translates to types of spiritual medicine, but also refers to "elevated spirits". The power image has been the piece that I have been dialoging with speaking to and back to the origin of this work, the Republic of Congo. The technology rose out of wanting to find a different path of communication, on the one hand, appearing to expose the mystery within the nkisi while hiding it in plain sight normally located in the belly of the sculpture.

Technology is something I am interested in continuing to work with. I would like to get involved with robotics.

How do African spiritual traditions play out in your work?

It is at the core of my growth as an artist; without it I nor does my work exist.

Many of your pieces are mixed media and incorporate many different materials.
Where do you find the objects you use? Do you have any favorite materials?

I like to go to rummage sales, secondhand stores, crafts stores, and just walking down the street.

What do you hope your legacy as an artist will be?

I hope my legacy will inspire my family, my community, others to heal themselves and find beauty within.

For more about Karen and her work, log onto:
http://aestheticacension.ning.com/profile/karencarrawayseneferu

Artist to Watch: Ramon Martins

2009-08-02T12:38:00.000-07:00

Brazilian artist Ramon Martins works in an infinite number of styles, and appears to be influenced by many different cultures. The majority of information I could find on him was in Portugese, so enjoy the visual goodness. He works in a language that's universal.
To see more of Ramon's work, visit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ramonmartins

Upcoming in Oakland: Afrikanation Art Exchange/Ebony's Going Away Party

2009-07-11T19:16:00.000-07:00

Where can I even begin when discussing the thrilling work that has been a part of artist/community organizer Ebony Iman Dallas' Masters' Thesis over the past couple of years? Her thesis centered around bringing together artists of African descent locally, nationally, and internationally to promote unity and positive change in the community. That's all I'll say, I'm saving the rest for future writings on Ms. Dallas ;)

Friday, July 17th Ebony will host the Interactive Art Exchange Exhibition, which will also serve as her going away party, since she's bound for Southern California. If you're in the Bay Area, come out and celebrate this landmark project, and enjoy some wonderful art and music as well.
The show will take place at Coffee With A Beat, right next to Lake Merritt in Oakland.

Coffee With a Beat • 458 Perkins Ave., Oakland, CA • Friday, July 17 • 6p - 10p

Please come out and celebrate the work of 12 dynamic artists who participated in my final thesis project entitled Afrikanation Interactive Art Exchange. The point of this project was to unify all people of African decent and supporters in order to join minds and create solutions to common problems through art. These collaborations took place around the topics of Family and Traditions as well as Goals and Dreams. This combination of musicians, painters, poets, and video production artists truly formed a rich experience that we would like to share with you. Please invite your family and friends.

Participants include:
Eesuu Orundide • Painter
Anthony J Hall • Poet
David Goodlett • Guitar Player
Tatek Kassaye • Video Production
Sarah Webb • Poet
Opesanwo I Fakorede Fadaaro • Painter
Oluyemi Thomas (of Positive Knowledge) • Bass Sax
Ijeoma Thomas (of Positive Knowledge) • Poet
Mosheh “Son of a Drummer” Milon • Drummer
Maria Ortiz • Curator/Visual Arts
Bush Mama Africa • Mixed Media Artist
Jinaki Bahati • Photographer

Ebony Iman Dallas • Afrikanation Community Organizer
Abdoul Diallo • Afrikanation Community Organizer

Also featuring guest artists and community activists

Please come out to support Bay Area Artists and non-profit community arts programs

COST
None, but accepting donations for non-profit community arts organizations such as Art Esteem, a local organization who provides art therapy for over 3,500 Bay Area youth including the “Self as a Super Hero” project. For more information about this organization, please visit www.ahc-oakland.org

ARTISTS WISHING TO PARTICIPATE

Painters, poets, designers, musicians, and culinary artists… you may perform, exhibit and sell work with 10% of the proceeds going back to specified non-profit community arts organizations. Art Esteem is the only confirmed at this time. For more information on Art Esteem, please visit their website at www.ahc-oakland.org. Please contact Ebony at eid@eidart.com for more information and for participation.

?’s: For more information regarding this event and participation, please email Ebony at eid@eidart.com or visit eidart.com/afrikanation.

Please join us!

EBONY’s GOING AWAY PARTY
First of all, I love Oakland! In these clear times of change, chances must be taken. I am moving to Claremont, CA (30 miles from Los Angeles) at the end of July and I would like to party with you all 1 or 2 more times before I go. Please join me. I’m gonna miss you all very, very much.

Take care fam and I’ll see you soon!

Ebony Iman Dallas
Afrikanation Community Organizer
www.eidart.com

Black Butterfly Salutes: Michael Jackson

2009-07-06T16:09:00.001-07:00

If you were a kid growing up in the 1970s or 80s, chances are you grew up listening to Michael Jackson. So much has been said since his untimely passing, some wonderful things, and some horrible. There's not much I can add to it except for this:
Michael Jackson changed the face of music and culture. He changed the way we dance, the way music videos are made, the style of dress we wear. Watch any modern music video and you can see some piece of Michael Jackson's influence. That is his legacy.
As far as his personal life goes, I've done a lot of thinking about this highly eccentric person. And have been listening to his music very closely. His story and his truth is all right there in his songs. I also feel that because he was a remarkably gifted person, he may have processed life's trials and tribulations differently than the average person would. In many ways he became a mirror of our society, all of its joy, pain, and contradiction. All he really wanted to do was perform and share his music with the world. And beginning from a very young age, he carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. I'm sad that we've lost him, but I'm happy he is finally at peace.
He was a prolific artist, and that's what should be focused on, that's what should be celebrated. That said, I want to share some of my favorite Michael Jackson moments. I chose them for their imagery, and I also tried to choose footage that was off the beaten path.

Marissa's Artwork Sale

2009-07-02T18:33:00.000-07:00

Well I'm happy to say that this Black Butterfly will be fluttering back to New York this month! It's a time of new directions in life and art. And in that spirit, I'm letting go of some of my older pieces I no longer exhibit. So have a look, and if you see something you like, please email me: artwoman9@yahoo.com

I will be adding more pieces for sale next week :) #1 ink and gel transfer on bristol board, 11" x 17" $10.00 #2 pen on paper, 8.5" x 11" $10.00

#3 Watercolor on paper, 5" x 7" $10.00

#4 pen and ink on illustration board, framed $30.00 #5 acrylic on canvas, 3" x 3" $150.00 # 6 pen and ink on illustration board, framed $30.00 #7 acrylic on canvas, 3' x 2' $150.00 #8 gouache and ink on paper, 5" x 7" $10.00
#9 gouache and ink on paper, 5" x 7" $10.00

#10 acrylic on canvas, 3' x 2' $50.00 #11 pen and ink on illustration board, $20.00 #12 acrylic on canvas, 2' x 1' $80.00

Artist Profile: Yoko Ono

2009-06-20T09:21:00.000-07:00

There is so much to be said on legendary avant-garde artist Yoko Ono and her fascinating life. She entered the public eye as the wife of Beatle John Lennon, but was a successful visual and performance artist in her own right before meeting him. She had her first solo gallery show in 1961, a rarity for a woman artist during that era. Also a classically trained musician, Yoko recorded albums on her own as well as with Lennon.
One of the wonderful things about Yoko Ono's art is its inclusiveness. She urges her audience out of passive viewing and encourages them to participate in the creative process. For example in her book grapefruit: A Book of Instructions and Drawings by Yoko Ono the artist asks us to do such things as breathe, imagine ourselves as rubber, or cut a piece of paper. Her work really shifts the way one thinks about art. Ono's work ranges from minimalist text pieces to elaborate sculptures and outdoor installations.
Ono is also known for her performance pieces, one of the best known being Cut Piece where the artist sat on an empty stage fully clothed and invited members of the audience to cut her clothes off with scissors.

Yoko Ono lives and works in New York, and exhibits in museums and galleries worldwide. She still records music, and some of her earlier songs have been remixed and given new life as club anthems. She also rerecorded some of her songs with musicians such as Cat Power and The Flaming Lips for her recent album Yes, I'm a Witch . She's an art icon who constantly reinvents herself and pushes the envelope.

Learn more about Yoko Ono and her life's work:
http://www.imaginepeace.com

Marissa's Latest: Miz Lucille

2009-06-11T16:55:00.000-07:00

Her name is Miz Lucille, and she's the first in a series of outdoor pieces I'm creating. The cutout is watercolor and gouache on paper, and the train is yarn and ribbons. It was made to hang from a tree, and is part of some work I've been doing for the past few years around healing images of Blacks being lynched. It's a part of our history, and I can remember seeing these disturbing images repeatedly from a very young age, in documentaries, posters sold up in Harlem, or history books.
I felt many intense emotions when seeing an image of a lynched person, one of the main ones being helplessness. There was nothing I could do. This person had been murdered in cold blood and ripped away from their family decades ago. For years, I've been collecting these images and finding different ways to view them (Considering who this person was before their death, the beauty of the scenery in these photographs, the time of day the incident occurs), and now I'm finding new ways to recreate them. Miz Lucille represents a different kind of "strange fruit": she hangs from a tree, but is very much alive and in vibrant color. I wanted this image of a Black person hanging from a tree to project happiness. I wanted her to represent not the ugliness of that moment, but the beautiful spirit that left that lynched person's body and is at peace, watching over us.
My plan is to make a whole set of these figures, and do outdoor installations where trees are filled with them.

Now Showing: Kerry James Marshall

2009-06-05T20:55:00.000-07:00

Have you ever read a book covering the history of a particular time or place, and begun to contemplate parts of the story that were left out? What was omitted to make a certain figure appear heroic, or to make a certain era seem romantic? African American artist Kerry James Marshall's mural at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is the visual equivalent of reading between the lines.
Most people know that George Washington, America's much revered first president, owned slaves. This is a fact that is acknowledged, but often quickly glossed over in history books and documentaries. Marshall, in collaboration with San Francisco's own Precita Eyes muralists, has created his own documentation of this reality, writ larger than life, making it virtually impossible to look away. The two murals, conceived by Kerry James Marshall and painted by Precita Eyes, place Black people in every part of the seemingly happy and colorful landscape. They are in the trees, the ocean, the land, and Black faces create connect-the-dots puzzles throughout the two murals, positioned high overhead in the main lobby of the MoMA.
The murals depict the sprawling estates of our country's "founding fathers," and George Washington and Thomas Jefferson each tower over their plantation homes. Thomas Jefferson is positioned in such a way that when one walks directly under the mural, his eyes appear to shift and he looks to the right. Both murals are a Where's Waldo of stories, maps, and clues.
If you're in the Bay Area, this captivating mural is a must-see. For more information, log onto the SF MoMA's website: http://www.sfmoma.org/exhibitions/388

And for more information on the amazing Precita Eyes muralists:
http://www.precitaeyes.org/

Artist Profile: Alsarah

2009-05-11T10:10:00.000-07:00

When I think of one word to describe Brooklyn-based Sudanese soul singer Alsarah, the word that comes to mind is "force". She is a presence, a force when she takes the stage, and transports her audience to another time and place in the way only a true artist can.
Alsarah performs in quite a few different styles of traditional music from Africa's rich diasporan history. She sings aghani al banat, or "girls' music", a playful genre native to Central Sudan which is usually performed during wedding festivities.
Alsarah is also a member of The Sounds of Taraab, a group playing traditional music of Zanzibar and the coastal towns of East Africa. This genre, which is over 100 years old, is a hybrid of African, Indian, and Arabic styles of music, a blend which was fostered by the trade routes through the region.

Alsarah also counts American soul music among her many influences, and sings modern soul songs in english along with traditional songs in arabic at her shows, making for a wonderful musical journey where one can really see the roots and interconnectedness of music.
A mainstay on the New York performance circuit, Alsarah's star continues to rise, and she recently opened for Somalian rapper K'naan. In addition to performances, she is currently in the studio hard at work on a forthcoming EP, which will include songs in arabic and english.

For performance dates and more information:
http://www.myspace.com/soundsoftaraab
http://www.myspace.com/soulsudani
http://www.alsarah.com

Photo by Alaric Campbell

Aisha Cousins in Studio Museum in Harlem's Magazine

2009-05-06T09:43:00.000-07:00

Aisha Cousins, the first artist profiled her e on Black Butterfly, continues to inspire and delight with her Diva Dutch performance pie ce. Cousin s' work has caught the attention of the Studio Museum in Harlem, and Diva Dutch is featured in the Spring issue of the museum's magazine. If you're like me, you can't get enough of one of the art world's most promising rising stars. So here's a little more, and expect to see a lot more from Aisha Cousins.

All images c/o Studio Magazine

Published in Studio: The Studio Museum in Harlem Magazine Spring 2009

Aisha Cousins, 30
Performance Artist
by Khary Polk

Aisha Cousins and I sit on the floor of her Bedford-Stuyvesant studio, sharing brown rice tea and eating pink and green mochi from Midtown. B ags of synthetic hair, children’s pop beads and vintage baby doll dresses–components in her per formance art pieces–are neatly arranged throughout the space. The pop beads l ook like candy, I say, and she encourages me to pop one in my mouth.

I bite down on colored plastic as Cousins tells me about her current work, Diva Dutch, a remarkable synthesis of hair-braiding and rope-jumping. “It’s a natural evolution of things that black girls in black urban areas across the country already do,” she says. She weaves synthetic hair into a single ten- to fifteen-foot braid, a nd then plaits it on the pigtails of two women, creating a tangible conduit that also functions as a fierce skipping rope. Cousins has performed Diva Dutch on the streets of Bed-Stuy (Brooklyn), Brixton (London) and Barbès-Rochechouart (Paris).

“I’ve become fascinated with the idea of how black culture would evolve if black folks had a separate territory, with an economy and culture shaped in response to our habits, our interests,” she says. I remind her that the beauty supply store where she purchases her “Sensationnel” brand hair is located on Fulton Street, one of the longest stretches of black-owned businesses in the country. “Not anymore,” she counters. Raised in Bed-Stuy, Cousins has seen the neighborhood change. “Black enclaves all over the country are disappearing and no one seems to be concerned about how this will affect the evolution of black, U.S. or international culture,” she says.

Copyright 2009 Studio Magazine.

Upcoming Exhibition: Inside My Head

2009-04-30T16:25:00.000-07:00

If you are in the Los Angeles area, check out the California African American Museum's upcoming exhibit Inside My Head: Intuitive Artists of African Descent. Says the CAAM:

"Inside My Head showcases the work of 32 contemporary artists of African descent who have developed a mature style in an intuitive manner. The exhibition explores pure artistic creativity and validates the connection to ethnic-specific traditions and ways of doing."

Featured in the exhibit is one of the Bay Area's artistic treasures, Karen Seneferu (her equally talented husband Malik Seneferu is also featured), debuting one of her uniquely handcrafted sculptural dolls entitled Two Degrees.

Seneferu says the piece is influenced by artist Renee Stout's Fetish II, and was intended as a response and dialogue to Stout's work, as well as "the spiritual projection of Yoruba's Inkisi."

Two Degrees links to the past through futuristic means: an ipod implanted in the sculpture's belly. "The iPod takes on various measures of I and Pod. It stores the souls of people of African descent through numerous pictures...each person, political figures, activists, instructors, students, and people on the street as individuals in his or her own right."

Seneferu's piece will also include the installation of an altar which promises to be a powerful fusion of modern technology and African spirit and history. Of her body of work, Karen says "I make ancestral relics, entities that preside over those who don't recognize their beauty or are in need of protection. I focus on the ways that fragmented parts, memories are retrievable. Now, technology allows me to reach into the past."

Inside My Head will be on display at the California African American Museum in Los Angeles from May 7th until September 27th, and features 32 amazing artists. For more info, check out:

http://www.caam.ca.gov/fe.htm

Marissa's Latest: Map Piece

2009-04-11T12:15:00.001-07:00

Map Piece is definitely a working title for this one. I've been experimenting with watercolor, gouache, and ink on the pages of old books for about a year now. This page came out of a book I found at Goodwill called The East Indiamen. I chose it because it was full of maps and illustrations of boats, movement, and travel. This particular page has a wonderful texture, almost like watercolor paper, and I was also liked the illustrations of spices traded and the map of Africa. The woman is painted in gouache and ink, and was inspired by stylized illustrations of the so-called "Hottentot Venus", Saartjie (Sarah) Baartman. I was considering the objectification of the black body, and how Black women's bodies have been viewed as chattel and a commodity for centuries.
. How does this history affect the way Black women themselves relate to their bodies? How much of our self image and self worth is tied up in the size of our posteriors, for example? This is why I embellished my character's backside with feathers and leaves. The perception of Black beauty and the reality of exploitation has been tied to a woman's curves. During slavery, a woman's voluptuousness meant fertility, which was tied to increasing a plantation's workforce. Now a woman's body sells everything from alcohol to cell phones. The idea of our bodies as a commodity has not changed. Saartjie Baartman was brought to the western world from Africa and paraded through circuses, homes, and exhibitions for the size of her behind and genitals. One cannot help but draw comparisons between these illustrations of Baartman and today's Black video and magazine models. Using the map, I contrasted this objectification with the colonization of Africa. Many of the issues Black people face today can be tied to the history of slavery and colonization beginning on the continent. The shapes I drew in ink all over Africa are symbols, each representing issues faced in Africa. There are symbols for invasion, colonization, genocide, AIDS, drought/famine, and war. I'll edit this and post a key soon.
I wanted to directly tie the Black woman's sense of self to the hardships faced in Africa and followed us to America during slavery.

Girlblue Project: Mayagoddess

2009-04-03T18:03:00.000-07:00

Mayagoddess, 36
musician
artist
Austin, Texas

How has being a black woman in a predominantly white male music genre
affected you and your music? How did you come to be a part of the scene?

First of all i have to say how simultaneously ironic, amusing, exciting, and inspiring it is that the "black rock scene" is even being acknowledged at all in so many ways lately, let alone being documented and studied. My entire life has been about my intimate, if occasionally unhealthy, love affair with rock&roll and my own drive to live my life as a rock musician.

As a young girl growing up in what turned out to be an incredibly hostile environment, I learned early on that I was an outcast simply because of the color of my skin. It didn't help matters that I was a year younger and a head shorter than my classmates. I went to elementary school in a suburb of Houston, Texas where I was one of maybe 3 black kids in the entire school--and no one in my family explained to me what that might mean. what it did mean was complete alienation, verbal and physical abuse from my schoolmates, and relentless rejection at every turn. I had to figure it all out on my own...but by the time I did I had already latched onto my personal savior and imagined fairy godrocker in the form of Joan Jett. She taught me by shining flawless rock&roll example through her own life: the once laughed at outcast who became a huge success without compromising her unique self. She showed me how to not give a damn about what people thought of me, cuz they were the idiots, and I should be in fact PROUD of a "bad reputation."

I had already figured out what I wanted to do with my life around the age of 5 when I saw a Diana Ross concert on tv, and the light in my soul came on. It was at the ripe old age of 8 that I discovered Joan and really knew exactly what I had to do and how to do it. You see, I was already an outcast no matter what I did, so it didn't seem as unusual to me as it should have that a black female pre-teen in texas in the early 80's (or ever) would be a passionate rock&roll lover and aspiring rock guitarist. I had already been completely rejected (thank god) from anything mainstream, so being different just stopped being uncomfortable as a matter of practicality, freeing me to develop (gasp!) my own personality and direction.

Of course the reactions I would get when I first started playing out at age 17 initially stemmed from a place of shock, or cynical reactions to what was expected to be a novelty act... but I wasn't aware of any of that at the time. they may have started watching with folded arms and a smirk, ready to shake their heads at the joke onstage and walk away laughing, but that quickly shifted into shock over how hard they just got rocked.

By the time I got to New York City I was used to the freak show factor, I came to
appreciate it even. watching peoples' tiny little minds get blown open cuz I'm onstage in front of them.... seeing them go from snickering rubberneckers to awestruck fans by the end of a set... just because I AM the oddball, I am able to show folks some shit they ain't ever seen before, and feed it to them in a way they didnt know they were craving. I'm already something new just climbing onto a stage... 4 skinny white guys, 4 skinny white guys, 4 skinny white guys, *ME*. All I gotta do is deliver, and I change peoples' lives!

Now Showing: Nick Cave :Meet Me at the Center of The Earth

2009-03-29T08:43:00.000-07:00

Friday's opening reception for Meet Me At the Center of the Earth: New Works by Nick Cave at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco was well attended. Cave's elaborate signature costumes, which he calls Soundsuits, created a technicolor wonderland in YBCA's main gallery. The Chicago based artist (no affiliation with musician Nick Cave) describes his Soundsuits as "a means for understanding identity--those things which make one the same or different from others. These full-body masks release the wearer (actual or imagined) from his day-to-day identity allowing him to inhabit another, very different one." (Source: exhibition didactic by Guest Curator Kate Eilertsen)

The energy at YBCA Friday evening was joyful, with a cast of art lovers almost as colorful as the Soundsuits themselves (one woman wore snakeskin boots and a fedora with the image of Grace Jones repeated in a rainbow print), and many filled the main lobby grooving to the sounds of Jef Stott and The Embarka Soundsystem.
Cave draws upon myriad influences for his work, including African and Mardi Gras ceremonial tradition. He locates and assembles an array of textiles, everyday and not-so-everyday objects: antique masks and ceramic sculptures, yarn and ribbon from old cassette tapes. He weaves these elements together in utterly surreal combinations which are alone fascinating for their sheer excess.
Roberta Smith of the New York Times says Cave's work "must be seen to be believed", and that he "seems never to have met a floral pattern he can't insensify with embrodery, or sequins...but he is equally adept with twigs, white string dipped in black paint...and while he uses the materials in copious amounts, sometimes to a groteque effect, his garments always maintain a distinct and glamorous line." Meet Me at the Center of the Earth is on view at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts until July 5th, 2009.
For more info: www.ybca.org

Artist Profile: Kelly Shaw Willman

2009-03-27T17:47:00.000-07:00

I always feel very fortunate to have artists among my circle of friends. They never cease to inspire, to make me think, and to leave me in awe with their powerful work and new ways of looking at the world around them. I am blessed to call performance artist and poet Kelly Shaw Willman a friend, and to be able to share her brilliant work on Black Butterfly.
A native of Cosgrove, Iowa, Kelly explores concepts of "birth, rebirth, birthing, un-birthing, the body, the sacred, the intimate, the divine, the dreamy, the imaginative, the symbolism, the stance, and the beauty of artistic vision and exploration."

The body is very much a part of Willman's experimental pieces, and her physical being is very much a part of the performance. In her most recent performance at an intimate space in Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood, she bathed herself in fake blood and glitter (glitter is a signature material found in much of Kelly's work), eliciting comparisons to the late artist Ana Mendieta, whose works often involved Mendieta covering herself in blood, earth, or flowers. The environments Kelly creates to perform in unabashedly embrace the feminine. Candles are lit, rose petals are distributed, and there is also the ever-present glitter. "I work most naturally from an intuituve space, where a distant but accessible idea fuels intensive writing, intensive rehearsing, and an intensive construction of a performance environment." Accessible is a perfect way to describe Willman's performance space. There isn' t a traditional stage, and there's something about the environment she assembles (is it the colors? the warm glow of flickering candles?) that is very inviting to the viewer. Willman draws her audience ever closer, and deeper into an intriuging mystery of one woman's dream-filled journey.Kelly's latest performance, part one in an eleven movement series entitled grunge*quest, will continue throughout the spring and summer, with other artists and musicians collaborating for the various movements. For more info. on Kelly Shaw Willman and her work, check out her page on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kellyshawwillman
Also, watch this space for an interview with Kelly in the near future!

And here's a video of her performance, *regard*

performance photos by Janna O'Shea

Marissa's Latest: Funkstress

2009-03-16T13:10:00.000-07:00

Funkstress
acrylic on canvas
3'x3'

So late last summer I gathered with a bunch of my friends at the Paramount theater in Oakland, so excited to see Erykah Badu on tour in support of her album New Amerykah Pt. 1: 4th World War, the sound of of which had been wafting through Oakland all summer long. I was bumping The Healer as I took my morning jogs around Lake Merritt, the sounds of Honey were bumping out of car stereos, and the album was on repeat at many a house party. So when we all gathered in that auditorium we were HYPED to say the least.

The lights dimmed and we were greeted by a funkadelic instrumental intro that woulda made Parliament proud. Badu stepped out onto the stage with her giant afro and took to the drum machine. The whole stage was lit in shades of bright pink and green. I kept expecting the mothership to land at any moment! That's when I saw her, The Funkstress. She was bright blue, and emerging like a newborn babe from a giant vagina (now pretty much abstracted in the finished piece). But the feel that I wanted to capture is still there: a new woman emerging, who is free.

As I worked on this piece, I studied album art from a lot of old P-Funk album covers for inspiration. I love that artwork, because it contains so many different elements from the past and future, and they're all stirred together in this colorful stew. I've also found that the music touches on the same themes I work with in my art. The idea of healing, transformation, or being transported to another world. So much of the music and performance has this underlying theme of: we were brought to this new land where we aren't free, and we can't necessarily go back to Africa, we're outcasts in America...let's go to outer space! You have this amazing album art, performance, and music that is a hybrid of all three: Black Americans with love for their African roots, who are looking toward the future/a place of freedom. They were creating an alternate reality.

I strive for the same thing in creating characters placed in other-worldly settings, or with my heroine Azmera who journeys back in time to heal the psyche of her people and makes her way towards the Electric Homeland.

The funk tip I'm on will probably continue for awhile (I'm currently hard at work in the studio on my 3rd funky goddess, the first one has already been sold) At some point I'll post a picture of all of them together.

Now Showing: Last Exit to Africa (Hip Hop) an Exhibition by Githinji Wa Mbire

2009-03-09T14:19:00.000-07:00

On Sunday I attended the opening reception of mixed media artist Githinji Wa Mbire at Guerilla Cafe in Berkeley. An exhibition of Githinji's colorful work is always a treat for the senses, and this one is no exception. A native of Kenya, Githinji is best known for his mixed media pieces featuring abstract representations of the African continent. He creates Africa using a variety of materials, text, and imagery, and in all shapes and sizes (some are quite small, others can take up an entire wall space).

I really enjoyed seeing more of Githinji's wonderful works on paper (he has quite a few in this show). They are so colorful and some of them incorporate small bits of text, which appear to be thoughts that run through his mind during the creative process. My personal favorite was the image of Africa made up of faces in varying hues.

The reception was well attended, with a colorful cast of very friendly people. There's just something about Guerilla Cafe that makes you feel at home. And the vibrancy of the space--it's full of artistic flair right down to the tables and chairs--makes it a wonderful space for exhibiting art.

Githinji's work will be on view at Guerilla Cafe until May 3rd. This show is definitely worth a trip there, as are GC's amazing waffles and fresh squeezed orange juice.

Guerilla Cafe
1620 Shattuck Ave.
Berkeley, CA 94709

hours: Mon. 7am-2pm
Tues.-Fri. 7am-6pm
Sat.-Sun. 8am-6pm
www.guerillacafe.com

Now Showing: Intersectionality of Sisters

2009-03-09T12:08:00.000-07:00

Photographer and Youth Radio
journalist Ayesha Walker with one of her beautiful
photographs

On Friday evening I had the pleasure of attending the opening reception for the latest exhibition at Oakland's joyce Gordon Gallery, Intersectionality of Sisters, an all women artists show in honor of Women's History Month. The show was intended to be "an exhibition that explores the crossroads of modern and post modern works on femininity, feminism or womanism, postulating interrelations of cultural patterns and breaking boundaries of nationality, class, and gender."
There was a dazzling display of works by a diverse group of artists, working in all media. One of the exciting things about this show was that it brought together women not only of diverse backgrounds, but also in varying stages of their art careers. While many of them are fixtures on the Bay Area arts scene, others were brimming with excitement because it was their very first gallery show.

One of the highlights of the exhibition was a piece by mixed media artist Karen Seneferu. Karen, a veteran artist, presented a small and quite powerful piece covered entirely in colorful beads as well as black beans. The intricately constructed pieces take Seneferu several months to a year to complete, and are inspired by ancestral art.

Karen Seneferu's beaded sculptural piece

There was a great turnout for this event, and the gallery was packed. It was actually tough to get through the crowd to look at certain pieces, but that's a good thing. The Joyce Gordon Gallery is definitely one of the bright spots in downtown Oakland, and the exhibitions held there are always a testament to the wealth of talented and promising artists that call the city home.

Intersectionality of Sisters is on view at the Joyce Gordon Gallery until April 20th. There will be a panel discussion and poetry Friday, April 3rd 5:30-8:30pm.

Joyce Gordon Gallery
406 14th St.
Oakland, CA
http://www.joycegordongallery.com/index.html

Artist Profile: Fafi

2009-02-23T19:39:00.000-08:00

OMG, its Fafi! This is one artist who can reduce me to a giggly fan-girl. Her pieces, mostly of lovely women and cute animals, are cute, airy confections with a bit of street toughness mixed in for good measure.

Born in Toulouse, France, Fafi entered the art world graffiti style, as her adorable creations began to grace French walls everywhere. According to Fafi's bio, "by exploring feminity through stereotypes, and using it to her advantage, she drew enormous attention and thus started to travel the world with thousands of Fafinettes in her brushes and paint cans."
Fafi continued her meteoric rise within the pop art scene by designing collections for Adidas and LeSportsac, and also creating vinyl toys. I was so happy to get my hands on a great Fafi LeSportsac tote at Bloomingdale's in early 2007. It travels with me everywhere, the colors are a great pick-me-up, and you never have to worry about not knowing which piece of luggage is yours at baggage claim!

Fafi's work is an inspiration. She's so unique and definitely has her own style. Check out this wonderful video that Adidas did with Fafi a couple years ago for their ad campaign. And check out more of Fafi's work at www.fafi.net

Artist Profile: Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson

2009-02-18T12:15:00.000-08:00

There are so many artists I admire who have influenced my work over the years. When it comes to textiles (one of my favorite mediums to work in, and the second emphasis I chose to complement my painting major in college), it's all about Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson. Many of us have grown up with the tradition of quilting in our families, and if you're like me, you may have some beautiful old family quilts passed down from relatives. Quilts are also fine art, as exhibited by artists like Faith Ringgold (who deserves another post altogether), and successful traveling shows like the Quilts of Gee's Bend which caused such a sensation a couple of years ago. Robinson came along, took everything we knew and loved about quilts and patterns, and flipped the script. She boldly mixed colors and prints, added objects, text, and three dimensional shapes to create an expression that was truly one of a kind.
Born in Columbus, Ohio in 1940, Aminah's father taught her how to draw and create homemade paper from "hogmawg" (a mixture of mud, clay, twigs, leaves, lime, animal grease, and glue), and her mother taught her weaving, needlework, and button work. She knew from a young age she wanted to be an artist, and honed her skills at Columbus Art School. Aminah "creates sculpture, RagGonNons, rag paintings, paintings on cloth, drawings, and books. Many of them are about her family and community and the stories she has been told by her elders. She also researches the lives of abolitionists, civil rights leaders, and writers and depicts them in her art."

Aminah Brenda Lynn Robison's work has really inspired me to think outside the box when it comes to working with fabric. Her pieces are so imaginative, and a great reminder that when it comes to creativity, the sky's the limit!

No matter what medium you work in, or if you just love to look at great art, I encourage you to get your hands on a copy of Symphonic Poem, a wonderful retrospective book of Robinson's. It is an experience.

Inspiration: Thelma Golden

2009-02-18T11:25:00.000-08:00

"Going to museums as a child, it was clear that somebody put those things up. When it became clear to me what that job was, that was the job I wanted."

Wow, Thelma Golden. It's tough not to gush when it comes to my undying admiration for the Executive Director of the Studio Museum in Harlem. She's amazing because she's not afraid to take chances and shake things up in the art world. She's helped broaden the spectrum for art created by people of African descent, and challenged us all to think and see in new ways. She finds new and emerging talent, and takes risks with the way she presents it. She's a true inspiration. The following is a great biography I found on Ms. Golden.

Thelma Golden has become a driving force in the art world. Since disrupting the status quo with her 1994 exhibition, Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary American Art, Golden has continued to create challenging dialogues around art and artists, making her one of the most respected curators in America. After ten years at the Whitney Museum of American Art, one of the nation's premier art institutions, Golden took up a new challenge in 2000, joining the Studio Museum in Harlem and becoming executive director and chief curator in 2005.

Thelma Golden knew she wanted to be a museum curator since late childhood and early adolescence. Born in 1965, she grew up in Queens, New York. As a child Golden first developed a love for art by studying reproductions of works from the Art Institute of Chicago's permanent collection. Golden found the prints on the playing cards for the board game, Masterpiece—despite her lack of interest in the game itself. She also became fascinated in museums themselves. "I think I, in going to museums as a young child, really realized that someone did that—I didn't have a name for it, but it was clear that somebody put those things up, somewhere," she recalled for Diane Haithman of the Los Angeles Times. "As soon as it became clear to me what that job was, that was the job I wanted." Indeed, Golden discovered the role of a curator when she was 12. She read about the pioneering African-American woman curator, Lowery Sims, of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Golden found her inspiration.

Golden's career began early and developed quickly. By her senior year in high school, Golden had begun training as a curatorial apprentice at the Metropolitan Museum. Soon she would attend Smith College in North Hampton, Massachusetts, where in 1987 she graduated with a degree in art history. One year as a curatorial intern at the Studio Museum in Harlem followed, and another as an assistant at the Whitney. Until 1991, Golden gained experience as visual arts director at the Jamaica Arts Center in New York, where she curated eight shows. After taking a position at the Whitney in 1991, Golden began to rise to national prominence in the art world.

Earned National Reputation

As the Whitney's branch director at Philip Morris from 1991 to 1993, Golden opened up the museum to previously under-represented artists—women, people of color—and gained a national reputation. At the Philip Morris branch Golden exhibited a number of artists, including Glenn Ligon, Suzanne McClelland, Gary Simmons, Y. David Chung, Alison Saar, and Judith Shea. Also, Golden explored more physical aspects of organizing an exhibition, as when she organized a showing of drape paintings, Golden Element Inside Gold, by Sam Gilliam in the Sculpture Court. Gilliam's works were among those representing the United States at the Venice Biennale in 1972 and have been part of the permanent collection of The Art Institute of Chicago, The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, DC.

Meanwhile, Golden stepped out of New York City to spread her artistic message. In 1993 at the Columbus Museum of Art in Columbus, Ohio, for example, she delivered a lecture and slide presentation entitled "African-American Art: Myth and Reality" in which she examined social protest and black life and culture in twentieth-century art by African Americans. The Columbus Call and Post advertised that her address would bring "new insights" to viewers of a concurrent exhibition of the works of a Columbus African American artist, Roman Johnson.

Golden affected her main impact in the U.S. art world during the 1990s through the Whitney, however. After a promotion in 1992 to associate curator, in 1993 Golden contributed to the design of a major event in the U.S. art world, the Whitney Biennial, a tradition which dates back to the Whitney's founding by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney when the philanthropist hoped to introduce the work of emerging U.S. artists into an art world dominated by European modernists. On a team led by the curator Elisabeth Sussman, Golden was one of four curators of the 1993 exhibition.

The 1993 Whitney Biennial combined video, performance art, photography, documentary material, text, objects, artifacts, and painting to challenge the viewer on controversial social issues. An investigation of race, gender, sexuality, AIDS, and gay rights, the show included direct social and political statements. "If, as it would seem, the purpose of this Biennial was to take the pulse of America, its vision is of a nation mired in racial, ethnic and sexual conflict, still reeling from the L.A. riots and the Clarence Thomas hearings and deeply ambivalent about 'difference' at the same time that the fact of social diversity becomes ever more inescapable," commented Eleanor Heartney, art critic, in Art in America. Reversing past practice at the Whitney, the vast majority of the 87 artists participating in the 1993 Biennial were women, African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos, and gays.

The Biennial's aggressive social and artistic tack elicited substantial debate. Newsweek's art critic, Peter Plagens, derided the 1993 Biennial as "more a dyspeptically sad show than a radically feisty one. It's a melange of social complaints that sometimes takes on the tone of the New York Post edited by the Guerrilla Girls," a group of feminist art activists who protested the 1987 Biennial for racial and sexual exclusion. Quoted in Ms., the Guerrilla Girls praised the 1993 Biennial: "It's a show everyone likes to hate because it's a comment on our times…. [It] seems like this show is polarizing the aesthetes from people who see art as an expression of a certain time and a certain place." As one of four curators designing the prestigious Biennial, Golden played a central role in placing the Whitney at the center of this debate in 1993.

Sparked Controversy

Consistent with the bold approach at the Whitney Museum of American Art in the 1990s, Golden sparked national controversy in 1994 and 1995 with an exhibition she curated herself, entitled Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary American Art. Works by 29 artists chosen by Golden to illustrate current conceptions of black masculinity spread across the second and third floors of the Whitney. The artists were black men, such as Gary Simmons, Glenn Ligon, and Lyle Ashton Harris; black women, such as Adrian Piper, Lorna Simpson, Carrie Mae Weems, and Renee Cox; and a few Asian, Hispanic, and white artists to provide a multitude of perspectives. The exhibition also incorporated film, video, and media and was accompanied by an extensive catalogue.

At a Glance …

Born 1965; raised in Queens, NY. Education: Smith College, BA, art history, 1987.

Career: Curatorial apprentice, Metropolitan Museum, New York, NY, 1983; curatorial intern, Studio Museum, Harlem, NY, c. 1987; curatorial assistant, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, c. 1988; visual arts director, Jamaica Arts Center, Queens, NY, c. 1989–91; branch director, Philip Morris branch, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, 1991–93; associate curator director of branch museums, Whitney Museum of American Art, 1993–96; curator, Whitney Museum of American Art, 1996–99; special projects curator, Peter Norton Family Foundation, 1998–99; deputy director for exhibitions and programs and chief curator, Studio Museum, Harlem, 2000–05; executive director and chief curator, Studio Museum, 2005–.

Memberships: Institute of International Visual Arts, board member;

Addresses: Office—Studio Museum in Harlem, 144 West 125th Street, New York, New York 10027.

Greg Tate of Vibe outlined the poles of the subsequent debate, including the anger at negative images by some in the African American community, and the disdain for black and political art by some conservative white critics. In a review in the New York Amsterdam News, Mel Tapley could provide only mitigated praise. "Except for the size of several of the canvases and photographs, nobody sees the black man as a monumental figure who can conquer, love and rule," she wrote. "Curator Thelma Golden has certainly furnished us with plenty of material for discussion groups throughout the winter. If the 125th Street vendors picketed the storeowners and merchants because the police evicted them, the 100 Black Men might consider demonstrating against art schools and art supply stores for assisting in perpetuating these recorded images."

When Golden heard similar perspectives voiced in the Los Angeles black community when the show toured at UCLA, she responded with the frustration of an artist misunderstood by her audience. "I'm so finished with that, the positive/negative thing? I'm done with that. I can't even go there anymore. I can't even remember what I used to say about that…. Work that is branded homoerotic in content is branded negative, and implicit in that statement is that that is wrong—so therefore the work is negative. You can't even talk about an entry into a certain feminist dialogue, because feminism is wrong!" Exasperated, Golden named some positive images in her exhibition. "The black people are the ones who are doing it, which is what really flips me out—they can't get with the Mapplethorpe because he's gay, but I'm like, these are some of the most beautiful photographs of black men ever taken—who cares?"

To conservative white critics who charged her with overlooking artistic values for black identity politics, Golden answered with a reasoned dismissal. Greg Tate, a young black writer for Vibe who contributed an essay for the exhibition catalog, summarized Golden's response: "Contrary to what some evil-ass critics like Hilton Kramer in the New York Observer have written about Golden, she does love art as much as she does being black, and unlike Kramer doesn't believe the two are mutually exclusive."

Critical response to how successfully each artist and the show itself succeeded in defining beauty and challenging viewers varied. First, Essence writer Veronica Chambers surveyed the scene comprehensively. Calling the show Golden's "largest and boldest exhibit yet," Chambers reported, "Golden … is simultaneously getting kudos and catching hell for her 'adventurous' taste." As if to demonstrate that ambivalence, in a New York Times review on November 11, 1994, critic Michael Kimmelman considered the show less than all the hullabaloo surrounding it. "The exhibition feels digestible: modest, almost," he wrote. Still Kimmelman found some work of value: "Much of it is the predicable inside-the-art-world-Beltway stuff that the Whitney, and countless SoHo galleries, have regularly been offering. Beyond that, there are challenging, sometimes moving works by artists like Adrian Piper, David Hammons, Robert Colescott, Leon Golub, Carrie Mae Weems, Lorna Simpson, and Barkley Hendricks…." Finally, in a disagreement with art critic Peter Plagens, who called the show "well-intentioned but disappointing," Newsweek contributing editor Ellis Cose reasoned that, "I'm not so sure it's quite so disappointing as all that. It certainly tries to sit on both sides of the argument. And, given the firestorm around the last Biennial, that is perhaps understandable." Long after the furor in the press subsided, Golden remembered the exhibit in an interview for Bomb magazine as a "significant show that defined who I am as a curator."

Ended a Decade at the Whitney

Thelma Golden continued pressuring for more inclusion of African Americans and people of color into the art world through the 1990s. During her decade at the Whitney, Golden rose to the position of curator and director of branch museums by 1996 and left for other opportunities in 1999. While at the Whitney she hoped to press the public to look beyond stereotypes and to open up the mainstream museum to African-American and other previously under-represented artists and art-lovers. "The art world is still the last bastion of exclusivity," Golden remarked to Veronica Chambers in Essence. In the book American Visions: Afro-American Art—1986, author Carroll Greene Jr. reviewed the acceptance of African American art and artists within U.S. cultural institutions in the mid-1980s. "Indeed, the window of opportunity opened two decades ago may now be closing." Greene warned. "And Afro-American art remains the neglected step-child of American art, receiving only occasional recognition by individual art scholars." Thelma Golden's work at the center of the contemporary U.S. art world in the early 1990s showed the beginnings of the kind of achievement possible. Other exhibitions Golden organized at the Whitney included: Heart, Mind, Body, Soul: New Work from the Collection (1998), Bob Thompson: A Retrospective (1998), and Hindsight: Recent Work from the Permanent Collection (1999).

Three years after being named curator and director of branch museums at the Whitney, Golden decided to seek other opportunities. Working briefly as the special projects curator for the Peter Norton Family Foundation, she accepted a job at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 2000. She would be able to work with the woman who had long ago inspired her, Lowery Stokes Sims, the Museum's executive director. As Deputy Director for Exhibitions and Programs Golden hoped to expand the type of art the Museum exhibited. The Museum had focused mainly on contemporary works by African Americans, but Golden helped to set a new agenda, one that would include the large African diaspora and incorporate references to the multicultural influences on African-American art. Golden emphasized the importance of the new agenda in Essence, saying that "never before had there been so many artists of African and African-American descent bursting onto the scene."

Continued Pioneering Ways at Studio Museum

As Golden began her work at the Studio Museum, she had to mount a hurdle. People were having difficulty with the label "black art." "Similar to woman artists and other artists of color, all this naming had become such a contested place. It had filled a whole decade, the 80's, with conferences and books and articles about what it meant. I felt that because so many artists were investigating this it couldn't be ignored," she explained to the Gothamist. Although she tried to use the label to simply categorize artists and not a style of art, she had trouble finding a good definition for "black art," and began to explore different terms. "Then when I began to think about doing a show of young artists," she added, "I was amazed by the fact that so many of them had incorporated this thinking, not into just the way they theoretically define themselves, but in the way they had an attitude towards it that was somewhat—it seemed to be at the time—very freeing. The artist Glenn Ligon and I began to refer to this stance, this attitude, as post-black art, meaning that these younger artists seemed not oppressed by the strangle-hold of the terminology…. Somewhat ironically, we began referring to it as post-black art, and then it got shortened to post-black. It was a way for me to put a very loose bracket around a way to understand a younger generation." The term stuck and has helped Golden and others expand the way in which they discuss and classify art.

Golden's early work at the Museum with Sims not only helped redefine the art of artists of African descent and doubled museum membership, but also, as Sims told Essence, "reestablished" the Museum "as a magnet for art lovers and emerging artists." The range of works the Museum exhibited were reflected in the shows Golden curated: Isaac Julien: Vagabondia (2000), Martin Puryear: The Cane Project (2000), Glenn Ligon: Stranger (2001), Material and Matter (2001), Freestyle (2001), Red, Black and Green (2001), Yinka Shonibare (2002), Black Romantic: The Figurative Impulse in Contemporary African-American Art (2002), Gary Simmons (2002), Aaron Siskind: Harlem Document (2003), and Harlemworld: Metropolis as Metaphor (2004).

Golden clearly enjoyed her work. In countless interviews, Golden offered a constant stream of new ideas about art and clearly relished creating exhibits. She described her 2002 exhibit of Gary Simmons art in a diary for Slate as "emblematic of what I consider my best work, as it comes from a combination of deep engagement with an artist's practice and a constant desire to be in dialogue." In 2003, Golden rated Freestyle her favorite exhibit in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, saying that "it was my first attempt to look at who's coming up behind the black artists who emerged in the 1990s to put a multicultural stamp on a very complex combination of form and content."

Becoming the executive director of the Studio Museum in 2005 upon the retirement of Sims, Golden had even greater opportunities to leave her mark on the American art world.

Selected writings

Exhibition Catalogs

Black Male: Representations of Masculinity in Contemporary American Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, 1994.
(With Gail Gelburd) Romare Bearden in Black-and-White: Photomontage Projections, 1964, Whitney Museum of American Art, 1997.
Bob Thompson, Whitney Museum of American Art and University of California Press, 1998.
(With Kellie Jones and Chrissie Iles) Lorna Simpson, Phaidon, 2002.
(With others) Gary Simmons, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Studio Museum, Harlem, 2002.
(With others) Art 21: Art in the 21st Century, introduced by Susan Sollins, H.N. Abrams, 2001.

Sources

Books

Greene, Carroll, Jr., ed., American Visions: Afro-American Art—1986, The Visions Foundation, 1987.

Periodicals

Artforum, December 2003, p. 126.

Art in America, May 1993, pp. 43-7.

Call and Post (Columbus, OH), November 11, 1993, p. 6A.

Crisis, March-April 2004, p. 43.

Essence, November 1994, p. 64; November 1995, p. 96; May 1997, p. 152; July 2002, p. 74.

Los Angeles Times, April 23, 1995, sec. CAL, pp. 5, 84-6.

Ms., May/June 1993, p. 80.

Newsweek, March 15, 1993, p. 72.

New York, January 11, 1993, p. 16.

New York Times, December 12, 1994, sec. C, p. 13; November 14, 2005; p. F32.

New York Voice Inc./Harlem USA, January 19, 1994, p. 17.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 1, 2003.

Vibe, October 1994, p. 34.

Village Voice, February 12, 1991, p. 39.

On-line

"Bomb Live! With Betsy Sussler and Thelma Golden," Bomb, http://www.bombsite.com/golden/golden.html (accessed January 6, 2006).

"Diary: By Thelma Golden," Slate, http://www.slate.com/id/2062296/entry/2062304/ (accessed January 6, 2006).

"Thelma Golden, Curator," Gothamist, http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2005/04/27/thelma_golden_curator.php (accessed January 6, 2006).

Direct link to this article:

http://biography.jrank.org/pages/2915/Golden-Thelma.html

Marissa's Work: Meet Azmera

2009-02-18T10:03:00.000-08:00

Growing up, I was a comic book fiend. I couldn't get enough X-Men, Spiderman, Wonder Woman, you name it. I lived for the harrowing tales of super-powered people. Storm was my idol, and at recess, while many of my girlfriends were outside playing jump rope, I was trading comic cards with the boys. I never got over my love of comics, my palate just became a bit more sophisticated over the years and I fell in love with indie titles like Love and Rockets, Strangers in Paradise, and Non.

Comic book art has always influenced my own creations (my first drawing lesson came courtesy of the book How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way ) and that love of comics came full circle with the creation of my own heroine, Azmera.

Azmera is part Storm, part Angela Davis, part Ma'at. She's a powerful and fierce warrior-goddess charged with doing something amazing for her people: healing the wounds of history through time travel. She's been given magical powers to make things happen and transform the world, and in the process mend her own broken heart. Azmera's name is Ethiopian and it means "harvest". I chose this name because in this era, at this point in history, we are finally starting to see the fruits of our ancestors' toil and reap the rewards.

I've been painting, drawing, and writing about Azmera for a little over 2 years now. I don't have set things I do with the character yet, I simply let her appear in my work. I've written a story for her, which I've been encouraged to turn into an illustrated book, and I like the idea, so I may do it at some point. Right now, we're still getting to know one another.

The Azmera pieces also present an opportunity to play with a theme that I've been developing throughout most of my work: blending psychedelic beauty and color with harsh realities. I relate it to the 1960s, a decade that has always fascinated me: there was the summer of love, Woodstock, all this beautiful art, music, and exploration. But at the same time, we had Black people in the south getting hosed with water and attacked by dogs, the assasinations of Martin Luther King and Medgar Evers, and the war in Vietnam. The coexistence of that beauty and violence fascinates me. I strive to create work that walks that razor's edge, exploding with color, joy, and sadness.

I am SO excited about this!!

2009-02-17T23:10:00.000-08:00

This spring Yerba Buena Center for the Arts will be exhibiting the work of artist Nick Cave in Meet Me at the Center of the Earth: New Work by Nick Cave. The show, which opens in San Francisco March 27th, will feature Cave's soundsuits, sculptural and wearable pieces which "seem poised to explode into dance and ritual while exploring issues of identity and myth."

Check out this amazing video featuring Cave's work:

Girlblue Project: Sara Hart

2009-02-17T21:13:00.000-08:00

Can I photograph by Sara Hart

Sara Hart is a talented young photographer based in New York City. Her work addresses issues of identity and race. Read on for an interview with Sara.

What do you love about being a Black woman? What's challenging about it?

Being a black woman makes me feel connected. I feel that being a black woman is a visual representation of the connection I feel I have with the earth/universe, with the women in my family before me, and to history in general. My skin, my hair, my shape, even the food my grandmother feeds me gives me a sense of pride in who I am as part of a people.
The challenge is knowing what it really means to be a black woman and stay connected to my history of my family and culture, and feeling like no matter what I do someone will find fault in that.

Who has been most influential in your life?

The people who have been very influential in my life have been my parents. My father showed me from a young age expression through art. He introduced me to the camera and I eventually took that as my form of expression. I used it to tell my story about how I felt as a woman and about being a black woman. And my mom influenced me by being an amazing, strong, educated black woman. And I still strive to be as amazing as she is. She is my hero.

What's most important to you in life?

It used to be being understood by others...now it is understanding myself.

What inspires you to create art? And what are some of your favorite mediums to work in?

Life inspires me to create. My experience as well as the experiences of others makes me want to pick up a camera and take pictures. Photography is certainly my favorite medium. I feel that for me it is the best way to capture/create and express how I feel.

You did a powerful series of photographs focusing on issues of racial identity within the Black community. What inspired the series? How have people reacted to it?

It started as a series to address how I feel about being biracial. Then it morphed into the perceived tensions between dark and light skin women of my generation.
It is a response to American culture and the categorization of people, particularly black women here in America. The reaction to the series has been very positive. My models are eager to participate and share their stories, and people who view my work are prompted to share or take the time to research the history of categorization. And this is what I wanted to do, make people think just a lil' about their ideas of people.

How have stereotypes about Black women affected you?

Well, given my response to stereotypes in my work I would say it has affected me a lot. I was raised (coming from a mixed family) to not see color as a way to isolate or blame but just as something as simple as the clothes you wear or the way you style your hair. It is the character of the person that really matters. Then as I grew up and was more and more out into the world I saw and felt how I was judged by my skin color, hair, who my parents were. Personally since I am mixed, I was said to not really be black since my dad is white. I was said to be more white since I spoke properly and didn't live in the ghetto. Then if I did or said anything that was seemingly "black" I was told I was trying to be black. I felt that stereotypes of black people and white people were/are attributed to me and for the longest time that confused and hurt me a lot. I felt like I wasn't accepted anywhere.

What are your dreams and aspirations?

I dream about just creating my art and having my voice heard. And not being labeled trivially into "black women's art" but as Sara Hart, the photographer who has something to say. I also aspire to be a mother and to raise my family in love and to love themselves as my mother did.

Marissa's Latest

2009-02-14T10:35:00.001-08:00

This is my latest piece, an untitled watercolor on paper. The text is based on a dream I had about James Brown a year or so ago. The dream was so vivid I couldn't get it out of my head, so I wrote it down, saved it and figured I'd know what to do with it when the time came.

I wanted this piece to have the random, sort of meandering feel of a dream: a blend of all these elements of waking life and the subconscious. I saw James in a white suit, so I built the composition around that image. I left the background white so that the figure and text would stand out. I chose to make the text colorful (almost every letter is a different color) so that it would pop, and also to bring a lightheartedness to what reads as a rather sad experience. I always try to capture a mixture of joy and pain in my work, because life is a mixture of both.

The Girlblue Project: Najah Monique Todd

2009-02-04T19:50:00.000-08:00

Najah Monique Todd, 29
Hair Designer
Tacoma, Washington
United States

I was born to a very young mother, with no father around. They broke up before I was born. Like a lot of young women in the 80s my mom got into drugs around ‘86. Thank the stars I had my grandparents whom my mother sent me to live with. It was probably the best thing she could have done for me, although at such a young age I didn’t quite understand. Life with my grandparents was great.They definitely gave me a lot of love,took me under their wings and tried to heal the hurt and abandonment I felt from my mother. I was put into ballet, majorettes, modeling, 4-H, gymnastics and cello lessons. School was hard, and I didn’t really spend my childhood finding out who I was. So without a full sense of self I was made fun of for being “too white”, an Oreo. I was also very confused living in South Carolina after having moved from California. And with my grandmother being black and my Grandfather white, being so young I didn’t really understand the stigma. There was no defending myself because I didn’t know who I was. We later moved to a small town called Lawtey Florida where I enrolled in my final year of middle school and stayed until my sophomore year of high school.

In those 3½ years I experienced some great things: church, amazing friends and my very first love. I also experienced some horrible things, having moved deeper into the south. We endured heavy prejudice and my family’s dynamic didn’t help at all. And when I say heavy I mean KKK. There was aimless shooting and other atrocities. I then moved to Washington with my aunt. My grandparents thought it better to not add to the stresses of being a teenager with having to be a black teenager in a blatantly racist area. Living in Washington was a blessing in disguise. Without all the blatant racism I had a great time discovering alternative music. I actually remember the first time I watched MTV. I saw a Green Day concert and it was all down hill from there….I loved rock n’ roll and couldn’t get enough of it. My family pretty much branded me the "white girl" of the family and so did all the black teens at my school. Somehow I held steadfast to what I loved. It wasn’t a question of rebellion or even finding myself. This was who I was. I loved boys with tattoos, crazy hair and guitars. I loved rock music, and through all the turmoil and the loneliness I felt and the obstacles I had to overcome just to enjoy the music and lifestyle, I still made it.

Now I am a rocking hairstylist for many of Washington’s hottest local bands and I work for a promotions company that sets up tours for bands. I love doing hair….the art and precision it takes to look at someone’s face, consider their lifestyle, and what their hopes are for their style. I love giving them what they want.

My Best friend Del Brown is a girl who had a very similar journey to mine. When I met her I knew she was my soulmate, a punk rock diva just like me and also a woman who has given me balance in loving the music and lifestyle I’m into as well as owning and loving my culture, and I am a better person for it. Music also defines who I am. Del and I are working on a project called “Kalling All Kars”, an indie rock electro clash trip hop band. I’m also the front woman for a hard rock/funk infused band called Modern Union. I would eventually like to be a stylist for some trendsetting stars and musicians, and have a staff spot on a sitcom as a hairstylist. As far as music I really would like to grow as an artist. My band is getting ready to record so I am really looking within myself and looking to other great women such as Lisa Kekura from The Bell Rays to see the deepness and emotion that goes into leading a good rock band. I am starting to modify and design some plus size rock gear and I want to get deeper into that. Most of all I just want to be happy and surround myself with amazing and interesting people. I feel like I am off to a great start.

Next Up: The Girlblue Project

2009-02-04T19:32:00.000-08:00

About 3 years ago I started a project that was very special to me. Fed up with narrow stereotypes about who Black women are--what music we listen to, how we dress, how we speak, etc.--I decided to create a book featuring the stories and photos of Black women who had been labeled as "outside the norm." This project allowed me to interview, photograph, and review biographical essays from a group of amazing, strong, and wonderful women. The book hasn't materialized (yet) and although I did release a zine to preview the project, I've had all these amazing photos and stories just sitting on my hard drive begging to be shared. Maybe one day they will take on the form they were originally intended to, but in the meantime I would like to share them in all their glory here on Black Butterfly. Periodically I'll be featuring Girlblue stories, beginning with one of my favorite submissions: Najah Monique Todd. Enjoy.

Aisha Cousins, Double Dutch Diva

2009-02-02T18:53:00.000-08:00

Take a group of Black women, over 20 feet of hair extensions, and a double dutch game like no other, and you have the vision of prolific young artist Aisha Cousins. The Brooklyn-based artist calls her performance piece Diva Dutch, and it involves jumping rope, double dutch style--only instead of jumprope, the participant is jumping with two very long, thick braids made from synthetic hair, attached to the heads of two Black women. The result is visually stunning, and a testament to our collective girlhood memories as African Americans. Who doesn't remember sitting at the feet of their mother/grandmother/aunt/girlfriend and having their hair freshly oiled and braided? Or joining in a neighborhood game of double dutch (or if you were shy like me, standing on the side in complete awe just wishing you could do that!) Diva Dutch is a sweet reminder about how much fun it is to be a Black girl, something we can lose sight of in a sea of sad statistics and news stories. Of her work, Cousins writes,
Diva Dutch is a piece about black aesthetics. And when I say black I mean female, cuz I'm black and I'm female and my black is just as black as everybody else's. It's about celebrating our aesthetics. Period. It's for us. But the hip thing is that a crash course in what black women think is beautiful about themselves is good for everybody else. It tells you more about us than the user-friendly edited version. And this is good because we live here and you live with us and it's time you get to know us. (Cuz guess what: We know a lot about you.)

The most important aspect of diva dutch, for me, really is looking at black women through black women's eyes. Simple. Logical. But rarely done. Mainly because our eyes are filtered through the eyes of others. As a subculture in the U.S. we have learned to see ourselves through the eyes of others. Constantly explaining. It's one of the differences, I'm betting, between African-Americans and our counterparts in Africa and the Caribbean. We have been taught to see ourselves through someone else's vision. And as black women we are taught to explain ourselves, because the feminine is never normal. Not neutral. One can't assume that everyone can relate. This constant explaining is not only stressful it's restricting. One of the internal restrictions laid on during slavery, that we haven't ever managed to fully shake.

I was able to view and participate in the piece first hand during Aisha's late summer performance outside the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts in Brooklyn. The braiding took most of the day and by nightfall, those of us who had gathered at the museum headed over to nearby outdoor eatery Habana Cuba where a lot of folks were gathered to watch a screening of Prince's 80s masterpiece, Purple Rain. It felt like some kind of crazy Playa Holiday or something: Prince music wafting through the streets of Fort Greene on a summer night, and on the corner folks are jumping double dutch with...giant hair extensions? It was quite a sight, it was almost magical. Lots of people had the Diva Dutch experience that night and took turns jumping, myself included.

It's amazing when an artist has such a clarity of vision that anyone who happens upon her work becomes caught up in the rapture of it. Aisha Cousins is just such an artist. She not only creates work, she masterfully crafts unforgettable multisensory experiences that are extremely engaging. And part of her wisdom is knowing when to step back and simply let her art unfold. I was truly inspired by this piece, and I can't wait to see what's next from this talented artist.

www.myspace.com/aishacousins

Brooklyn Fashion Gets Political

2009-02-01T14:16:00.000-08:00

If you were in New York during the Presidential election season, you might have noticed these fabulous handmade pins so many Obama supporters were sporting. Heck, maybe you even participated in one of those pin-making parties at Moxie's Cafe in Brooklyn helped create them and mail them to swing states.
2008 was a year that change was in the air for America, and one couldn't help but be swept up in the fervor and the promise of a new administration, a turning point in this country's history. Fashion was no exception. Famous designers such as Donatella Versace and Marc Jacobs were sending Obama campaign-inspired looks down the runway with messages like "hope", "vote", and "change" emblazoned on their creations. And Vogue's editor-at-large, the influential Andre Leon Talley revealed in his monthly column that "yours truly hasn't taken off the Sidney Garber safety pin and charm with the word HOPE spelled out in pave diamonds since Election Night."
But for those of us with a less diamond-esque budget, a Brooklyn teacher provided us with a charm that was equally fashionable and absolutely free. I receieved my piece of fashion history while ringing up a customer at the grocery store I was working at in Brooklyn Heights. She had the most adorable Obama pin I'd ever seen: it was turquoise with a shadow outline of the soon-to-be President's face, and framed with glitter. The safety pin it was attached to had a set of colorful plastic confetti pieces decorating it. "Where did you get that?" I exclaimed. I had been looking for something unique to show my support, the typical red white and blue color palette and the same boring campaign buttons I'd seen everywhere were not my cup of tea. "Oh, there's a teacher that makes them. Here, you can have mine. In fact, take two. I've got a whole bunch." She handed me the one she was wearing along with a much larger black and white pin.
As Election Night drew closer, these pins were all over Brooklyn, in all sizes and colors. They were such a unique and creative way to show support. And then one day I flipped open a copy of the Daily News, and there's Sarah Jessica Parker working the phones at an Obama campaign office in Manhattan, rocking a hot pink version of the pin! They were becoming high fashion.
The elections are over (and now the real work begins) but like Mr. Talley, I'm still sporting my pin. It not only represents a moment in America's history, but also one piece of the grassroots efforts of creative folks in Brooklyn, New York.

What I'm currently working on

2009-01-28T22:04:00.000-08:00

Recession-era art making, it's a fascinating adventure. Well, long story short, I picked up and moved from California to Brooklyn, New York, only to move back home again 5 months later (that's an entire post in and of itself!) Well while I was living there and paying an exorbitant amount of rent for my cozy apartment and making barely enough at a small health food store to pay my bills, my usual art creation fare--large canvases with oodles of brightly colored acrylic paint--was entirely out of my price range. But one of the things I love about life is adapting to circumstances and learning something new about one's capabilities in the process.
I had 2 huge pads of watercolor paper with me, and I began painting watercolor and gouache faces to cut out. By painting faces rather than entire compositions, I was able to create all sorts of little characters using less paint and paper.
When I returned to California, I came to appreciate the beauty of its abundant natural landscapes even more. I envisioned creating lots of little faces and placing them in natural settings around the Bay Area. As I prepare for this project, I've been studying some of the artists who created "earthworks" in the 1970s. Creating earth-based art is a performance in and of itself, and I'm particularly fascinated by the work of Ana Mendieta. The art she created--carving her silhouette into grass, earth, and rock--was marvelous on its own, but the photographs and video of her creative process are equally inspiring. I'm excited to take my artwork out of a traditional exhibition space, it's something I've never done before.
This country and the world are experiencing extraordinarily hard times right now. So many people are out of work, losing their homes, and having to cut back in all areas of life. It's times like these when we're forced to meet our spirit, our resilience, and reconsider what matters most in our lives. It's a time to go back to basics, and find new ways of living and working. I'm definitely feeling the pinch, but I'm up to the challenge.