Light vs. Dark Comparisons

After coming back from the residency I began to think a lot about how I might want to go about rendering "different modes of expressions" as Sunanda would say. So  after the residency I started to experiment with an adhesive back transfer paper that I had bought some months ago. I had thought at the time that it would something really new for me to use and it would allow me to place images on my work in a different way then cutting and pasting actual images from photo paper. This way the images would have a translucence to them which was definitely what I was looking for. It would allow me to keep the character of the material that I was using, the brown paper bag, while not directly being limited with just drawings and photographs. 

A while ago as I was investigating the whole colorism subject I had begun to compile these images of prominent African Americans who were a visible reference of what I know people classify as "light-skinned" and "dark- skinned." During that time it was pre- President Obama so there were a number of images of Barack and Michelle Obama to choose from. I found however that I was more interested in Michelle Obama than Barack Obama though, not so much because I wasn't excited about a potential black president, but I was interested in the reason for so many black women's interest in Michelle Obama. Not only is she a educated, a intellectual, and a well spoken woman, but what I heard from many women is that "finally a darker-skinned woman got the break." This interested me because it changed for me how I interpreted people's perception of Barack Obama. On one hand there were many white people specifically in the media who thought she was a threatening figure, where at different times they framed her to be a hinderance to his campaign. Yet, on the other hand to black women she was the very reason they accepted Barack Obama, or took him more seriously. Perhaps it is because people had seen numerous "light-skinned" men in power who were wonderful speakers, and who had fought for the "black cause" but either married white or a woman who was"near white." What that communicates is something far more than I think people realize. 

So anyway, I was particularly interested in the way that the media was portraying her. There was one image on the cover of "Times" that caught my eye, because it portrays Michelle in a very innocent way(with her arms covering her). During this same time I had begun to collect some images of Beyonce' as well, because she for me emphasizes a woman of color who has been able to be so universal perhaps because of her skin tone. And also, she came under some controversy last year because of her ads in Loreal, which in my impression I had suspected they had been using lightened images much earlier than now but I suppose people are just now catching on. Beyonce' has also made it known that she now identifies as "creole"(50% Creole of Color from her mother and her father is African American), which I feel is an interesting change as well. 

But together they both represent two women of color who have achieved a certain level of achievement, Beyonce as an entertainer and First Lady Michelle Obama has achieved academic and professional success not to mention being the "Mom-in-chief." So here are these two women who both believe in the same upperwardly mobile ideals( Beyonce apparently grew up looking up to professional women like Michelle Obama in her mother's salon in Houston, Texas), yet the one thing that separates them in the eyes of the black community is their skin tone. Coming from a woman who was born and raised in Houston, Texas I am fully aware of how Beyonce was viewed in the community, particularly during the rise of Destiny's Child in the late 90s to early 2000s I remember people from my high school and across the city who could sense some "skin tone-marketing" at the core of their group. Beyonce, the lighter skinned member( not to mention daughter of the manager), was singing lead, while the other darker members(even if a few shades) were at the back ups. Whether this theory is true I don't know, but it seemed like there was a movement about this across America even prior to: Salt-N-Peppa, SWV, EnVogue, TLC, Xscape(Teeny),702, then much later on 3LW. All of these groups typically had a lighter-skinned member and most of the girls when I was growing up wanted to be her, whether they were dark or light. This is a puzzling phenomenon to me, but I'll get back to that later. So by comparing these two women I think it really allows one to see how color conscious the world really is, which surely doesn't make it right but somehow you wonder how and when will it change.

Moving Slow...

This semester  has moved as slow as ever. Though I've contacted many different artists I've had the greatest challenge this semester to find a studio mentor. I'm not really sure why. But I've been taking it all in stride. My focus has been really more so on trying to get my ac

ademic side of studying down, as I prepare my t

hesis outline for the end of the semester. So far that has been the best thing that's been motivating me lately. Though I've started to get work going by taking photographs and making drawings again, it was really challenging to get a flow going because I was waiting on getting a mentor. I originally thought I had found a mentor, but unfortunately they backed out at the last minute. So I'm hoping I can get that done sooner rather than later. As of now, I recently connected with African American woman artist, Howardena Pindell, who has agreed to be my studio mentory. She is an African American woman artist who has exhibited all over the world, and whose work I recently saw at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, Texas this past Decemberat the exhibition, Cinema Remixed and Reloaded, Black Women Artists and the moving image since 1970s.

She had an amazing video entitled"Free, White and 21"( to right is a video still from Free, White and 21, with Howardena Pindell in "white face")where she tells various experiences about being discriminated against because of her color, and in contrast a "white Howardena" is making comments about how she should be grateful. It was a very striking video that has given her much critical acclaim as well as her other abstract works. I'm thrilled and delighted to be able to work with her, as well as extremely grateful as she as a well known artist who I'm sure has much to do.

So just to catch you up, since the last residency at the advisement of my advisor, I've been doing quite a bit of research on the representation of Black in American visual culture, and it's been a really good process. I finally feel like there is a good direction for my work to go and I'm really excited about preparing everything for the next residency. I'm doing a range of different things but ultimately I'll bringing one body of work to the next residency. I'm also looking at the possibility of adding video as well, so I believe that by working with Howardena that will give me some good feedback to go on. I should have some new images up soon for you to view as well.

 As for recent exhibitions that I've seen, I went to the Danforth Museum to see Faith Ringgold's Story Quilts exhibition as well as Sedrick Huckaby's Love Supreme(The below right images are of Faith Ringgold's Jazz Story Quilts and one of Sed

rick Huckaby's quilt paintings). They were both equally amazing, and very inspiring. It made me think a lot about my work in terms of using material and subjects of African American  culture. Faith Ringgold's figures felt very connected to mine not specifically in style but in the evidence of place and movement in her work. Sedrick Huckaby's work really related to me because of his paintings of quilts, but also the scale of the work. I was in awe of how massive the paintings were and how much they said though the quilts in contrast to Faith Ringgold had abstract forms instead of human figures. It reminded me of some images that my mother sent of my great grandmother's quilts that she made with my gran-

dmother and uncle. I'm really  interested in how to meld the quilting theme into my work somehow, I'm slowly beginning to see how I might think of doing that. But seeing Mr. Huckaby's work definitely gave me lots to think about.

I actually saw his work while I was at the January AIB residency because he had an exhibition at Nielsen Gallery. He had some amazing paintings of African American family, one being his painting of his grandmother in "Big Mama's House"( right). It made me think of my facination with the images of my grandparents, great-grandparents, ancestors and the draw to history in my work. I feel that history tells so much about us and I'm interested in intergrating history into the ideas in my work. 

Looking at all of the representations of blacks in Western art have given me so much background to look towards. There was a particular painting by Marie Guillemin

e Benoist entitled, "Portrait of a Black Woman"(below image) that struck me most. I read alittle about this p

ainting in one of the volumes in the series "Black in Western Art" by Harvard. This image was supposed to be a pivotal image because it portrays a black women in a more beautiful way, and most accurate because it was an a

ctual model. So I'm interested in looking at the representation of blackness in this way.  There is much more that I could go on about but I will keep it at there for now. Until next time....