New Mentor, New Ideas

A couple of weeks ago I spoke with my mentor Renee Cox about where I could see my work going, as well as what I wanted to communicate through my work. It was a great meeting because she suggested some great alternatives for me that I was already considering. Printing on fabric. A previous mentor, Ceci Mendez had suggested a similar thing almost a year ago and it's definitely been in my mind to do. I think I've procrastinated the idea for a number of reasons: 1) I was afraid it would be costly 2) I didn't want to waste money and it went all wrong. But I think one thing I 'm learning is its good to explore things new avenues in your work because you never know where it will lead you. Another reflection I thought of from my meeting with Renee was scale. I think it's something I've been wanting to play with for a long time. I personally love work that has scale to it so why haven't I been blowing up my work? Well, I definitely didn't want to be blowing up work for no reason at all, but I really can understand and comprehend the reasons why. Scale helps the work to somehow speak louder in a way that small intimate images just don't. I've always felt that way looking at art,  know it's my time to pick up the pace.

Another discovery. Display. Not that this is a foreign thing for me as well, but I find that the better the presentation the better the art. As I've begun the process of working on the brown paper bags, the hardest thing for me to conceive was presentation. I was explaining to Renee my personal connection to the African American quilting tradition and all of sudden it seemed like a major light bulb came on. Why not either quilt the bags?(Only if they were dramatic enough in scale) or take images of the drawings on the bags, print them on fabric, and quilt them? Sounds like a good idea to me! The irony is that since I started The Skin Quilt Project I've been doing more stitching and sewing of fabrics. We'll see how that goes but it's definitely a way to re-look at the issues I've been working in, and tie it all together. Stay tuned for more fun in this process!

September 25th at South Shore Art Center!!!

Hey all, I'm excited to report that on September 25th, 6-8 p.m. I will be attending the opening reception at the South Shore Art Center for their Color Matters show( September 18–November 1) that was juried by Associate Curator of the ICA Boston, Jen Mergel.

Yours truly was one of the artists selected to present a piece( Shades of me, left) in the show, which was a tremendous honor. This will be one of the first juried exhibitions I've been a part of so I feel like this is the start of something new. It's hard to get plugged into the Boston scene so I feel very blessed and know it's only the grace of God!

On another note, The Skin Quilt Project is going great! I had my first trip to Houston a few weekends ago and it was a remarkable experience. It's truly a blessing to be able to meet and talk to so many people to hear their own experiences and see how we're really all connected. I've been editing and capturing footage ever since I got home and it's been amazing to look back after the interviews and see what was said. When you're filming your only able to really hear some things because you're also focusing on the vision of everything. I've also been able to recruit some outstanding scholars and quilters for the project as well so I feel very humbled to be able to speak with them all. Keep a look out on The Skin Quilt Project site as I'll be posting some footage their as well as commentary about the participants etc.

In other things, I'm looking doing a bit of quilting myself or at least looking at the quilting technique as a theme for my MFA thesis. I'll show the progress!!!

Researching Black Super Models

I read in the Times yesterday and found that Naomi Sims, a black supermodel,(Not to be confused with Naomi Campbell!) notably recognized for breaking the chains off of the American modeling circuit recently died from cancer. I think there is something very profound about her story, as before her most of the black models were lighter-skinned. One very disturbing part of her journey as a model is that she was rejected often early in her career because she was "darker-skinned" and that her "look" would be rejected by readers. I find this interesting, because it seems the ideas of beauty for black women have been originated by the European idea of beauty. I started to research the stories of major black super models such as Naomi Campbell, who graced the cover of the Vogue Paris due to an advertiser refusing to advertise if she wasn't chosen.

Now looking at some of the newer generation of models it is interesting to see that how certain shades of black women become prominent at different points in our history. To my knowledge Naomi Sims came on during the "Black is beautiful" movement, and now looking at some of the current models such as Chanel Iman and Selita Ebanks are fairly lighter. There is a very caramel look happening now that seems to act as a happy medium between light and dark. Again, fashion and trends are changing all the time, where old ideas are recycled and reused in different ways.It seems that ideas on black beauty are too.

New Projects, New Projects, New Projects!!!!!

So this is going to be a mega busy semester with many things to see and do. First, I would like to introduce everyone to a new online site that I've launched called, CVAAD Projects (www.cvaad.com) that features contemporary visual art and artists of the African Diaspora. I would blame AIB for pushing so much research in the program, that it actually made me like it! But it's something I'm really passionate about as I really would like to see a greater presence of black artists in galleries, magazines, anthologies etc. The word really needs to get out there. So CVAAD Projects will act as a catalyst and producer for that type of movement. Also, I've finally given in to the "film bug," those of you who know me know that I've done short films in the past, but many of you may perhaps be unfamiliar. After all of the abuse I've experienced at AIB,lol, I was encouraged to have more video and a more tangible look at the issue of colorism. It's taken me awhile to get this all together but I've launched a documentary project that I'm working on, called The Skin Quilt Project. This documentary is largely about the presence of colorism within the African American community, but also the paradox of the things we do to connect to our cultural heritage. It's going to be a challenge to tie these two concepts together, but I'm really passionate about it. Obviously quilting in the African American community has a dialogue of it's own, but one of the things I was facinated about was it's relevance in African American art. So I'm using quilting as a way to enter into this discussion about colorism. They are two opposite outlooks on African American culture, quilting being the pride and joy, and colorism being the shame and guilt. But I'm interested in meeting with quilters of African descent to discuss the complexity of these two emotions: 1) the joy of quilting as a sense of cultural pride 2) the disappointment of ones cultural view on skin complexion. How can pride and insecurity exist in the same framework? This is what The Skin Quilt Project aims to explore. This will be a controversial move, but I feel it's necessary to really get the point across. I'm so excited that I've already begun to recruit interviewees for the project. Check out the website/blog for the project at: www.skinquiltproject.com.

Review in Allston Brighton Tab!!

So here is the review in the Allston Brighton Tab that I mentioned in my previous post. I do feel that she slightly misquoted me, or at least ducked off alot of the context that I said in our interview but ultimately, press is press right?

Essence/February 2009 in Junko Revival show

This Sunday was the opening for the Junko Revival show(July 12–August 9, 2009) at Rescue (325 Brighton Avenue, Allston, MA) a hip store featuring new and used modern style apparel for men and women. The event was organized by Glovebox(www.gloveboxboston.com),a non profit organization that features the work of emerging and undiscovered artist in the Boston area.It was a great experience, and I was lucky enough to even be interviewed by the Allston/Brighton Tab. I'll be on the look out to see if anything goes to press. I would say that this was also my first time exhibiting in Boston, and it was also great to show completely new work.

I showed three pieces from a new series(Essence/February 2009) that I started recently inspired by Essence magazine, one of the most popular publications for black women. I grew up reading Essence and it has often been the single place( Besides Ebony and Jet) where black women could see their "own" all throughout their pages, whether it in articles or the beauty and fashion pages. The mixed media drawings from this series Essence/ February 2009 were inspired by representations of black women in the beauty and fashion spreads. For years there has been an ongoing argument about the limited representations of dark-skinned beauties on these pages of their magazine, and the dominance of a women of lighter-skin has prescribed a skepticism about "black beauty."

As I've been working on the brown paper bags for a while I felt the combination of these two influences: 1. the representation of black beauty in black magazines and 2. the concept of the brown paper bag test to be connected. It all seems to comment on the ways in which the black community has found ways to tear each other down in the process of building others up. It has destroyed the way we think and see each other.

I think I'm most interested in deconstructing the concept of having a "black alternative" of European beauty because this way of thinking has had such a subtle affect on people that it's almost unrecognizable. Yet at the same time I think it's affect on people is so detrimental in the long run. In my impression no issue should be pushed under the rug as any issue has the potential to be completely destructive. We should love each other that much.

On the other hand, we are making obvious steps towards progress in light of our new President and First lady. Its amazing how healing it is to see Michelle Obama featured on the cover of magazines and so trailed by the media, its definitely a step in the right direction, which in my view is the right way to go.

Residency Tomorrow!!Aaaah!!

The AIB residency is tomorrow and I'm both happy and nervous about it. These are the images I'll be bringing, however, I might also be bringing some other projects I've worked on as well.  All of these images reflect all the research that I've been doing on the representation of the black image in Western art. I'm actually finally somewhat pleased with the result, and feel like I have work that is coinciding with what I'll be writing for my thesis. I know there is alot of work to do to prepare but I'm excited. As usual it will be great to see all of my classmates and faculty. It feels somewhat bittersweet that this is actually the last official residency for grad school, where I will be critiqued. The final residency being the one where I defend my thesis and prepare work for the graduate exhibition.

I think what I'd really like to gain from this residency is feedback that will be helpful as I prepare to hone things for my thesis. I could certainly bring additional work, however, I'm not sure if that would get acros

s my message. My advisor really made it clear in the last residency that I should focus on bringing works that were more edited, so here it is. All of these images are 24x16 primarily except for one horizontal image(16x24).I certainly plan to expound even more from these works and to create more, however, it was very difficult to do this semester as I felt that it started much later then usual. I also had the task of really digging deeper into my research to see w

hat I really needed to be saying and how I really needed to be saying it. I found as I began to at the history of the black image in Western art that I started to see aspects that I was very interested in exploring. And I began to depart from many of the things that I did in past semesters such as the use of text. I don't believe that  it's because that I didn't have anything to say, but I began to question myself and why I wanted to use text so much. I believe it's something that is apart of me, and I love writing. So it's almost a natural chain or reaction. I think what really helped me was that I had so many opportunities to write this year, whether it be articles or the papers that I worked on this semester. Not that the papers have changed from past semesters, but I guess I sort of felt settled into my topic so much more. When I first started the MFA program I felt so sensitive about writing about African American art or art of 

the African diaspora. Yet over time I started to experience a momentum that really helped me through this semester. I have to say honestly that it was my writing that helped me to make sense of what I really wanted to do. I also had some great encouragement and advice from my mentor Howardena Pindell, who was very helpful to me. I had been working on the brown paper bags, which I will continue to do, however, I felt like the message was getting across so much better with these digital paintings I began to make. In my mind I believe that I had already knew this was where I was going, however, I think sometimes we choose to go along for the ride, take a couple of detours, just for the fun of it. I think all of it has taught be a lot and has 

given me a new sense of understanding for what I want to be doing. I'm more amazed particularly by the Hottentot Venus image that I created, because I never really thought I'd be addressing her topic in my art. I mean there have been many other artists who have such as Rene

e Cox and Carla Williams, who have used her references in their photography. I'm sure my good friend and curator Barbara Thompson would be tickled to see how her work at the Hood Museum and Davis Museum has influenced what I'm doing now. I don't think I'll ever forget the excitement that my mentor Ms. Pindell expressed when she saw my photo sketches of the project. And it really hit me how important history is to art, and how it allows us to reflect on so much more then maybe the main topic. Besides a rough start I feel that I'm fairly pleased with the outcome this semester. I think there are definitely great things to come...