The new and improved: I'm a Master of Fine Arts!

Last week was my 5th MFA Residency at the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University, and I have to say I went through a range of emotions. Pure fear, which is so unlike me,  to complete awe. An explanation of that can be obtained by describing the major events that occurred during the 10 day residency.

On the very first day I was scheduled to give an artist talk, which was loosely based on my MFA Thesis, and explained the work that I was making and the artists who influenced this. I rehearsed my talk over and over like a speech and I was so nervous! Though everyone said they couldn't tell. I could lol. But, I did feel very confident in what I was doing as an artist, and though originally I was nervous about potential questions after I finished my talk it turned out that I was ready. It helped that all of the people who asked questions were very thought provoking and pertaining to my work. For example: Have you considered including the references to Egyptian and Ethopian art in your work? Do you see the influence of popular culture having an influence on advertising geared towards African-Americans? and my favorite Do I see the isolation of African-American artists playing a part in my work?  All very good questions about issues that I feel very passionate about. As my classmates stated during our Final Graduate seminar, I got "fired up." I agree.

Then, a couple of days later I was defending my thesis and work, again another scary moment but it was a success. I passed, Thank God! The readers did give me some suggestions to think about in terms of the work that I presented. 

You may be familiar with some of this work,  the brown paper bag installation Essence/February 2009, and I showed this piece along with my magazine pieces. Similiar to how I did in the Intersexions show at Stonehill College. This time, however,  I also included an excerpt of my documentary, The Skin Quilt Project, on view as well. Overall, I received great response from my display and I was really happy with the results. Big Thanks to my husband Solomon for his amazing installation services. He did an amazing job!

I think what I enjoyed most, was the opportunity to critique with other students in the program as a graduating student. I just felt that I had so much more to share than I realized. I came away from each critique feeling that I had provide them with some great advice on how to move forward, specifically in terms of making work that you can defend.

Then lastly it was the exhibition reception to look forward to and I was estatic that my mother coming in town because it's always fun when she's here so that was a great plus. Like many of my classmates we felt that the moment felt somewhat anti-climatic but I think my greatest moment was the Grad Toast. It was a great time and it really helped to celebrate the achievement of getting my MFA. I have to say that I'm so glad this season has come to a close, but honestly it was fun while it lasted!

Lauren Cross' Art Blog was selected as one of the 100 great blogs for art students and enthusiats!

Hello All,

I'm excited to report that my blog was selected by onlinecollege.org as one of the "100 Great Blogs for Art Students and Enthusiats!" Check it out!
http://www.onlinecollege.org/2010/01/20/100-great-blogs-for-art-students-enthusiasts/

This is great news! Thanks to everyone who has been tuning in!

Best,

Lauren

The Intersexions show de-installed :(

I know this is alittle after the fact, but I just wanted to show some pics of the Intersexions show I was recently apart of at Stonehill College. The show just de-installed this past weekend, but it was such a great show. There was an amazing turn out, and I was so thrilled to be in the presence of such great artists. They also did a great job on the catalog, which was very professional.

I was also encouraged that my work had such a great response in the show, and I was moved by the number of viewers that could identify with the works. Perhaps not from the context of the work     but the work itself spoke to them in some way.

There was an amazing artist panel on November 20th, where I joined with four other artists in the show( Steve Locke, Caleb Cole, James Montford, and Michele L'Heureux) to talk about our work.

The panel was very energized, and brought forth so many strong questions. There were times where I could literally feel the tension in the room. I think race and identity is unmistakably one of the most difficult things to talk about in such a large setting, because so many people have such different views and feelings about it. Obviously, from one's perspective that has a history of pain due to racism the feelings are much more emotional. I thought it was powerful to get the three perspectives of race from myself, Steve Locke, and James Montford, as we all had different individual experiences that crossed generationally but also gender and geographical origins. I was also taken by Caleb and Michele's talk as well, because the way that they discussed their work truly opens a door into the process and what the artist feels the viewer will see into the work. It was an amazing opportunity to meet all of them, some I've only known about but never met in- person.

The overall response from the exhibit was phenomenal.  It was curated by the Exhibitions and Colletions class at Stonehill College, and I have to admit that they did an exceptional job with putting together the show as did Candice Smith Corby(Gallery Director and Arts Coordinator for Stonehill) and Carole Calo, who were the instructors for the class. The show was very smart and a quite unusual topic for a student-curated show but I was glad that they chose to be somewhat controversial when most tend to stay safe. There were several notable members of the Boston arts community who saw the show and felt strongly that the show should be a traveling exhibition. I personally would love to have the opportunity to show with these artists again, as their work in relation to my own opens up so many questions about the context of race, identity, and gender in our society.

Skin Quilt Project Teaser!!

Hey everyone,

Good things happening all over, thesis writing and mega work! Check out the link below for the teaser for The Skin Quilt Project!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcwRmx0eyW0

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.