Thursday, March 19, 2009

Women's History Month/Piece of the Week

Greetings All,

On Wednesday I spent the morning installing my latest new small pieces along with 16 others at the "Harold Washington Library" for Women History Month and some. I know that this is the middle of the month, but the staff at the library would not allow me to install until the insurance was all in place. I'm not the only one that this happen to from what I understand it happen to all the artist that are participating in this exhibit throughout the city. I have 3 small works in a display case in the children's library on the second floor. Tall Grass (below left) and Dance Granny Dance (below right)are the latest creation and Sax-II (below center) is from a previous series of works that are apart of my "Smooth Jazz Clip-art". They were inspired by children's books, In The Tall, Tall, Grass by Denise Fleming, Our Granny, by Margaret Wild and Julie Vivas, and Jazz on a Saturday Night by Leo & Diane Dillon. I chose these books not only for there stories, but because of there illustrations. I have loved illustrations all of my life. I can remember spending hours looking at the illustrations as a child and falling in love with them. My works can be see at Harold Washington Library on the Visual Arts Floor (8th) and in the Thomas Hughes Children's Library (2nd floor) at the same location until the end of April.

I also stopped by the Chicago Cultural Center to check out the Poetic Dialogue exhibit. My young friend LaShawnda Crowe Storm and her collaborator M. Eliza Hamilton Abegunde part in this exhibit. I was most impress with their work and look forward to seeing others.. The Poetic Dialogue Project, curated by artist Beth Shadur, is an ongoing project of collaboration between contemporary artists and poets, who have created new works of art by responding to the muse of each other’s works. This exhibit will run until April 5, 2009 in the Sidney Yates Gallery at Chicago Cultural Center, 78 East Washington Street, Chicago 2009.





Monday, March 16, 2009

Cultural Connections

Greetings All,
I got a nice comment about some pieces that I sold to a client last year. She stopped by by booth at the Cultural Connections and told me how much she love the pieces and how her guests responded when they see them. She email me a picture yesterday and they do look good on her pale green wall. They are from my "Weddgie" series and they are mounted on plexi-glass so that the wall color shows thru. Thank you Margo Haynes for the commission, sale, and photo. I love a happy client.
I did make a small purchase at the Cultural Connections. I bought some note cards from artist Angela Williams of Studio W Art + Design. Angela dose watercolors and mix-media collages. I love her work and plan to check her out in June at the Hyde Park Art Fair in Chicago, IL at 57th Street and Kimbark, June 6th & 7th, 2009.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Cultural Connections and the piece of the week.

Greetings All,
The piece of the week is my first machine felted creation completed with the use of Erica Graff's Baby Lock??? felting machine. This was a different kind of experience for me and a challenging one because I wanted to treat this machine like a regular sewing machine and I broke two needles. That I didn't like, but I do like the simple little piece that I created. I used hand dyed cotton batting and wool roving that was created and supplied by Judy Coates Perze. I painted a Crescent matte board and sowed the piece to it. I added some of the scraps from squaring up the piece to the matte board and I also sewed some of Sonji Hunt's wonderful hand painted fabric scraps to the felted piece. So thanks to all my friends that contributed to this small work and it's a good thing to have friends.


I went out vending this weekend and sales were down, but I did come home with some goodies and had a good time. I have another Najee Dorsey to my collection and I just love it. Najee is a young artist from Georgia that I met last year along with his wife. He creates these wonderful mix-media collages. The piece that I got this weekend is called "A People United" (below). I'm still riding high from the past presidental election and this piece reminds me of that and my youth. I was born in 1950 and still remember those times. My daughter asked will I ever forget and I told her I hope not. Najee got in exchange a king-size bed quilt and "Mother Wind" (right) we both were very please with our acquisitions.I also did a little booth sitting for Nii-Oti Zambezi and in exchange I got a bone/silver earring. I also found out that Nito is a fabulous painter (below). He has works that feeds the body inside and out. Do check out the links to all the websites.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Mermaid and Merwomen at the Avery opening


Greetings All,

The opening of "Mermaid and Merwomen in Black Folklore" exhibit was a success and I received an email to confirm this from Cookie Washington one of the Co-curator.


"Dear Ladies and gentleman,
Here are some photos of the opening of the MERMAIDS AND MERWOMEN IN BLACK FOLKLORE show. It was a wonderful time and I was so pleased so many of you all came. Thank you so much. The show is set to travel to the Florence Museum on April 2, 2009 and you will receive contracts and invites from them soon. We are still working to get a catalogue/small book produced of this show... I will update you all as events unfold...The works are all so beautiful and there were more than 140 people at the opening and it got rave reviews... We were featured Saturday night on the local NBC news channel at 11 PM.March 14th there will be a children's program at the Avery, If we get photos I will send them along. I cannot tell you how wonderful the show is and I have spoken before a group of about 15 ladies and they were so moved by your art and the story of Black Mermaids and what they meant to each of them...I will send more photos. Peace and Blessings to you all. Cookie Washington Co-curator of Mermaids and Merwomen in Black Folklore." Above is a photo of some of the artists that came out to the opening and below is a list of participants in the exhibit. Do check out their websites or stories.

Belinda Lyons Zucker
Kianga Jinaki
Amy Stelly
Pat Neese
Is’Mima Nebt’kata
Yvonne F Anderson
Shirley Bullock
Jacqueline Johnson
Martha Ann Dudley
Antonia S Torres
Rosalind Spann
Pam Woollis (Suji)
Ethel White
Lenora Brown
Margaret Edinburgh
Antoinette Savage
Lucy Elliott
Tommie Burwell
Gail Wilson
LaQuita Tummings
Patty Woodhurst
Lynda Thompson
Shelia Bligen
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