A Moody Mood

Greetings All,

I have finished my latest piece "A Moody Mood"(below) and above is the section that I made to connect the two piece to create a whole and more suitable tribute to one of the greatest saxophone players of all time. I hope that you enjoy my piece and the music.

Happy New Year - Piece of the Week

Greetings All,

Happy New Year and I hope/pray that all is well. I also hope/pray that you have a great/safe new year and thank you for stopping by my blog. I also thank you for forgiving my grammar, my type O's and spelling. I copied that from Sister Stich Alot's blog and I love her blog and her posting this reminder of who some of us are. My intentions are to encourage, inspire and share and not to point out flaws. I hope that I have achieved that and look forward to doing more in this new year.



Below is my newest/latest piece. I've been working all week long on finishing pieces and they've thus far they have all been about jazz. This Sassy and she didn't come out looking like who I wanted her to be, but I'm ok with that. I will marry her with the James Moody piece that I created earlier and see what happen before I go to have my New Years tradition of Gumbo. Yes I said Gumbo. Not Collard greens, Black-eye peas or those other wonderful dishes that most of my friends will be having. My family and friends have been having Gumbo, steaks, and Champagne for our celebrations for the pass 10 years or more. So why change a good thing?

I also forgot to post those last two principles of Kwanzaa and do forgive me for that. Have a great day and much love/peace/grace.

Dec. 31st KUUMBA CREATIVITY - To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.

Jan. 1st IMANI FAITH - To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

Conversations in Stitch Exhibition

Save Darfur

Greetings All,

Another exhibition that I will participate in is titled Conversations in Stitch, an exhibition of fiber art by members of the Fiber Artists Coalition, will be on view at the Anderson Art Center in Kenosha, Wisconsin, January 23 to March 20, 2011. An Opening Reception is scheduled from 1:30 to 4 p.m. on January 23.

The Fiber Artists Coalition is made up of Professional Artist Members of Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) from the upper Midwestern United States. FAC curates traveling exhibits of its members' works. Members employ a variety of innovative materials and techniques in the creation of fiber art with a contemporary edge.

Where Dancers Go

UJAMAA-Cooperative Economics and NIA - Purpose

Greetings All,
The principles for day 4 and 5 of Kwanzaa are late because I've been busy finishing several pieces for my up and coming exhibit. So please forgive me for being tardy and you can see the pieces below completed or almost.

Dec. 29th UJAMAA COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS - To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.

Dec. 30th NIA PURPOSE - To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

"Collaboration - V (Ella)"

The above piece was created with the assistance of my mentee, Myia Esper. Myia painted the background and I add humming birds with Golden Gel Medium. The upper left hand one was cut from a magazine and the middle and lower left were printed from my pc on regular paper that I got from a copyright free website and I then cut humming birds from a blue plastic bag and applied them over the paper. I love this mix media process and I love working with Myia. Myia and I are a part of a mentoring program at Urban Circle Ministries and have been partnered since 2007.

James Moody (below) was an easy piece that took me about 8 hours to create. I love the simplicity of this piece and for me it was all about the cool blue. His jacket fabric is some of the fabrics that were created by the Henderson and they are the children that live next door to me. His shirt was some of my own had dyed and his sax is out of silk duponi that I have had for years and I'm just about at the end of the yard. I must get more because I just love the hand of silk and I love me some James Moody who died on December 9, 2010.

Kwanzaa day 3 - UJIMMA - Collective Work

Greetings All,
Today is day 3 of the Kwanzaa and that principle for today is UJIMA - COLLECTIVE WORK and RESPONSIBILITY. To build and maintain our community together and make our brother's and sister's problems our problems and to solve them together.

With the collective work of friends I was able to have one of my pieces pick up to be in an exhibit at the Peltz Gallery in Milwaukee, WI. The piece below (They Make Me Feel Like Dancing) will be a part of "Visions, Voices, and Viewpoints" curated by Della Wells and the exhibit opens January 21,2011. More info to come and I am truly grateful to Della, Sonji, and Townsend for their support/effort in getting my piece there. I could not have done it without them. They work together with a sister to solve her problem and she's dancing:-)

Kwanzaa day 2 - Kujichagulia - Self Determination

Greetings All,

Kujichagulia - SELF DETERMINATION to define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves & speak for ourselves. Below is a collage of some of the pictures that I took day-2 at the Kwanzaa celebration andI was glad to see the people that I took pictures of. Some I've not seen in years and it was good know that all is well and that they were self determined.



Kwanzaa Village Men in Action (below) wearing the garments that I created for them and I'm thankful to Mr. Love for asking me to do so. Below from left to right, Brother Blanks with Jessica Holloway, Bro. Blanks, and Ted/Judith Love. Thank you all for your support and kind comments.

Belated Merry Christmas and Happy Kwanzaa

Greetings All,

I have been busy this week creating 25 garments (above) for the Kwanzaa Village Men of Action. They will be participating at Malcolm X College and along with the Shule Ya Watoto (School for Children) in conducting their 16th annual Kwanzaa Celebration from Dec 26, 2010 through January 1, 2010, focusing on "A Kwanzaa 2010 Tribute to Positive Youth Leadership". Kwanzaa, and especially their celebration, has grown immensely in popularity. Last year , over three thousand people came to the college to join in the festivities. This event is the only seven-day celebration held by a public institution in the country. It is warmly received.

Overview of Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa, a celebration of the first fruits, was created by Dr. Maulana Karenga in 1966 as a cultural idea and an expression of the US Organization in California. Dr. Karenga was inspired by the harvest festivals found in the various parts of Africa and used symbols from various cultural groups to create a holiday that reflected the needs and experiences of Africans in America.

Today, Kwanzaa is celebrated by millions of people of African decent throughout the United States and the Diaspora. It is a non-heroic, non-religious, nonmilitary, apolitical celebration that reflects the history, struggle, triumphs and labors of African-Americans and Africans throughout the world.

Kwanzaa is celebrated from December 26th through January 1 1st and maintains at its core a value system, which should become the minimum moral standard for all Black families. This value system is called the "Nguzo Saba" (seven principles) and each day of Kwanzaa stands for one of the principles:

This value system is called the "Nguzo Saba" (seven principles) and each day of Kwanzaa stands for one of the principles:

Dec. 26th UMOJA UNITY - To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.

Dec. 27th KUJICHAGULIA SELF-DETERMINATION - To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.

Dec. 28th UJIMA COLLECTIVE WORK and RESPONSIBILITY - To build and maintain our community together and make our brother's and sister's problems our problems and to solve them together.

Dec. 29th UJAMAA COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS - To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.

Dec. 30th NIA PURPOSE - To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

Dec. 31st KUUMBA CREATIVITY - To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.

Jan. 1st IMANI FAITH - To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

Kwanzaa, like all holidays, has its symbols and rituals. Celebrations can take place in homes or at larger community gatherings. Coming together in unity is important because families, especially the children, can participate fully during Kwanzaa by discussing and practicing the principles of the day.

Above is The Piece of The Week another in the collaboration series that was created with the help of Felicia Grant Preston, Mary Scott Boria and Deborah Norwood who came to my house earlier this year for a play date. It will be a part of my exhibit next month at Concordia University. Thanks to my sister-friends for their collaboration.

Michele Hardman thank you for the fabrics I used some of your pieced fabrics to separate the painted cloth and I also used some other fabric that you gave me on the back. This is truly an effort of UNITY - UMOJA and thank you all again for being a parts of it and for being friends.