POP Love: I Heart Ampersand
POP Treat: Au Naturale
Q: What happens to that water bottle when we are finished drinking the last drop of refreshing water on a hot summer's day or better yet what happens when our pencils have gotten too short for us to write or draw with?
pics via Jennifer Maestre
pics via Gülnur özdağlar
A: Beauty
A: Beauty
POP Inspiration: Steven Shein "Get Your Shein On"
If you haven't heard of the LA based jeweler Steven Shein by now let me give you a quick introduction, "He's 80s, he's rock, he's roll, he's official," enough said!
POP Inspiration Media: Live Life in Color
Ebony Bones is my muse for so many things right now...I love that she lives in color!
POPULARized: Society HAE
SHAE is a Brooklyn,NY based home to a creative movement that crosses international cultures: "Centered on fashion, music and art, Society HAE is a website and online social network connecting people all over the world looking for unique experiences online and off...We’re a tribe of many people with many styles...Society HAE is where we gather as one community."-SHAE
+ Make your imprint on the world and join SHAE
+ Add me as a SHAE friend here
Curate Your Life: Karen Walker
Karen Walker takes women's love of fine jewelry on a modern spaceship ride through fairy tales and sci-fi escapades--landing them front and center to be admired by onlookers.
Just as the admirers become smitten they are bitten by a vampire in the daylight; yes, they are day walkers now--thanks to Karen's line ofeye wear.
If you thought that the one woman show stops there, then you are in for a surprise! Walker is also a reigning fashion designer in New Zealand with customers like Madonna, Tyra Banks. Karen started her company with $100 New Zealand to purchase fabric for two shirts (that's under $80 in the US) and now look!
Walkers dream+investment=a brand with international presence, that includes jewelry, a well-regarded eyewear collection, paints, and ready-to-wear womenswear that shows at New York fashion week bi-annually.
LESSON:
Saving to invest in your dream > Splurging on the "maybe one day" speech
+"Curate Your Life" is taking the unconventional route to your dreams, knowing that there are no set rules, you create the steps that will take you to where you need to be. Go ahead and exhibit your talents to the world...the sky is the limit!
POPULARized: Museum Matriarchs
"The kind of dismissal that comes from just people's sense that they don't imagine you are who you are actually has been one of the most powerful and liberating things for me in my work."-Thelma G. Lowrey Stokes Sims+Thelma Golden+Nicola Vassell+Shantrelle P. Lewis are what I have coined "Museum Matriarchs". Lowrey Sims is the wise mother of the bunch; yet, each African Diaspora woman has curated their life to become advocates of the arts in an industry where being a woman, being young and being of African descent years ago was just a dream...until now!
She is wise, she is profound, she is the Curator at MAD, she is Lowery Stokes Sims...check her out!
Ted 2009 speaker,executive director of the Studio Museum in Harlem, Thelma Golden is a force to be reckoned with!
She's stylish, an ex-model and with all the glamour Nicola Vassell is equally educated and well-versed in the arts as Gallery Director at Deitch Projects
One part amazing, one part futuristic and a whole lot of Africana is Shantrelle P. Lewis, Director & Curator of The George & Leah McKenna Museum of African American Art! Check her segment out at 2:02:
Book Club: Afro-Futuristic Odyssey
I was introduced to Octavia E. Butler a few years ago while in undergrad. My favorite college English Professor, Dr. Gregory Hampton was such a Butler fanatic that he organized a conference with her as the keynote speaker, “New Frontier: Blacks in Science Fiction,”spring 2003 at Howard University,and between his "Can you dig it!" moments he shared his gift of Butler knowledge with the class.
My favorite book thus far is "Kindred" because "Bloodchild" gave me so many sleepless nights and a loss of appetite. The mere thought of insects disturbed me! Yet, as I have grown older and more knowledgeable of the craftsmanship and symbolism in Butler's work I am intrigued by every word she writes. So, I am going back to research all of her writings. I welcome you to join me on this Afro-futuristic odyssey. If you have any articles or other resources on Butler please feel free to send them my way. Check out Octavia E. Butler's books below in chronological order:
Patternist series:
Pattern Master (1976)
Mind of my Mind (1977)
Survivor (1978) [Butler later disowned this book as one that she regrets ever made it to print. It's currently out of print and sells for extremely high prices because of its rarity]
Wild Seed (1980)
Clay's Ark (1984)
Xenogenesis novels:
Dawn (1987)
Adulthood Rites (1988)
Imago (1989)
And the two collected versions of all three novels:
Xenogenesis (Hard cover, 1989)
Lilith's Brood (Trade Paperback, 2000)
Parable novels:
Parable of the Sower (1993)
Parable of the Talents (1998)
Stand Alone novels:
Kindred (1979)
Fledgling (2005)
Short fiction:
Bloodchild and Other Stories (1995)
Gallery POPPING: Super Powers & All
Hebru Brantley has once stated that he wants to be known as a "super hero" and using his super powers Brantley creates wonderful masterpieces that are full of surprises.
In his solo show at the Three Peas Art Lounge, entitled "Fade Resistant" the super hero includes profile portraits that "examines the notion that complex people have a certain depth that is not fully recognized nor appreciated. These portraits touch upon people’s relationship with hair and how they create and maintain a certain status (or even reinvent a status bestowed upon them) through the use of creative solutions. Hebru also provides a lot of background imagery that he subconsciously draws. If the side profiles only gives you but so much, the background gives you so much more. Many of the characters that we find in the background play second field to the subjects in the foreground. These characters have a human functionality that is not quite formed and may be viewed as bland, but all the while it provides us with a plethora of information about the bigger picture." -Fade Resistant
"Hebru Brantley:Fade Resistant" May 1-June 4, 2009
75 E 16th St (between Wabash and Michigan Aves)
Printers Row/South Loop, Chicago
p:312-624-9414
w:http://www.threepeasartlounge.com
Hours
Mon-Fri noon-9 pm; Sat 10 am-9 pm; Sun 10 am-5 pm
+More Hebru Brantley here
POP Treat: Every Book Should Have Pictures
Not only does the artist and I share a birthday, July 24th, we also share a love for art! John Clark is an awesome contemporary portraiture artist, using old mystery novel pages as his canvas and sharpies as his brush.
As a lover of fine art and literature I had to collect a few of his original pieces that are inspired by film noir. I love the way he leaves a phrase untouched in each piece; thus, becoming the title of the amazing artwork. Check out the collection I commissioned by John Clark in 2006. It features African American women from the 1920s-1970s. Can you name the women I chose?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)