January 2013 Graduated with my Masters of Fine Arts

My graduate thesis art work 

Lets do this..

In the spirit of MY new REVELATIONS (paralogous to my exhibit review paper - called Revelation: The Major Paintings by Jules Orlistki) I am subjecting this months process - the revelation - LET'S DO THIS -  as it marks my excitement and determination with respect to my ideas really cementing themselves together in a harmonious way.

Before I post pics of my new work- I have some exciting news.  I am being featured in the tribute to Bearden Project - in The Studio Museum in Harlem.  Very excited about this.  Should you want to see what pieces  they are exhibiting - check out..

Oh and everyone cross fingers my house sells - because we are moving back east.  Yes we are taking our pet monkey (lol sphinx) My sweet little cat that loves to help momma in the studio.

Ok with out further ado...my reconstruction begins (disclosure - designer purses range from being new, used and donated):

CANVAS #2:

Busy Month - Found Mentor / Lots of Meetings / Thesis start up / New sowing (ground)

Since the end of my residency I have my life has been a world wind.  

January 16 - I arrived back from my residency
January 18 - I was wrongfully accused and found NOT GUILY of shoplifting
January 22 - Named godmother of my brothers child Olivia Grace Cunningham
February 1 - Started The Triumph of American Painting (every Wed - for 12 weeks)
February 9 - Opening for Jules Olitski Meridith Long Gallery 

February 10 - meet with Trenton Doyle Hancock (over Tacos)
February 11 - Patron-Plus Members Event: Film Screening of Jules Olitski: Modern Master

Film Screening of Jules Olitski: Modern Master

Alison de Lima Greene, MFAH curator of Contemporary Art and Special Projects, introduces the short documentary (22 minutes) Jules Olitski: Modern Master. Interviews with Olitski's friends and peers, as well as rarely seen footage of the artist in his studio, eloquently portray the superb achievement of a man driven to make art. Presented in conjunction with the opening of the exhibition Revelation: Major Paintings by Jules Olitski.

February 15- 16 - Flew to San Fran to meet Mark Bradford 

Met him and will visit studio in a month (Mentoring option next semester)
Saw opening in SFMoma

 

Crown Point Press
Went to Museum of the African Diaspora
http://www.moadsf.org/
Went to Contemporary Jewish Museum

http://www.thecjm.org/

YBRA (part 2 - Mark Bradford Exhibit) 

Meet with Rodney Ewing (painter/artist)
February 20 - Met with Sandra York (artist)
February 22 - Exhibit in Corpus Cristi with Lisa Qualls

February 23 - MFAH Lecture “Terrible Reality”:  The Civil War as a Living-Room War

February 24 - Lecture “Fauvism:  The Color Explosion” - David E. Brauer
February 27 - Met Otis Huband who shared all sorts of advise 

http://www.reavesart.com/images/catalogs/Hubandwebcatalogue9.pdf February 28 - Met with Anastasia Kirages  (writer/curator/photographer)
February 29 - Met with Bayeté Ross Smith
February 30 - Finally chose Bayeté Ross Smith as my mentor this semester 

After interviewing over 10 artist, I decided that Bayete would be the best fit for me this semester.  Yes this is the Bayete from Season 2 - Work of Art (The Next Great Artist)  
http://www.bravotv.com/work-of-art/season-2/bio/bayet
http://www.bravotv.com/work-of-art/season-2/photos/portfolios/bayetes-portfolio#image-102018
February 30 - Event with Trenton Doyle Hancock
http://rxart.net/projects/childrens-memorial-hermann-hospital
Since we last spoke I have finally have a theme that I can introduce to my work:
Still working out the details:
Presently excited to be defining my new trajectory
-  Effect of being wrongfully accused of shoplifting
-  African American Experience
-  3 months later being burglarized for over 200 worth of stolen

items/cloths/damage to house

-  Struggle with class issues

-  No zoning issues

-  Symbolism
-  Dreams
-  Dismantling and Deconstructing iconic symbols
-  Labels (symbols defining wealth vs. Freedom struggle)
-  Who are these products accessible to?
-  freedom?
-  Persecution vs. Freedom
-  Struggles and strength
-  Hard work = certain rewards
- reward system

-  Substructure of self worth

-  First generation American  
-  Raised under post Barbie generation
-  1950s TV in homes are now ads
-  Secret communication
-  Light = seeking/enables sight
-  popular culture

My NEW Paintings I am working on:

I just finished sowing...Painting layers to come.

I MET MY HERO - Mark Bradford!

Lisa qualls: "Four Lilys"

Lisa qualls: "Four Lilys": The "Four Lilys" will go up on Road Sign USA November 15th (if it is not raining in the morning)! If you live in Houston and are driving d...

New Advisor & New Semester -

Hello world.  

Feeling very excited about my progress in these weeks since I have been back.  I have set VERY high goals and I am going after it with all my will.  


1)  I finally have Laurel Sparks, I am so excited to have her as my advisor, I really respect her work and I am humbled, grateful and excited to share my fourth residency with her!  

2) I start my class tomorrow at the Women's Institute.  
It is Wednesday afternoons 1:00-3:00 - for 12 weeks I am very thrilled about this class.  

THE TRIUMPH OF AMERICAN PAINTING David E. Brauer

In this course we will trace the developments in modern art that emerged in America during and after World War II. Emphasis will be placed on the evolution of Abstract Expressionism in New York, which shifted the center of modernism from Paris. Radical artists such as Gorky, de Kooning, Pollock, Rothko, Newman, and Motherwell will be examined, as will the concurrent strands of geometric abstraction, the continuity of figurative painting exemplified by the works of Hopper and Wyeth, and the early works of Rauschenberg and Johns that laid the foundation for Pop Art.


3) SAN FRAN HERE I COME! I have my flight, hotel and location - to meet with the prolific Mark Bradford!  

I hope he will accept my proposal for him to be my mentor, I will have to wait till I see him to find out.  
I will be flying out of Texas and landing in San Fran and going to his private opening February 15 @ SFMOMA 
http://www.sfmoma.org/  I have also been invited to an opening party that weekend, so lets hope that he would like to be my mentor....if not at least I will have gotten to meet him and write a review on his work.  


4) I am going to a Lisa Qualls opening Thursday, I will write more once I have actually seen it. 
African Art, African Stories
February 2 - March 15, 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday, February 2, 6-8pm

An exhibition of African tribal art including works from Congo, Ivory Coast, Mali, Tanzania, Angola, Guinea, Cameroon and Nigeria, "African Art, African Stories," provides an introduction to various traditional art forms and materials. Many works date to the early 20th century, some earlier, with stories at times remarkable and unexpected, referencing the use of art within the society that created it. In addition to a variety of works created throughout the African continent, the exhibit explores perceptions of tribal-styled art made for export and foreign markets. Issues of value and authenticity are important contemporary considerations for many collectors and museums.

The exhibit includes a large Yoruba Beaded Altar Cloth and a Baule Mouse Oracle from the Ivory Coast. The Mouse Oracle is a wood vessel with two chambers, one for a mouse and one for straw. With the lid closed the mouse would feed on and rearrange the straw to be later "read" by a diviner in the Baule community to help resolve social issues.

This exhibit features works from the collections of Matt Scheiner and Lisa Qualls, and is funded by grants from the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance.

Image: Primordial Couple, Wood, Encrustation, Dogon, Mali

Open Monday through Friday, 10-5 pm and Saturday, 12-5 pm, the O'Kane Gallery is located on the University of Houston-Downtown campus. Take Travis Street north through downtown Houston over Buffalo Bayou and right on Girard for visitor and metered parking.

For more information or images for press contact Brad Thomason at the O'Kane Gallery at 713-221-8042 orthomasonb@uhd.edu, or visit www.okanegallery.uhd.edu.

5) I am also considering going to Denver, CO to get certified in arial yoga - in my consideration of flight/arial perspective in my discourse I figured this would push more concept, thoughts, ect.  More to come on that too.  

6), I have FOUND - Trenton Doyle Hancock 

http://www.jamescohan.com/artists/trenton-doyle-hancock/

He lives in Houston, can you imagine? 

We will go out to eat!!!! Too excited about this!!

7) LAST BUT NOT LEAST, I have bought all these books in my venture of knowledge - Most are in the air on there way trying to make it to there new home in my house, whooohooo! 

§  Painting as Model

·      Yve-Alain Bois

§  Other Criteria

·      Leo Steinberg

§  Abstract America

·      The Saatchi Gallery

§  Abstract Art in the Late Twentieth Century (Contemporary Artists and their Critics)

·      Frances Colpitt

§  The Triumph of Modernism: The Art World, 1985-2005

·      Hilton Kramer

§  Pictures of Nothing: Abstract Art since Pollock (Bollingen)

·      Kirk Varnedoe, et al

§  Vitamin P2: New Perspectives in Painting

·      Phaidon Press, et al

§  100 Contemporary Artists (Taschen 25 Anniversary)

·      Hans Werner Holzwarth

§  The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985

·      Maurice Tuchman

§  Creating Mandalas

·      Susanne F. Fincher

§  The Mandala Book: Patterns of the Universe

·      Lori Bailey Cunningham

§  Magical Paths: Labyrinths & Mazes in the 21st Century

·      Jeff Saward

§  Way of the Winding Path: A Map for the Labyrinth of Life

·      M.A. Eve Eschner Hogan

§  Mazes and Labyrinths (Forgotten Books)

·      W.H. Starr Matthews

§  Mazes and Labyrinths (Shire Library)

·      Adrian Fisher