| LOOKING BACK - By Barbara Blanco
Last night I went to see James Taylor and Carole King at the Verizon Center. Of all the concerts I have been too, this one was by far the best. The energy coming from that stage was phenomenal. And their voices, OMG! Every time James Taylor sings I want to cry. As I tell my kids, his voice is like butter, just makes you want to melt. And as I Listened to Carole King belt out her songs, I was transported back to when I was a young girl sitting in my bedroom listening to her Tapestry album, belting out her songs whilst probably mooning over some guy I thought I was in love with. Another interesting aspect of the concert was all the attendees. With our gray hair, wrinkles and memories, I think that everyone of us was transported back to our teens for a few hours that night. And to watch 20,000 people sing in one accord, Shower the People was amazing. It would be so nice if we could only be this unified when we are outside of this arena. To sum it up, watching sixty something’s perform with so much energy and life, lets me know that no matter how old you get, you’re youth is not so far behind you. And if you still believe that even though your body gets old, your mind can still reach down into the far crevices of your brain and relive that time when you were carefree. 6/2010 | | Keeping a sketchbook is a labor of love and a valley of insights. For the past five years, I’ve drawn in a 9 x 11” spiral bound sketchbook, which has provided a foundation for my other art projects and a hotbed of ideas that are all over the map.
As a college art instructor, I’m always making demonstration drawings in class. About five years ago, I began to review these drawings, and realized that some of them were actually interesting beyond the class demo value. I realized that if I could be producing decent drawings off the cuff for other people, I should be doing the same for my own development.
Over the past five years, I’ve filled up eight sketchbooks with works ranging from a quick visual jot to sustained color drawings of some complexity. Usually they start off on a whim when I see something that interests me (which might include anything from clouds to fast food restaurants), then inspiration may kick in and the drawing may become more elaborate. I always keep my favorite drawing media (graphite and markers) handy so I’m ready to roll whenever the mood strikes me on site, and often I’ll end up with my sketchbook back in the studio where I layer it with other media. Oftentimes, I am incredibly happy that I have my sketchbook on hand when I’m stuck somewhere with nothing else to do, so you shouldn’t be surprised to find a fair number of drawings done while waiting for clothes to dry at a Laundromat, or while riding on a bus. I think my favorite unexpected moments to draw came when I was returning from vacation in the passenger seat of my van. While my wife was at the wheel, I made twenty second caricature drawings of other drivers on the Maine turnpike.
By having a bit of discipline, and opening myself to catch fleeting draw able moments, I now have a treasure trove of visual ideas I can ponder (some of which I have used as the basis for paintings), and I have a visual record of my shifting interests as an artist. The simple investment in the sketchbook and the snippets of time it takes to make the drawings is well worth the effort (and heaven forbid) it can be addictive and inspirational. Art as Divination - by Aisha Karefa-Smart I have always thought of artists as diviners; spiritually gifted people who use various mediums to communicate with the divine. These gifted seers, for whom ordinary language cannot hold the fullness of their expression, channel messages from the cosmos and give to us through their artwork, visions, and lessons about our lives. These messages, rendered using paint, clay, wood, and stone speak to the part of us that is often hidden (and held away) from the outer world, are brought forth boldly, beckoning us without reason or rhyme.
Growing up in a home where the artwork of many great African-American artists such as Beauford Delaney and Romare Bearden, as well as an array of African art which included wooden sculptures, ceremonial cloths, and tribal masks and stools, I learned as a child, that many of the works of art that were placed strategically around our home, seemingly for the purpose of decoration and adornment, actually held a potent power to which I was drawn, made my young mind wonder about the messages contained within.
The Bundu mask was (as I learned from my mother) an actual ceremonial piece. The mask was carved from black wood, with a single braid woven down its center, revealing its gender as female. It had slits as eyes and high cheekbones revealing the beauty of the Mende woman. The mask was worn during sacred female initiation rituals by the Mende tribe in Sierra Leone, my father's birthplace. The mask was not a home decoration, but a reminder of and symbol of the secret world of female rites of passage. Whenever I put the mask on, the stark beauty of its feminine power instantly transported me, once enveloped in its blackness as well as hypnotized by the smell of the wood--I imagined coming out of the bush adorned and welcomed as a woman. All of the history, secrets, and power of this sacred rite were contained in this mask and I, and only those who wore it, was privy of its mysteries.
“Family”, a favorite painting that hung in my grandmother's living room was a Romare Bearden original given to my uncle, the late James Baldwin, his friend. My uncle, in turn, presented it to his mother on her birthday. “Family” shows a gathering of people around a table with a grand matriarch as the focal point. The painting became a symbol to our family's many gatherings around our welcoming table. The painting's shadows and silhouettes with their round heads and slanted eyes spoke to me of the ancestors' ghosts hovering around the table.
Bearden seemed to have coded his painting in the African tradition of ancestor veneration to invoke those no longer present. The painting always made me feel happy and allowed me to appreciate the oneness of my family at Thanksgiving and Christmas, as well as those who were there in spirit. It is works such as the Bundu mask of the Mende people and the painting by Bearden that have taught me a deeper understanding and an appreciation of art not just a form of creative individual expression, but also as a spiritual medium that seeks to preserve and give voice to a part of our lives that often is taken for granted. | |