Sunset in St. Croix
Jersey City Arts and Culture Trust Fund Grant
I am honored and humbled to be included in Jersey City’s first round of Arts and Culture Trust Fund grants.
Thank you
and congratulations to all the awardees; Alon Nechushtan, Bryant Small, Cheryl Gross, David Kikoski, David Solan, Deborah Jack, Douglas Beavers, Eileen Ferara, Gianluca Bianchino, Jin Jung, Katarzyna Skorynkiewicz, Kishawn Jack, Lorenzo Pickett, Michele Byrd-McPhee, Natalia Basava, Richard la Rovere, Roosevelt China, Shamona Stokes, and Zachary Davis.
Sunrise in St. Croix
Someone Trashed My Trolly!
My “Emotional Baggage Carts” serve as vessels to dispose of racial trauma. – to separate myself from these experiences – to grant access to grace. – to create new possibilities, free from the constraints of the past.
The installation also provides an opportunity for anyone to let go of these experiences from their own personal narrative.
I guess this work can be triggering too.
Someone, trashed my installation of “Dorchester Road Rage: Baggage Cart” in Springfield Mo. Triggering for me, once again, an old college memory and the adrenalin rush I felt, being chased by a mob of white teens while riding my bike.
Thankfully Sculpture Walk Springfield fixed the cart.
People suck sometimes. Maybe, I shouldn’t let people touch my sculptures.
June Exhibitions
Chutes and Ladders Installation
JC Friday June 3, 6:00-9:00pm
Location: Art 150, window of studio #231. 150 Bay Street.
Enter at Provost and First Street and ride the elevator to the 2nd floor. Studio # 231
Free Your Mind: Public Art Installation @ Art Crawl Harlem/ Governors Island
Exhibition Dates: through August 2022
Live Art: June 11, June 25, July 2, July 16 from 11a – 2pm.
Location: Governors Island, Art Crawl Harlem 406b Colonels Row
2022 New Jersey Arts Annual: Reemergence exhibition.
Exhibition Preview Reception: Thursday, June 23, 2022 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm
Exhibition On View: June 18, 2022 – April 30, 2023
Museum Hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 9am to 4:45pm; Closed Mondays & all State Holidays
Location: New Jersey State Museum; 205 West State Street Trenton NJ
Tell Me More About Yourself (Self-Portraits and other Autobiographical Endeavors)
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 25, 2022 from 6:00-9:00pm
Exhibition Dates: June 25, 2022 – August 5, 2022
Location: Gallery Aferro, 73 Market St, Newark, NJ
Public Hours: Wednesday – Saturday, 12:00-6:00pm
Sculpture Walk Springfield 2022-2023
Exhibition Dates: Now through May 21, 2023
Location: 411 N. Sherman Parkway, Springfield MO
Closing this Month
Theda Sandiford’s: Joyful Resistance closes June 4, 2022 atThe Center for Contemporary Art; 2020 Burnt Mills Rd, Bedminster, NJ.
Future Perfect/Imperfect: The Next Century closes June 9 at Silvermine Gallery: 1037 Silvermine Road, New Canaan, CT. Gallery Hours: Tuesday- Saturday 10:00am-4:00pm
St. Croix So Nice 2
St. Croix… So Nice
To say I’ve been grinding since the beginning of the new year is an understatement. Hustle harder vibes have me I’m feeling extra spicy and on edge.
Leaving the Calm app behind for beach breezes, the sound of the waves and the chirping birds as my morning wake up call in St. Croix is the restorative respite I need.
The assignment…
- Picking mangoes, avocados and soursop
- Breakfast on the beach
- Swim with turtles
- Blue Mountain hiking trail right out back
- Farmers market soca party
- Sailing to Buck Island
- St. Croix Yacht Club hang
- Farm to table dinners
- Instal outdoor kitchen at Sky Garden Retreat
- Point Udall Sunrise and Sunsets from Cane Bay
Chutes and Ladders Installation
Despite a growing commitment to racial equity, the day-to-day experiences of women of color are not improving. Women of color face similar types and frequencies of disrespectful and “othering” behavior as they did two years ago before the Black Lives Matter movement galvanized worldwide.
Most days, I feel like I am scrambling to the top of Chutes and Ladders’, board game. For each step forward, take two steps back. Land on good deeds of allyship to climb ladders, but watch out for the haters, their passive aggressive chutes are a doozy and will send you tumbling down the ladder, to start the climb all over, again.
On view at Art150 studio #231, 2nd floor 150 Bay Street. Enter at 1st Street and Provost and ride the elevator up to the 2nd floor. My studio is on the Bay Street side of the building.
Chutes and Ladders is on display though the end of June and is a featured event for JCFridays Friday June 3rd from 6:00-9:00pm.
Chutes and Ladders
Vintage Gi Joe action figures, black metallic yarn, handmade eyelash yarn, black and brown cotton/rayon poly blend fabric, African printed fabric, vintage African fabric wrapped on recycled polyurethane spliced jungle gym rope netting.
79 x 24 x 72 in
2022
I’m Obsessed with Nick Cave
Those familiar with my work, see the clear inspiration from Nick Cave. YES, I am all about reimagining found materials to create a post racial future. AND it goes deeper than that. I too share the belief that “beauty is optimism.”
From a recent interview with This Is Colossal…
This Is Colossal : How do the materials that you use—relate to the more conceptual aspects of your practice? I know sometimes they help draw people in because they’re so visually striking, but how are you thinking about that as you’re working?
Nick: I have to think about the journey and how I get your willingness to explore and go with me. I’m always thinking about ways into the work. Once you’re in, then I tell you what is the root of the work, where is it grounded. At that moment, you have to make that decision. Do I shy away from that and consume myself with the beauty? Beauty for me is optimism. It is the future. It’s me colliding these two forces together and challenging myself, as well as the viewer, to start to dissect, to start to expand on the narrative, to talk about what they’re emotionally feeling and connecting with. At the end of the day, it’s compassion. We need more compassion in the world.
I need to make my way back to Chicago to see Cave’s career retrospective Forothermore at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Even the show statement speaks directly to my core.
Nick Cave: Forothermore is an ode to those who, whether due to racism, homophobia, or other forms of bigotry, live their lives as the “other”—and a celebration of the way art, music, fashion, and performance can help us envision a more just future.
© Nick Cave. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York
Photo: James Prinz Photography
Save The Date: New Jersey Arts Annual
The opening reception for the 2022 New Jersey Arts Annual: Reemergence will be Thursday, June 23rd, 6 – 8 PM.
The exhibition will open to the public on Saturday, June 25th and run through May 2023.
Location: New Jersey State Museum; 205 West State Street, Trenton NJ
You can take the NJ Transist or road trip with me. Please message me if you want to be my guest at the opening.
