Free Your Mind from Microaggressions

“Free Your Mind” is a cascade of story ribbons tied to fishing nets draped upon the wall like a blanket. Visitors are invited to share written statements about experienced microaggression on a “story” ribbon which I will weave into the “Free Your Mind” blanket. Infusing the essence and yarn of each participant into the social fabric of a protective blanket.

Free Your Mind Public Art Installation

Exhibition Dates: May 7, – August 27, 2022. On view for the public Thursday  through Sunday from 12:00 to 5:00PM.

Location: ArtCrawl Harlem @ Governors Island, 406b Colonels Row

Theda In Residence: June 11, June 25, July 16, July 23, July 30, August 6, August 20 from 11a – 2pm.

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.

photo credit Amoz Wright

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.

Dorchester Road Rage

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

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