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.

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

Wide Load

I started calling this cart Wide Load before I was even conscious of how much of my emotional baggage is tied to the food I eat.
Don’t even think of visiting my Mom without her feeding you and taking a plate home. I can still smell , vivid memories of Father punishing me for not finishing my dinner plate and reminding of the starving children in Africa at the same time. A double whammy of eat your food and feel guilty about eating your food. I could go on and on…

Bottle caps, neon yellow 550 paracord, 200′ neon yellow camo 850 paracord, hollow braided polyurethane rope, solar LED rope lights, recycled Fresh Direct bag and commercial fishing net, zip ties, gold spray paint on recovered shopping cart. Photo by April Tracey
Bottle caps, neon yellow 550 paracord, 200′ neon yellow camo 850 paracord, hollow braided polyurethane rope, solar LED rope lights, recycled Fresh Direct bag and commercial fishing net, zip ties, gold spray paint on recovered shopping cart. Photo by April Tracey

Antenna Grant for Women in the Arts

The Antenna Grant for Women in the Arts offers financial support and mentorship for young women of color pursuing an education, training, and/or career in the visual arts (sculpture, 2-dimensional work, drawing, painting, textiles, film, installations, murals, etc).

Awards are based on artistic merit, evidence of commitment to a career in the arts, and financial need.

Applications for the Antenna Grant for Women in the Arts will be accepted until March 24.

For more details visit the website HERE.

New 25′ Ropes In Progress

I just completed the first layer of yarn on four 25′ length, 1/2″ thick camo ropes. Im used Red Heart Camouflage and Aran Fleck yarn for this layer.

Im playing with the ropes and considering what to weave on next.

Spring Exhibitions

Grand Opening: Somewhere We Landed

Opening Reception: Friday May 3th, 7:30-9:00pm

LOCATION: Drawing Rooms: Topps Building; 26 Newark Ave #T107, Jersey City, New Jersey 07306

Artists were asked to create works that relate to new beginnings, new adventure, new body of work, outer space, atmosphere, place, transportation, land, nature, or utopia. Hundreds of works are on sale during the course of the show, 5/3/19 – 5/11/19, for $200 each.

I made a series of collages from my airplane ticket stubs and a lino print i carved in flight from LA to Newark.

Gallery Hours:
5/5/19 Sunday, 1-6p
5/9/19 Thurs & 5/10/19 Fri, 5-8p
5/11/19 Saturday, 12-6p

Exhibit runs through 5/11/19.

View Points 2019

OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, May 4 from 7:00 – 9:00 pm.

LOCATION: Studio Montclair Gallery located at 127 Bloomfield Avenue in Montclair, NJ.

This exhibit will be on display from May 2 to June 15, 2019.

Wonder Woman Selfie’ is a collage for the ages. Colorful, warm and strong – it reflects the best of what a person can see in themselves.

48″x36″x2″ Mixed Media 2017 I LOVE Wonder Woman. I grew up watching the Linda Carter’s Wonder Woman and wanted to be a bad ass too. After seeing Patty Jenkins’s Wonder Woman in Theaters, I knew I had to pattern my next Super Selfie after Wonder Woman ‘

No Boundaries Benefit

BENEFIT: Saturday, May 4th, 2019 8:00-11:00pm

LOCATION: The Woodland; 60 Woodland Road Maplewood, NJ

You can bid on the piece I made for this show. … herehttps://www.accelevents.com/e/NoBoundariesBenefit/A/TSA

Open Orange 2019

Opening Reception: May 9th, 6:000-9:00pm

LOCATION‘: Community Gallery at ValleyArts: 400 S. Jefferson St., Orange, NJ

Mark your calendar for the Artist Talk and Closing Celebration on June 8, 3-5pm to see this piece and learn more about my Wonder Women series.

“Most performers take themselves too seriously. They forget there is a difference between the characters they play on the screen or stage and themselves, but the public doesn’t forget there is a difference. They see how silly it is if you try to be the same person all the time.”

Grace Jones
“Grace Jones is my Muse” 36″x24″x2″ Mixed Media; Acrylic paint, Xerox image transfers, stencil printed deli, paper, paper punched recycled envelops, tissue paper, buttons, glitter appliqués, glitter, embroidered collar on canvas, 2018

Portraits and Narratives- Artist Talk

SAVE THE DATE: Friday May 10, 2019, 7:00-9:00pm

LOCATION: Akwaaba Gallery, 509 S Orange Ave, Newark, NJ

Come Meet and speak to me and artists Kortez and Jimmy James Greene about our work in the “Portraits and Narratives” Exhibition.

World Collage Day Pop Up Exhibition

Pop Up Collage Show : Saturday May 11, 2019, 1:00-5:00pm

LOCATION: Garden Level Gallery: 315 3rd Street, Jersey City NJ

Celebrate World Collage Day with me, as we honor our local community of artists and the art of collage!

Get inspiration from our World Collage Day Pop Up Exhibition and then spend an afternoon making artwork with the participating artists.
#worldcollageday

Participating Artists:
Luis Alves Collage: Luis Alves’s photo collages utilizes appropriated imagery from magazines, to incite dialogue on the role the media plays in the shaping of our lives. Each collage is hand-manipulated with the goal of transformation as a way of commenting on, satirizing or criticizing the source material.

Theda Sandiford: Theda Sandiford: Using internal conflict and diverse recycled materials as a starting point she constructs a mixed media mask to protect herself from fear. What may start off as an ugly statement about herself, is in the end transformed into something beautiful. Theda photographs her process and then digitally manipulate these images to extend the narrative.

Leslie Sheryll: Leslie Sheryll’s photo based collages start with appropriated 19th century tintypes which she scans and digitally manipulates. Sheryll then incorporate historical facts, imagery, personal experience and an infusion of fantasy to create a new narrative about women

BradTerhune: Brad Terhune is forever seeking out new materials to work with leads to changes in style and subject. Terhune looks to create a weird, surreal world, and have been influenced by early twentieth century art movements that embraced and explored collage, while continuing to explore this vibrant medium in the contemporary arena.

Let’s show the world what it looks like when people come together as a community. #worldcollageday

Bring paper, magazines, found materials and your preferred substrate. I have paint, scissors and various glues…
$5 suggested donation to cover material costs.

Welcome to Fight Club Digital Print On Metallic Photo Paper 20 x 20 in Framed Size: 22 x 22 x 1 in 2017 Being a black woman in corporate America is like Fight Club. I must mold my personality to be palatable as a peach and keep my opinions to myself. The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club.  The second rule of Fight Club is: you DO NOT talk about Fight Club!  Third rule of Fight Club: if someone yells “stop!”, goes limp, or taps out, your career is over.

 2019 Cathedral Arts Festival

CHAMPAGNE GALA: Saturday, May 18, 2019, 7:00pm.

LOCATION: Grace Church Van Vorst, 39 Erie St, Jersey City NJ

Exhibition on view through June 7th,

I’m always down for a champagne gala. Join me. Tickets may be purchased for $50 by cash or check at drop-off or online at www.cathedralartslive.org.Tickets will cost $60 at the door.

I made these abstract figurative self portraits over the course of 5 weekends using the fine print from my MS infusion drug, Tysbari, paper scraps and mono-printed deli paper. Take a close look at the fine print to see the multitude of symptoms i’m dealing with this hidden illness. Each drawing is representative of a MS treatment, I get infusions every 6 weeks to suppress my immune system and slow the progression of the disease.