ArtHub

The Art Hub May be a Solution

A new artist could find it frustrating and overwhelming by showing their art. Do you keep a personal journal of your creations? Even if you are a relatively new artist, journal your collective works, even your earliest drawings. Tell the story in stages. What inspired the work? Did you learn the technique from a class, from following a specific artist, from experimenting?  Did someone mentor you along the way?

Have you participated in an art challenge, entered your work in an art competition? Journal the experience. Have you received an award? Journal any grants you received, residencies you participated in, and any other honors you’ve received as an artist.  Yes, you are an artist. Summarize your education, places you’ve visited, art shows events you’ve attended.

You’re on the way to becoming your own publicist and taking those first steps to acknowledge your art journey and showing your work.  Think about showing your  art at cultural centers, your local coffee house, art fairs and community art festivals, craft markets and fairs, and art-themed cafes, and other alternative private locations. Post a photo of your new work in Comments.

Cultural Fusion

Shahzia Sikander was born in Lahore, Pakistan.  She studied art at the National College of Arts in Lahore, then received her MFA in 1995 from the Rhode Island School of Design.

To me, her name has a musical quality. Shahzia Sikander is an American-Pakistani artist, best known for a fusion of art cultures.  Her work is described as a fusion of Middle Eastern art with traditional Indo-Persian miniature painting.  Her style is referred to as Minimalist abstraction and she’s started a new art from called neo-miniature. Shahzia’s medium is watercolor, ink, gouache and gold leaf on paper.

Women in Art is not just a girly thing

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talks about how feminism is misinterpreted and made to look like something which shouldn’t be supported. In this TedTalk, she says “Gender matters, the way men and women experience the world is absolutely different. Our culture and where we come from has a unique way of defining how we conduct ourselves, we start aligning our actions to match our culture- while not realising that this very act is what is pushing us away from our goal of living in a gender neutral world. Culture was built by people and not the other way around, and following this simple logic it is time for us to change the culture by having more discourses on the pressing issues of society.

“Culture does not make people, people make culture” — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/culture-doesnt-make-people-saadhika-chhabra

Adichie says this phrase points out something we tend to forget. We have the power to modify the way we live, and the way other people live.” Being a feminist is supporting #Equality . It is not about promoting female rights over male rights. This misconception about feminism is a popular one, which needs to be changed in order for this to become a collective movement. Living in a feminist world does not only mean living in a world where women can voice themselves, but one in which both men and women are striving for Equal Opportunity and where no-one ever has to apologise for being “too feminine” or “too masculine”. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie grew up in Nigeria. Her work has been translated into over thirty languages and has appeared in many publications

Winner of 2021 Bennett Prize goes to Ayana Ross

Painter Ayana Ross of McDonough, Georgia was  the winner of the prestigious 2021 Bennett Prize, a prize offered solely to women figurative painters. Ms. Ross says her work explores identity and cultural awareness in the everyday lives of African Americans in the American South.

The Bennett Prize is the largest prize offered solely to women figurative painters. Patrick Moore, one of four jurors and Director of The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh says her work creates story fragments that invite viewers to insert themselves and see their own experiences in her work.

In fact, what attracted me to the winning painting is that I can see me and my sisters in childhood  dressed ready to leave for Sunday School with my Dad.

 

Artist & Historian-Melitta Higher

Melitta illustrates her family history through her art, including traditional and contemporary work. She tells the story that indigenous people of coastal Alaska in the 17th century traded utilitarian objects for metal implements, cloth, and foodstuffs such as tea, flour, or sugar. Early trading of carving was valued for their functionality: clothing woven from grass, harpoon tips carved from the tusks of the walrus, rainproof outerwear animal skins valued for their warmth and durability and over time traditional painting and carving were prized. She says the replica art she creates preserve her rich family history.

Messages from the heart

What’s your artistic passion? Are you still thinking it over, or have you started your creative journey?  Many of us dream about using our creative process in real-time. This story is about a local girl doing just that.  Sara Trail, from the East Bay uses her sewing skills to teach kids how to make elaborate decorative quilts that bring social justice messaging.  She learned to sew at age of 4. She is now a successful author, sewing teacher, pattern and fabric designer and social justice advocate. At age 13, she wrote a nationally published book, “Sew with Sara.”  That book teaches teens how to sew clothes and accessories for fun and profit. At 15, she was the focus of a series of  nationally published DVDs, “Cool stuff to Sew With Sara.”

In her next project, she designed two fabric collections, Folkheart and Biology 101,  pattern collections for Simplicity called “Designed with Love by Sara.” Her pattern collections feature prom dresses, backpack patterns, hoodies, jackets, aprons and tote bags. While attending UC Berkeley, Sara created a quilt in memory of Trayvon Martin which started her on the road to making her own brand for social justice messaging. She refers to her art work as ‘art-ivism.’  When she graduated from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, she received funding from UC Berkeley and founded the Social Justice Sewing Academy (SJSA), where she and associates teach youth the art of quilting. Sara hosts art shows for the kids to showcase their work. Each quilt is displayed with its creator’s statement about the issues illustrated in their quilt. She says this about the quilting work:

“The quilts get seen in exhibits and the kids get invited to speak about them, tell why they made their block, what they learned and what they want people to do or change.” — Sara Trail

https://youtu.be/sIt50muolKQ. 

Community Quilts is social justice art with messaging that honors victims of violence and educates communities about antiracist platforms. Memorial Quilts is part of the Remembrance Project that celebrates lives lost to violence and brings comfort to families. Making the quilts also serves as a “business incubator” that teaches youth to build on business-oriented ideas for their own artistic sewing projects. It’s a great plan. To volunteer or donate supplies, 925-783-7882, info@sjsacademy.com.

What will you Create today?

I love to create. But, one of the first questions I ask myself is ‘what shall I create?’ I’ve dabbled in a range of medium trying to find what suits me best, from chalk, to pencils, to water colors, to oil paints, to Chinese brush painting, to experimenting with photography.

Who knows what’s most appealing to a wide audience?  The art world is brimming with talented, aspiring women artists. I want to be one of them. That’s what makes art most interesting.  What is your potential best audience?   Will showing your art make you feel liberated?  When do you feel the work is finished?  How will you get notice?

What was the last event you attended that featured a woman artist?  Was it at a gallery, online, new work by a fellow student, a museum, an exhibit?  How will you develop and hone your creativity? 

Post a screenshot of your work in Comments.  Comment on someone’s work, applaud their work. Discuss the work of a woman artist who inspired you.

Equatorial Guinea Bodypainting Festival

It’s an annual art festival where one sees displays of colorful painted beauties of Africa.  Artists from 18 countries around the world gather alongside local artists and transform regular people into art works.  Among the best canvases are women models.

Body painting is a form of body art where a design or patter is painted directly onto the human skin. Unlike tattoos and other forms of body art, body painting is temporary, lasting several hours or sometimes up to a few weeks.

The practice is said to be an ancient art form that has been modernized, and is celebrated around the world. In fact, art historians date various forms of body painting as far back as to the Paleolithic era when indigenous tribes used natural pigments made from ashes, rocks, animal by-products, and plants to decorate their bodies for a range of festivals and tribal rituals. The styles and palettes differ between artists, from the fanciful, nature, style, intricacy, pattern and method. Some artists use metallic body sprays, glow in the dark paints, special custom-ordered colors to simple regular-colored paint.

Padaung Culture

These images represent an old story, but they still have the power to fascinate the observer.  The women are said to wear the brass coils for cultural/tribal reasons. It’s become their own standard of beauty. The longer the woman’s neck is, the more attractive and elegant she is. And perhaps, more desirable in the eyes of men? The long neck women (aka Padaung or Kayan) are famous all over the world. Their appearance is unique and one of a kind. It’s recorded that natives start wearing rings when they are 5 years old and a new circle is added every 2 years. They are said to wear a maximum 30 brass coils. To me, they hold their posture with dignity.

Images from R. Moreira & Santarem Collaboration

Learning an Ancient Art

I first started studying and practicing Chinese brush painting during covid via zoom. It’s a seriously difficult form of art. I moved from being an observer of the practice to respecting and honoring art history.  You start off by copying the work of earlier masters, then over time learning a culture new to you and learning its history and foundation. It pleased me. Chinese brush painting is one of the oldest artistic traditions in the world,  noted to have been around since 770 BCE. Brush painting and calligraphy are highly valued art forms throughout Chinese history. 

Our teacher, Gloria Gee, is an older woman, a Master in her field.  She is very patient in order to accommodate the different skill levels and ages. Her hands are quick, strong and deft.  When I first started it took  me hours to duplicate her strokes and forms.  She tries to mention a few phrases in English to accommodate English-only students, but once she starts drawing, she’s draws her figures and objects at a deliberate determined pace. She reviews your work, offers encouragement and reminds you to practice-practice-practice.  The 3 images at the top of this article are hers and below is my first attempt and my most recent drawing.