Anyone Can Fly! -- Faith Ringgold Event 3-8-09

LaShay and I had the privilege of attending this event, and meeting the great fiber artist and author, Faith Ringgold, and a reading and book signing at ABC Carpet & Home, New York, NY. Ms. Faith has been one of my favorite artist for 30 years and an inspiration to me. Tar Beach and Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky have been among our favorite bedtime stories since LaShay was a baby.

Faith Ringgold was born and raised in Harlem, USA, and received an M.A. from City College of New York in 1959. Her work is in the permanent collection of many museums including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She is the author and illustrator of 17 children's books, including Tar Beach, which was a Caldecott Honor Book and winner of the Coretta Scott King Award for Illustration.

Thank you, Ms. Faith.

Indigo is Singing Off Key, Dancing Out Loud, Laughing, Shaking and Quickstepping Across the Clouds of Possibilities

Indigo is celebrating the spring equinox.

Rejection, Reaction and Courage

Yesterday, I had lunch with this artist, a brother, who is a genius and very funny, raw. I kinda hate the phrase “streetsmart”– its overworked and most often used to imply a different, maybe lesser kind of intelligence – when in point of fact, the street is a university of its own. And this particular brother is way smarter than me on every level I can discern, which is at once intimidating and intriguing at the same time, but that is another matter entirely.

So anyway, we talked about a lot of things, including rejection and reaction to it, as an artist and a human being. How you have to have courage to put yourself out there, and even more to pick yourself up off the floor. I thought about my experience with the Hoffman Challenge last year, and it was cathartic to talk it through with somebody who gets it. I never wrote about this, or even talked about it much to any but a few people. I had created and submitted the piece “Lady Bird of Paradise Sings the Blues”, which I am re-posting here for reference. The jury gave me really good marks and feedback and promptly sent the doll back as unfit to travel because she was “too racy”. (She has been re-christened "Tracy" for "Too Racy" by the brother.)

So, after I picked myself up off the floor, I had to ask myself why it was important to me for the Hoffman people to like my work in the first place? I make things that reflect my reality – women that look like me and my family and my sisterfriends, things I see in life, on the street, in stories and legends that don’t necessarily reflect majority idea of beauty and femininity, but this is my aesthetic. Black women/women of color, are always too much of something, and/or not enough of something else, i.e., too black or not black enough, too smart for our own good or too stupid, too sassy, evil, sexy, fat, fill in the blank. Is “racy” a code for, you need not apply? Should I care? Should I try again this year with a toned down watered down prettyasaprincessonapea doll? Should I just make a white girl (I can do those too) and see what happens?

I guess the courage part comes in where you have to weigh the value and benefit of having a piece tour in a national/international show, and the recognition from that, versus your own artistic integrity. How far do you bend before you break? What do you say to your spirit?

So as my brother-artist spoke to me about the story, the narrative, of our art, and how this is what makes it ours - how we claim ownership of it - I took another look at Tracy and remembered what she said to me as I was making her. It takes a long time for me to bring up a face in paperclay and somewhere in the process the doll tells her own story. She spoke clearly and reminded me of a girl I knew in intermediate school. At twelve, Gail was a dark, brooding, little soul with the face of a doll and a body straight outta Cirque du Soleil. She was sassy and swinging. All the little boys followed her like love struck puppies. All the little girls hated her. Gail knew things we didn't know and did things we didn't do. She looked at us with cold disdain. She didn't need us little pootbutts for friends. She lived with her grandmother. We never knew where her parents were. She came to school sometimes with bruises and scars on her face and body. She started high school with us but disappeared without a trace by the time we were all fourteen. I never knew if she moved away or ran away. I've never seen her since, until she reemerged in the face/figure of Tracy Gail/Lady Bird of Paradise Sings the Blues.

These are the things I know and the stories I tell. I really don't know very much about cute and dainty. Innocence mangled, hope challenged, wreckage, redemption. Singing out loud off key. These are the things I know something about. My dolls are too racy to travel...

Catching up

Bisa Washington's Arlington Arts Gallery

Above left: Bisa with two of my spirit dolls and her mixed media creations; right photo: dolls on exhibit

above left: Healing dolls by me; right, various dolls on display at Holiday Party, Jersey City

Holiday Doll Party, Jersey City.

It’s a new year and quite a while since my last post. What’s happening in the world and what have I been up to?

Let’s see… many life changes and new energy. Gains and losses. People have entered and exited. I send blessings and wish them well.

Miriam Makeba – Mama Afrika, who dared to lift her voice in the face of apartheid and endured exile in its name; Odetta – the voice of the Civil Rights Movement; Eartha Kitt – who dared to speak the truth to power and was “blacklisted” for it. We mark the contributions of these pioneer women artists, and bless them on their journey. Note to file: create something to commemorate them in 2009.

November 2008: A new president – the economy is crumbling and Barack Obama promises change. Andrew Young noted that, just like with the cities, black people seem to get the big job when nobody else wants it. But I’m so proud just the same, both of Mr. Obama, Mrs. Obama (accomplished professional woman in her own right), and those two beautiful little girls who will have the unprecedented experience of being the first Black first daughters. As for me, having been born on the heels of Jim Crow and the cusp of the Civil Rights Movement, its hard to imagine what this will mean in the life of my child and her peers, to live in a world where such is possible. Most of all, I feel like my country finally grew up and owned up.

LaShay and I went to the Tina Turner concert Thanksgiving night. – you haven’t lived until you’ve experienced Tina Turner through the eyes of an 8 year old. Ironic that Tina had the same effect on me when I was 8. At 69 she looks and sounds better than ever. More than that, Tina represents the ability of woman to free ourselves and rise from the ashes. I’m hoping to look half that good by the time I’m 69. I still have (a little) time to get there.

Saturday after Thanksgiving: Mixed media artist Bisa Washington invited me to participate in her annual holiday doll exhibit at her Arlington Arts Gallery in Newark. Bisa is a visionary; culturally aware, insightful, ancestor inspired and an all around generous sister. (She is also creating the first urban bread and breakfast in Newark! This is a marvelous idea. Why didn’t anybody ever think of this before?) She surrounds herself with women and men, engaging and creative, that paint, sculpt, stitch, make music play drums dance and bake cakes.. So much to be learned from the company of women artists, like Bisa, Sister Adrienne, Shirley Parker-Benjamin (check out http://www.eziliarts.com/) . Also got some good counsel from our sister artist emeritus, Gladys Grauer who stopped by. (Unfortunately, my camera died that day, so I don’t have many pictures of the event, but I will post what I have).

December 2008: Dolly-day party with Mindbodyandsoul Doll Club of Jersey City. Angela put on a great party, which was attended by fellow doll makers from GSDA of Neptune NJ and 3-D Doll Club of Mt. Vernon New York. Check out the show and tell table. Then, Garden State Doll Club had our holiday party where we did a doll exchange from a Judy Ward pattern. I got my wish – the doll I received was from my good friend and one of my favorite local dollmakers, Mary Louisa Klawatter (she also drew my doll!). Mary Lou designs dolls from her Scandanavian tradition. One special detail that I love, which unfortunately doesn’t translate well in photos, is that she hand embroiders the faces. More pictures on Stephanie Novatski’s blog, www.novasblossoms.blogspot.com.

Last but not least, we attended 3-D’s holiday party January 3, 2009 in Mt. Vernon. As usual, I got mad lost going there, but I was glad I went. The sisters always have a different take on dolls that I love to see and experience. We did a pin doll exchange which was lots of fun too.
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Now that the holidays are over, with no new shows planned, I can just sit back and work on the pieces that interest me. I have been experimenting with polymer clay heads over cloth bodies, and like the results. Although I think I still like paper clay better, polymer clay gives similar results much faster and is less labor intensive. Also, I want to work on some African tribal dolls out of the Maasai, Woodabe, and Ndebele traditions. All of these feature very intricate beading. That work is very slow going, so fortunately there are no time constraints. I also got hooked on pin dolls while I was home over the holidays. They are a good way of making use of scraps that are too small for anything else.

More artistic new years resolutions - do more with mixed media; don't be so literal always, be more abstract, in doll construction; experiment more with staging the dolls and telling a story; try art quilts, quilt journaling, wearables, polymer jewelry, ATCs. Stretch a bit.

Next weekend is Mindbodyandsoul Doll Club. I suggested we do a round robin doll, which is an idea I got from elinor peace bailey’s Mother Plays with Dolls. elinor is a master doll maker who I love, both for her irreverent love and use of colors in dollmaking and wearable art and her philosophical outlook on women, work, and giving ourselves permission to play. As women, we tend to take everything we do so seriously, even our recreation. I refer back to elinor’s book frequently to remind myself that creativity and expression is a right, not a privilege.

Artist Sabrina Zarco

Pictured - Sabrina Zarco (right) with Project Runway finalist Korto Momolu; the fiber arts of Sabrina Zarco.

Please check out my online friend Sabrina Zarco (see sidebar "Chicana Creating Art from Chaos"). Sabrina is an amazing artist-educator-quilter/fiber artist out of Little Rock, AR. I stumbled upon her blog over a year ago, and have been spiritually uplifted and educated by her contributions ever since. Sabrina comes from a Chicana/Mexicana heritage and combines her culture and traditions with contemporary imagery. It is always facinating to see how similar we all are despite our different backgrounds while celebrating our diversity. I was particularly blown away by her posted work and words regarding Dia de la Muertos in October and November 2007. Her recognition of the ancestors and iconography was so reminiscent of West African Yoruba culture. Sabrina inspires, educates and uplifts with her art. Love you, Sister!

Check her out at http://www.sabrinazart.blogspot.com/

Some Friends of ours at Jersey City Open Doors, October 4, 2008

Check out the lovely and talented dollmaker, Angela Huggins, at Jersey City Open Doors held at Canco Lofts on October 4, 2008. Also pictured, Senegalese artists Papa Gora Tall and Ibou N'Doye.

Village, Island, City - the Series and Where it Came From

Pictured above: Naima & Child, 15" sitting; Najla, 15" sitting; Hagar & her Daughters, 20", all needlesculpted cloth, paperclay.

I was talking to my sisterfriend, Jalilah, recently about literature produced by Black women that has inspired and moved us over the years. Jalilah is a very talented writer, and she knows the works of the best of them. Who do I love? Zora Neale Hurston (Their Eyes Were Watching God), Toni Morrison (Song of Solomon, Sula, The Bluest Eye, Tar Baby, Beloved, Paradise - on and on), Gloria Naylor (Mama Day) Ntozake Shange (For Colored Girls; Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo; Betsey Brown) Alice Walker (The Color Purple, Secrets of My Familiar) and especially Julie Dash (Daughters of the Dust - both the film and the novel, which adds entire worlds and dimensions to the film which preceded it). Stories of tribal life, family struggles, rituals, griots, Geechee girls... They take me to another place. They bring me home. I return to them often.

That conversation got me to thinking about a doll and quilt series, Village, Island, City, which would celebrate the lives (work, creativity, family, sisterhood, spirituality) of women in pre-slavery Africa, post-slavery Americas (Georgia & Carolina Sea Islands, the Caribbean, Cuba, Brazil the Blackbelt South, the great migration North) and urban life in the new millennium.

Around the same time that this idea began taking shape, Toni Thomas from the Catfish Friday women's artist collective contacted me about participation in the Newark Open Doors Studio Tour '08. The show, Multiple Me, will feature pieces that the artists have created as part of a series. There really are no coincidences.

I love working in fiber. Sewing for me is spiritual and meditative. Fiber is soft warm comforting elemental primal strong resilient sensuous womb-manlike. It comforts and protects. I imagine the earliest humans walking upright then yearning for something soft and warm to cover themselves. Leaves bark skins – eventually they start weaving elements together into fiber. The women dye it with mud and berries to make it beautiful. Berry red, indigo blue, moss green, saffron yellow. They stitch shells and bone to it for ornamentation.

I also love working with clay for the faces. It's messy like making mud pies. Somehow, I keep making variations of the same face. It is the face of my grandmother. I am always struck by how magestically African she looks.

Children of every race class culture from the beginning of time play with dolls. Sticks shells stones wood pinecones leaves. Cornhusks with potato sack dresses and buttons for eyes. Yarn and calico. Dolls are totem talisman secretkeeper; joyous healing and iconic. They are the definitive plaything of childhood, the beginnings of imagination.

My encounters with the women artists of Catfish Friday have been mind expanding and life changing. They have encouraged me to see myself as an artist and story teller, and to realize that the work has value outside of me. Everybody is moved by the dolls on a primal level, which was surprising and extremely gratifying. One sister, an accomplished sculptor, came up to me at the July show and whispered that she had 5 brothers growing up, and never owned a doll. We were both near tears, understanding that as grown women, we have to give ourselves the same permission to play and imagine as we command ourselves to work and responsibility. (Interestingly, I find that male artists always want to challenge and critique and question the artistic choices I make - "why did you use this line?", "why is her stomache so big and her butt so small?" Stuff like that. Men tend to value their work and worth, intrinsically. They will put a crazy-high price on what they do, sometimes even if its not good. We women tend to value everything and everyone else first - then maybe ourselves last if at all. I ain't mad at the brothers, though. There is a lesson in this somewhere. But I really enjoy working with women artists. Their critique tends to be kinder, gentler and non-competitive, which suits me. The only competition that matters is your competition with self.

I still play with dolls. I hope I can encourage other women to play with dolls, too.