#i graduated from collage with a girl who did a whole art series about how her and her girlfriend bonded through hair | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

iknowthisgirlfromgeorgia-blog · 5 years

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cliché | 01

☽ pairings: hoseok x oc, taehyung x oc

☽ genre/warnings: fluff

☽ wordcount: 2.4k

☽ chapters: 1 | 2 (coming soon)

☽ ➝ summary: moving abroad for university comes with many surprises. a new house, a new life and most of all . . . new neighbours.

✧ ･ﾟ : * ✧ ･ﾟ : *

“I feel like I’ve been reborn,” Mae sounded out with an airy chuckle, making Saffron shake her head gently, suddenly awakened from her daylight slumber. Today was their first day abroad.

A whole new country, a whole new house and a completely different life awaited the two just behind the corner, and Saffron couldn’t really say she was ready for it. The girl didn’t like changes, not at all, but this one simply had to be pursued. Moving to Canada was a big step for two college-aged women, but life can throw you into deep waters unexpectedly and without a warning. That’s what happened to her and Mae.

The letter that came in the mail one Saturday evening was a document Mae would cherish for the rest of her life. How could a little, beige envelope bring one such pride and joy? Well, how could it not? Getting into the college of your dreams was something any young, ambitious human would be ecstatic about, and that's exactly what Mae was clutching her acceptance letter from the University of Ottawa.

Saffron herself was simultaneously upset and excited about the news. Mae would finally leave for Canada to pursue her dream, but on the downside . . . she’d be gone from her life, for who knows how long? The female couldn’t really stomach the thought of her best friend being gone for the entirety of collage. Heck, wasn't that when most people peaked? Saffron didn't want to experience her best without Mae. Yes, FaceTime and WhatsApp existed, but she knew maintaining a friendship would be difficult that way. Not even mentioning timezones.

What would happen to seeing each other every other day? What about movie nights and banana pancakes on Sunday mornings? Oh, Saffron loved Mae’s pancakes. Waking up at noon, dressed in her comfiest sweater, leaning against the kitchen island while watching her friend prepare breakfast was a ritual Saffron would never want to abandon. The light, fluffy dough engulfed in a thick, sugary syrup and, if the season allowed it, fresh berries was delectably a taste of heaven. The mere thought of the morning treat made the female’s mouth water with nostalgia and pure sentiment.

Enough pancake talk, though. The red-head females head felt like a storm cloud, filled with paroxysms of electricity and emotions she couldn’t really fathom with the little energy she had. There weren’t many options in this case, and the two both knew it. Saffron could stay there, in Seoul. The city they have both lived in for almost two decades now . . . or do the unthinkable. It took a long, troublesome week, but the decision was finally made.

And it was the unthinkable option.

They left within a month of the letters arrival. Mae was sceptical of Saffron's choice at first, worried about her friends sudden, possibly risky decision, but the girl wouldn’t be turned down that easily, and they both knew that very well.

”I’m coming with you, and that’s my final decision,” were Saffron’s final words as the two made their way past airport security. Her voice didn’t dare tremble, and that had to be a sign that she was sure of her decision to the very core of her being. Mae was silent this entire time, exhausted from hours upon hours of planning, packing and worrying, but Saffron couldn’t help but notice the slightest smile form on the girl’s lips once they boarded. It stayed there for the remainder of the flight, giving Saffron hope for a successful fresh start.

Here they were now, sitting on the floor of their brand new living room, surrounded by countless cardboard boxes scribbled by black Sharpie. The condition of the house was more than decent, especially considering its long history of occupants! Cozy, affordable and somewhat well situated; the perfect combination for two highschool graduates. Not to mention the landscapes! Besides being surrounded by a nice neighbourhood, their new house was a short distance away from a forest. Who knew what secrets roamed about in the area? It was only a matter of time until the female would be able to pounce around, discovering every corner of the area.

Saff’s hand traced the groves between planks of the wooden floor, noticing each bruise and crevice. It felt so cold and strange compared to the carpeted floors of her old apartment. The walls were empty and dulled, but clean. A paint job was possibly needed, but how hard could that be? It was difficult not to picture the moment the two would be able to start decorating them. Perhaps a bookshelf full of Mae’s favourite cookbooks, or an array of modern art pieces found at garage sales? The thought of marking the house as their own itself was enough to make Saffron’s heart skip a beat, cheeks flushed with excitement.

”Earth to Bae Saffron?” The female’s head shook once more, realising she was zoning out. ”Jet lag?” Mae questioned with a soft smile, lips stained a soft crimson.

To Saffron, it was always surprising how effortlessly put-together the girl could look. Ash blonde hair frizz-less, tied into a loose sock-bun with a few strands of hair framing her heart-shaped face. Her casual look was completed with an oversized, maroon hoodie draped over her slim figure. Simple, yet exquisite.

Saffron let out a soft sigh pass her lips at the girls playful question. What was occupying her mind wasn’t fatigue, but a sense of excitement and hopefulness for the future. After all, the two hadn’t had a chance to meet any of their neighbours as of yet, or even explore the area. Despite the obvious anxiety that came with meeting new people, Saffron was quite adamant on experiencing that part of moving. The female didn’t exactly have many friends back in Seoul, so starting fresh could be a chance for new relationships, platonic or not.

"Hey, you," Mae started off once more, perhaps realising her question wasn’t to be answered anytime soon. “I did some thinking overnight, and I landed on a pretty neat idea,” She remarked, voice laced with excitement and pride.

Oh boy.

Mae's ideas had a tendency of being outgoing, and usually involved doing things Saffron normally wouldn't even think of. “What if we went out to meet our neighbours tomorrow? Try and settle in better.” She proposed, a smile lingering on her lips as she shrugged slightly, trying to come off as nonchalant. That was the typical Mae, her and her strange gift of knowing exactly what hr friends were thinking of at the given moment. Scary, but oddly amusing.

“Sure, why not.” Saffron answered, giving the older female a friendly smile and nod. It was quite relieving to have the female suggest socializing herself. After all, it was a burden off of Saffron’s shoulders.

“We are settled pretty close to the university campus, after all. I wouldn’t be surprised if we had more students scattered around the neighbourhood.” She chimed, brushing a stray fragment of hair behind her ear before digging her hands in the box labelled ‘books’.

Saffron acknowledged her friend's comment with another brisk nod, before letting out a yawn, shifting her position to stand up with a pained groan. ”You’re getting old!” Mae laughed wickedly at her younger friend’s aching, getting an eye-roll thrown towards her as a sign of playful annoyance. Saffron couldn't help but let out her own series of giggles at her own misfortune, arms now extended to stretch out her joints.

“Damnit!” Mae cursed out suddenly as Saff’s own eyebrows stitched together in question. “What’s wrong?” She asked, as Mae cupped her face with a groan. ”I'm missing a box. It should be in the garage, or outside on the porch, perhaps . . . ”* she finally muttered, getting a soft ‘oh’ from her friend once she realised the issue. “I could fetch for you.” She told her simply, giving the older a reassuring grin. It’s not like she had much more to do, anyway. Unpacking boxes was boring and hefty, and the girl would rather be doing anything else if she was to be frank.

”Would you? Ah, you’re such a dear.” Mae spoke hoarsely, doing her best to imitate an elderly lady, which she definitely nailed. Giving her one last chuckle, Saff hopped out of the room, humming a soft tune to herself. Nothing in particular, merely a series of tones that went well together. Hand sliding into the pocket of her shorts, she made her way down the stairs and into the living room area. It didn’t look much different from any other room in the house, considering all that it held was a bunch of cardboard.

Saffron’s eyes searched each door in sight, as she finally managed to locate the entrance which surprisingly didn't have any distinguishing features that would help her in her task. Embarrassingly enough, the girl was still in deep confusion about the layout of their new home, even a week into moving in. She sighed in frustration, nimble fingers lacing around the metal doorknob before turning it with ease, door creaking upon pull.

The weather was better than she would’ve ever expected from Canada. The sky was a deep grey shade, interrupted by a few rays of sunshine coming through. Air fresh and slightly damp, a neat compromise that Saff was somewhat okay with. The girl breathed in, arms raised as she allowed herself for a more thorough stretch, without any of Mae’s comments this time. "Now, where the hell is that damned box, huh?"

”Hey, you!” Saffron looked around, eyes widened at the sudden, unfamiliar voice coming from somewhere, clearly nearby. “Yeah, you. With the orange hair!” Her breath caught in her throat as she realised she was obviosuly the one being spoken to. She couldn't imagine anyone else sporting the bold shade of ginger she rocked.

Eyes narrowed and eyebrows raised, she finally caught sight of the only other human in the perimeter.

A man, roughly in his twenties. Hair a soft brown, curling here and there to create an effortlessly flawless brunette arrangement. Skin fair and spotless even from several meters away, Saffron could clearly make out his dark brown eyes and pink lips which were twisted into the sweetest grin the girl had ever seen.

Despite the delicious sight in front of her, she didn’t allow herself any closer to the male without the proper questioning. “And who’s speaking?” She asked with a furrowed brow, a slight scowl on her face. She could only blame her hostile attitude on staying inside for the past week.

The man let out a warm laugh, and Saffron realised the silliness of her question only then when it was too late. He was sitting on the porch of a neighbouring house, fingers loosely gripping onto the rim of a can of soda. “Just a friendly neighbour. Isn’t it obvious?” He stood up, leaving the comfort of the wooden step as he made his way towards the fence. Saffron’s cheeks flushed a heated pink, partly due to the embarrassing nature of the situation, but mostly because of the man’s awfully confident stature. Hands rested against the top of the wooden fence, the female realised it was short enough to act as support for the man’s head as he propped it in the palm of his hand comfortably.

“I saw the moving van come through not too long ago. You’re new around here, aren't you?” He questioned, making Saffron take a cautious step forward. “We are. My best friend and I moved in about a week ago from Seoul. For university, and all that,” the female responded, arms crossing as she cocked her head to the side, slightly taken back by the man’s kindness.

”Seoul? We have more in common than I thought!” He exclaimed in child-like excitement, making Saffron chuckle softly at his beaming face.

“I moved here with my friend a year ago. Both of us study at UO,” Saffron’s eyes left his frame for a second, hearing the front door open once more, a familiar creaking making her wince.

“Saff?” Mae called out, approaching the short girl briskly, hand hooking around her shoulder comfortably. The man gave the newcomer a polite smile, studying both women closely. "Saff, huh? Nice to meet you. I’m Hoseok," He remarked.

“Nice to meet you, neighbour. I’m Mae, we moved here this week," the female chimed out, giving Saffron's shoulder a squeeze of encouragement. "But you probably know that already considering how long you two have been talking,” Mae chuckled teasingly, placing a hand on her hip as she gave Hoseok a nod.

Saffron gulped at the girl’s statement, realising the entire reason she was outside in the first place. “Funnily enough, we've been very keen on meeting our neighbours. It’s nice to walk into one of them like this!”* Mae acknowledged, getting a nod of agreement from her friend and a warm chuckle from their neighbour. "Well, I'm very happy we ran into each other, then!" he beamed, giving Saffron a conforting look. Was it visible she was nervous?

"Hey, we should do a formal greeting one day. Are you busy tomorrow?” Mae inquired, giving Saffron a gentle shake. Was she teasing, or did she want the female to take initiative? Whatever it was, Saffron was too focused on forming coherent sentences in her head to say anything.

“Hobi!! Where the hell did you go, again?!" Another male voice came from inside the house, slightly deeper than Hoseok’s and muffled due to the distance. “Well, that’s my call. I’ll see you around?” He winked, before running back on his porch and disappearing back into the house, leaving behind only the possibly empty can of pop.

Saff let out a sigh as soon as the man left her field of vision, hands reaching to rub at her temples furiously. “This was . . . ” Mae started off, as she let go of the girl’s shoulder and proceeded to walk into the garage, locating the box she was looking for. “ . . . tiring?” Saffron finished off, earning an amused chuckle from Mae. “I was about to say exciting, but that works, too,”

✧ ･ﾟ : * ✧ ･ﾟ : *

#bts #bangtan #방탄소년단 #oc #original character #kpop #idol oc #idol #fanfic #kim taehyung #jung hoseok #tae #hobi #drabble

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samosoapsoup · 4 years

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Jacqui GermainSep 17, 2020 12:46pm

Deborah Roberts wasn’t born a triplet, but she often felt like it growing up. Two of her sisters and herself were all born within two years of each other. She remembers people calling the three of them, stringing together their first names so that it became its own uniquely muddled phrase. Knowing this, it’s difficult not to think of Roberts’s works: We Are Soldiers (2019), Between Them (2019), An Act of Power (2018), and The Sleepwalkers (2017) all show three young Black girls with braids and barrettes, consciously or unconsciously mirroring each other as they make their way through Black girlhood.Born in 1962 and raised in Austin, Texas, Roberts is one of eight; she has an additional sister and four brothers. She started exploring her artistic side in the third grade and quickly realized her drawings were good enough to trade for the things third graders treasure: pencils, popularity, and other odds and ends. “I could draw people under the table!” Roberts told me recently with a laugh, her wide smile widening even more at the memory.

Deborah Roberts, We are Soldiers, 2019. © Deborah Roberts. Courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London.

These formative years were also marked by Roberts’s first glimpses of Blackness, femininity, and beauty—all pre-internet and largely portraying images that did not look like her. Roberts, just like generations of other Black girls before and after her, developed an understanding of beauty and femininity within this exclusionary context. “I think the foundation of not believing what I was seeing is what fuses this work—what holds this work together today,” Roberts said. “Had I bought into this idea that beauty was one way and not another, I don’t know if I’d be doing this work.” It wasn’t until her artistic practice matured that she was able to more deliberately investigate and refute that conditioning, but even as a child, she recognized the incongruity with a skeptical eye.Roberts’s talent also laid the groundwork for shaping a sense of her own individuality. Early on, art was less a career path and more an enjoyable way to distinguish herself in her 10-person family. “It was something that was uniquely mine,” Roberts said. “In a house with eight children, it’s hard to have something that’s yours.” In high school, one of Roberts’s art teachers provided an infusion of encouragement by exposing her to a wide range of Black artists and a much broader perspective of the art world at large. After graduating, Roberts studied at the University of North Texas, the San Francisco Art Institute, and the Pont-Aven School of Contemporary Art, then later earned her MFA from Syracuse University.

Deborah Roberts, Rebels, 2019. © Deborah Roberts. Courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London.

Deborah Roberts, After the thunder (RR), 2019. © Deborah Roberts. Courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London.

“When the art came, it was hard, but I was so intrigued by the hardness of it. It kept drawing me in to get better at it,” she recalled. “I learned the craft, learned how to draw, learned how to paint, learned how to watercolor. They’re all different—different properties, different materials, different tools that you have to master.”After showing her work at several galleries in the mid-1980s, Roberts decided to open her own gallery space, naming it Not Just Art Gallery because she also maintained a framing business to ensure a more consistent cash flow. She hoped to increase her own visibility and gain access to the national art market, while regularly showcasing the work of peers she admired. The gallery operated for about 10 years, though it started failing in its seventh year. Today, she laughs at her own naivety, but the experience gave her an early taste of her work’s viability in the art market.

Deborah Roberts, detail of Man[ly], 2019. © Deborah Roberts. Courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London.

Roberts’s love of drawing blended with her collage practice to become the perfect outlet for exploring her persistent skepticism about socialized definitions of beauty. In addition to topics like colorism (“When they say you’re pretty for a dark-skinned girl, that’s no compliment”) and the politics of Black hair (“Whatever good hair is”), the bulk of Roberts’s work comments on the sanctity of Black girlhood. Her collages force viewers to make sense of images of Black girls that are visibly distorted and mismatched and yet still childlike and innocent.“At one point they say you’re a little girl and somehow they treat you as an adult. So sometimes you have a big arm—you have to be an adult,” she explained, referring to the oversized features or too-long limbs of some of her figures. “When I was drawing these little girls, I wanted to highlight that…[just] because society has set us up like this doesn’t mean that we didn’t want to be children, that we didn’t want to be seen as innocent, that we wanted a childhood to be able to explore.”

Deborah Roberts, Hip bone, 2019. © Deborah Roberts. Courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London.

Deborah Roberts, The burden, 2019. © Deborah Roberts. Courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London.

Some of her works depict Black girls with boxing gloves in place of hands. “When did the gloves of Black womanhood come on us? When is it, all of a sudden, that we have to defend ourselves?” she asked, speaking to such works. “It’s around the age, I think, from maybe 14 to 22 [when] we have to start defending ourselves. And it’s based on watching our mothers, our aunts, our community members and how they carry themselves—how we [learn to] defend our ideas of who we are.”Gradually, she distilled her approach into four key aspects—pop culture, Black culture, art history, and American history—and she continues to imbue varying degrees of each into her works. She mentions, for example, repeatedly using James Baldwin’s eyes in her collages, Michelle Obama’s fist, and portions of Willow Smith’s face. “I think she has the most beautiful, soft face,” she says of Smith’s features.

Deborah Roberts, detail of We wear the masks, 2019. © Deborah Roberts. Courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London.

Deborah Roberts, detail of Mixed hues, 2019. © Deborah Roberts. Courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London.

The piecemeal nature of collage allows her to create figures of Black girls—and as of a few years ago, Black boys as well—that are composites. On the surface, the arrangements might speak to the disfiguring and objectifying way a society marred by chattel slavery views Black children and Black people in general. But given the images of Blackness and beauty that Roberts and so many other Black girls struggle to reconcile with their own sense of self, Roberts’s collage works can be better understood as a purposeful reconfiguring of Black girlhood. After all, how does a Black girl create a sense of self while being denied any kind of mirror or reflection in society at every turn? How does a Black girl begin to shape her identity in the midst of a country that values her parts more than her whole?Black women, and Black people in general, have always had to serve as each other’s mirror in the context of a white-dominated world that refused to see us as either human or whole. The works, then, are defiant depictions of Black girlhood, amalgamations of each other collaged together to lay claim to both our humanity and our wholeness.

Deborah Roberts, From the beginning, 2019. © Deborah Roberts. Courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London.

Deborah Roberts, I am not a man, I'm dynamite, 2019. © Deborah Roberts. Courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London.

Roberts draws a hard line against depicting explicit violence or the aftermath of violence in any of her portraits. The art world is slowly beginning to reckon with controversial claims of exploiting racialized violent experiences of being Black in the United States—typically shorthanded as “Black trauma”—for the voyeuristic desires of majority white arts patrons. But for Roberts, distancing her figures from overt physical trauma and suffering is a way to protect them while still commenting on the racialized trauma their real-life counterparts face. Her insistence on creating that visual distance allows her to prioritize their wholeness and dignity first and foremost above any message or humanistic appeal for empathy.Instead, she mentions collaging a piece of candy in the hands of a figure with the word Pop! on the candy wrapper. The placement references 12-year-old Tamir Rice, a Black boy shot to death in 2014 while playing outside in a park with a toy gun, as young children are wont to do. “The idea of violence—I can’t [literally] put in my work, so I like the idea that it has, pop! pop! pop! because the sound of violence is pop! pop! pop!” Roberts explained. Her piece Ghost gun (2018), also in honor of Tamir Rice, is the closest to blatant representation, depicting a Black boy holding a colorful toy gun and a blue pacifier placed snugly in his mouth.

Deborah Roberts, When you see me, 2019. © Deborah Roberts. Courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London.

In another instance, Roberts said, she might place cartoon monkeys on a figure’s shirt as a nod towards that specific racist and dehumanizing characterization burdened on Black people for centuries—though she describes monkeys as “the nemesis” in her work because she “hates the idea of anyone thinking we are less than human.”When the conversation turns to 80 Days (2018), one of Roberts’s most celebrated and beloved works, her posture changes to that of an openly affectionate mother, welcoming a stranger’s admiration of a child she holds dear. Part of a longer series of collage-on-canvas works called “Nessun Dorma” (Italian for “None Shall Sleep”), 80 Days references 14-year-old George Stinney Jr. who was executed in 1944 for a murder he didn’t commit—and who, to this day, remains the youngest American to be executed. The piece’s title refers to the two and a half months from arrest, trial, conviction, and execution: just over 80 days.

Deborah Roberts, Head Nods and Handshakes, 2019. © Deborah Roberts. Courtesy of the artist and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London.

To be clear, Roberts is proud of all of her works, but this one obviously occupies a particular place in her own personal career archive. In 2019, the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery selected 80 Days for its triennial exhibition.“I am so happy that [80 Days] is at the National Portrait Gallery right now, sitting in the middle,” she said, smiling. Indeed, Roberts’s piece is installed on a broad wall between two other exhibition finalists, with George Stinney Jr.’s tilted head visible above crowd height.“And they hung him high. Everyone has to look up to him,” she added. “I love it. I wanted that for him.”

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-deborah-robertss-gripping-collages-reconfigure-black-girlhood?utm_medium=email&utm_source=sailthru&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_content=daily-&utm_term=21536109-09-17-20

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biofunmy · 5 years

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An Art Show for Hundreds of Women. And That’s Just the Artists.

What would you do, a friend asked the artist C. Finley, if you could curate the Whitney Biennial? Easy, Ms. Finley replied: It would be all women. “The Whitney Houston Biennial!” her friend announced.

That was in 2014. Ms. Finley laughed, and then she got to work — from that throwaway line, a festival was born. Now in its third edition, the Every Woman Biennial is the most expansive and ambitious yet. (Ms. Finley only recently changed its name from the Whitney Houston Biennial, for ease of fund-raising and after a polite but firm letter from the Houston family.) Opening Sunday, it features the work of over 600 women and gender-nonbinary artists — nine times the number of people in the actual Whitney Biennial that it is designed to run alongside. Ms. Finley’s exhibition will also include a female-centric film festival and, for the first time, will pop up in Los Angeles, with new artists, next month.

It came together on a shoestring, with donations and a network of volunteers, most of them female artists who brought their power tools and multimedia know-how to two downtown spaces. This week, they were completing the installation of pieces in materials ranging from textiles to video, driftwood to Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.

“There’s this lady-power that happens,” said Ms. Finley, 43, a painter who splits her time between New York and Rome. “It’s very connected; we’re basically all putting our powers together and raising each other up.” An extrovert in glitter eye-shadow, she also wants the festival to be fun: The New York opening will include a parading flash-mob performance, set to Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” (Anyone can join in; the choreography is available on YouTube.)

Though it’s been described as an alternative to the Whitney Biennial, Ms. Finley said she conceived the Every Woman to supplement, not negate. Her aim was to lift up women in the art world, especially talented ones who are in a midcareer plateau, perhaps assisting better-known artists, raising children or otherwise not as focused on exhibitions. She scouted people on Instagram and did not charge a fee to apply, rare in the festival world. And there are art stars in her show, like Mickalene Thomas and Marilyn Minter, who are veterans of the Whitney.

Ms. Finley is also fairly loose about defining “every woman.” “I say, ‘if you’re making work from a divine feminine place, send it over,’” she said. “We have a 13-year-old trans girl from Colorado with a GenderCool project,” an initiative to tell transgender young people’s stories. In the first year, she added, the exhibition featured “an 89-year-old artist from New York City that I happened to find. Part of the ethos of this is to be really inclusive and really loving, so people can feel comfortable here.”

In curating, she had only two rules: no hate, and no headless women. “I don’t want a nude body with her head cut off in the show,” she said. (There is also blissfully little Trump art.)

When she heard about the exhibition, Ms. Minter, 70 — the “nasty woman” of contemporary feminist art, as a recent Times review put it — was quick to participate. She sent over an inkjet print from her “Plush” series, with close-up, luxe images of pubic hair — created because, she said, “it seems to be disappearing. And it’s not at all in art history.”

Ms. Thomas, a friend of Ms. Finley’s since their days as Pratt students, provided “Racquel Come to Me Two,” a collaged print of her partner in what she called an empowering pose, one that represented to her the biennial’s — and Ms. Finley’s — mission. “Even as an undergrad, she was putting on shows and curating and definitely spearheading conversations,” Ms. Thomas, 48, said. “She was definitely a leader, and one who was about mentorship and supporting other artists.”

The show is hung salon-style in a donated space at 222 Bowery, once home to William S. Burroughs and studios for Mark Rothko and Fernand Léger. Now, there’s a collage of fliers from lesbian bars, panels illustrating most of “Game of Thrones,” and a platform, dotted with semiprecious stones, that invites meditation. (Almost everything is for sale, with prices starting low.) The sense of community is “better than any graduate school,” said Liz Liguori, 40, a photographer turned multimedia artist whose work merges high and low tech. For this biennial, she created an interactive “drawing machine,” in which a laser translates viewers’ hand motions into fleeting shapes.

Nearby, Ayo Jackson, a recent M.F.A. grad, was pinning cotton puffs into the background of her piece, while a mirrored version of her, with a braided unicorn horn, twirled above; it was inspired by the medieval Unicorn Tapestries at the Cloisters in northern Manhattan. “I like the last image, where the unicorn is resurrected,” she explained. “I wanted it to be an analogue for black stories that end in pain.”

Ms. Jackson, 41, a former dancer with Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company, was introduced to the biennial through its dance component. It’s her first major show. “This is a huge first step for me,” she said.

The artist Deborah Kass, 67, whose sculpture “OY/YO” is installed outside the Brooklyn Museum, contributed a 2009 silk-screen edition, “Nobody Puts Baby in the Corner.” It will be on display at La MaMa’s Galleria, the biennial’s other venue. “I’ve been an artist in New York City my whole life, and I always wanted to be in a biennial in my hometown,” Ms. Kass said pointedly. “So why not this one?”

In 2014, the year Ms. Finley’s show began, only one-third of the artists in the Whitney Biennial were women. (This year’s edition is more balanced.) “The real question is why, at this point in time, the gender disparity still exists in our institutions and exhibitions and galleries,” Ms. Kass said, adding: “It affects just about every woman. And let’s not forget the pay gap, which is enormous.”

Ms. Finley, a studio artist who takes commercial gigs to get by, is, of course, keenly aware of the inequities — she financed the last biennial herself, using money she got painting murals for the 2017 “Wonder Woman” reboot. She views the Every Woman Biennial as an extension of her own work, and a step toward professional fulfillment for artists of her stature. “I want studio visits, I want someone to encourage me, to show and sell my work — all the things that every artist wants, is what this show provides,” she said.

She even sees the choreographed flash mob as a growth moment: In the spirit of partnering with somebody, she is creating mentorship opportunities, connecting experienced art handlers with those hoping to learn the trade, say. Maybe they’ll meet mid-dance move, she said. “Cross-pollinating — baby, that’s what it’s all about.”

Every Woman Biennial

May 19-29 at La MaMa’s La Galleria, 47 Great Jones Street, and 222 Bowery, Manhattan. The exhibition’s Los Angeles edition will run June 2-12. everywomanbiennial.com

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obsidianarchives · 5 years

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Ajuan Mance

Ajuan Mance is a Professor of African American literature at Mills College. A lifelong artist and writer, she works in acrylic on paper and canvas, ink on paper and, for the 1001 Black Men project, ink on paper and digital collage. Ajuan's comics and zines include The Ancestors’ Juneteenth, A Blues for Black Santa, the Gender Studies comic book series, and 1001 Black Men, featuring images from the online portrait series of the same name. Ajuan has participated in solo and group exhibitions from the Bay Area to Brooklyn. Both her scholarly writings and her art explore the relationship between race, gender, and representation. Ajuan is partly inspired by her teaching and research in U.S. Black literature and history. Her most recent scholarly book, Before Harlem: An Anthology of African-American Literature from the Long Nineteenth Century, was published in 2016. Her art has appeared in a number of publications and media sites, including The Women’s Review of Books, Cog Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Times, Buzzfeed.com, BET.com, SFGate.com, and KPIX.com. Her comics have appeared in the Alphabet and We’re Still Here anthologies, from Stacked Deck Press and the upcoming Drawing Power anthology, from Abrams Press.

Black Girls Create: What do you create?

In my work as a Professor in the English Department at Mills College, I describe myself as a literary historian of the Black nineteenth century. This means I teach and write about U.S. Black writers of the 1800s.

In my work as an artist, I create comics, paintings, drawings, and illustrations that use humor and lots of bright colors to explore the complexity of race and gender in the 21st century.

BGC: Why do you create?

In all honesty, I create because it's what I've always done. Some of my earliest memories are memories of making art. I've often said that I've been an artist almost as long as I've been Black; and when you've been drawing and painting for that long, art simply becomes part of the way you experience and process your world. I don't think it's an exaggeration for me say that art helps me understand who I am.

BGC: Who is your audience?

There are two answers to this question. The first is that I create the art I want to see in the world, and I hope it resonates with other people. That said, while my art is really, truly for all audiences who find it compelling, I feel especially accountable to the people I depict in my work; and those are, for the most part, Black people and communities of color. In my comics and zines, I also depict the experiences of queer and trans folks of color, and I hope that these communities find my works relatable and reflective of some of their experiences.

BGC: Who or what inspired you to do what you do? Who or what continues to inspire you?

I take a lot of inspiration from people who are thriving in their art practice and who are creating work that I love. I try to learn from those who are doing some of the things I want to do. I am very much inspired by those artists who are doing interesting figurative work, as well as those who are using comics and other visual media to tell stories that center the experiences of people of color. Some living artists whose careers I actively follow are the visual artists Kerry James Marshall, Kara Walker, Iona Rozeal Brown, Paula Scher, and Mickalene Thomas. I am also very much inspired by the work of the comic creators John Jennings (co-creator of the graphic novel version of Octavia Butler's Kindred), Thi Bui, Jimmie Robinson (some of whose work is set in the Bay Area), Spike Trotman, and Jillian Tamaki. I could list a whole lot more, but I'll stop there.

By the same token I don't know if I'd call it inspiration, but I was very much motivated as a developing artist by the support of my mom and dad. Even as an elementary and middle school student, my parents took my art as seriously as I did. I grew up in the New York area, and they took me to museums where I could study the work of others. They also took me to buy my supplies at the same stores where art school students shopped. All of this helped me to think of myself as a professional, even at a very young age.

BGC: What inspired you to become an English professor?

As an undergraduate, I was very much focused on earning an MFA and becoming a professor of creative writing. One day, though, one of my former advisors, Suzanne Woods, pulled me aside to discuss my plans for graduate school. She encouraged me to apply to PhD programs in English and to become a literature professor. She even told me where to apply. I changed course (away from the MFA), and I've never looked back.

BGC: Is there a connection between your work as a professor and your work as an artist?

There is a definite connection between my academic work and my art. Both forms of work revolve around the experiences of people of African descent. Also, in some ways, I use art as a research tool. I use art to explore issues and questions about Black life, Black history, and Black futures. My research in early African American literature and history has taught me a lot about the depth and breadth of Black creative experience (literature, art, and activism), and this directly feeds and informs my art. This knowledge of our long history of using creative work as a tool of resistance, celebration, and exploration has strengthened my sense of entitlement to a public voice.

BGC: How do you balance creating with the rest of your life?

I prioritize my art and illustration work, in order to make sure it doesn't simply fall prey to the myriad other tasks demanding my attention. I think of the common financial advice that you should, "pay yourself first." Prioritizing art is my way of doing that — of prioritizing the art practice that sustains me and helps me navigate my world.

BGC: You recently completed your 1001 Black Men Project. What inspired you to create this and how did you decide who to sketch?

The 1001 Black Men Project was inspired by my concern that even those Black-owned media outlets that seek to celebrate Black men seem to depict only the narrowest vision of what Black manhood and masculinity can be. I wanted to try my hand at creating a body of portraits of Black men that was truly representative of the full diversity of Black men's experiences, aesthetics, classes, and identities. Initially, I started by drawing the men I noticed when I was out and about in the Bay Area. I drew the security guard at our local grocery store, the men I saw during my regular trips to the public library, the people seated near me during my annual trips to San Diego Comic Con. Then, around my 300th drawing, I started to use each century point (300 drawings, 400, 500, et cetera) as a check-in, to consider which constituencies I'd somehow left out, which groups of Black men seem to be over-represented, and why. Over time, I became more aware of my own biases and more intentional about depicting those Black male populations I'd somehow seemed to overlook.

BGC: Why is it important, as a Black woman, to create?

As Black women our lens on the present, the past, and the imagined future is critically important. Everyone benefits when a broader range of perspectives is represented, and the constellation of identities and experiences that shapes each of our lives as Black women gives every one of us a unique vision and creative imagination. In addition, art in any form — performing, visual, literary — can be a wonderfully sustaining and affirming practice, and Black women deserve to access every available avenue for affirmation, sustenance, and creativity.

BGC: Advice for young creators/ones just starting?

My advise for young creators is to commit yourself to your creative work. Do it every day, with little attention to what others might think. By the same token, pay attention to the work of others, learn from other artists, and allow their work to inspire you. Go to gallery shows, museums, and comic and zine fests. Be open to community and connection with other artists. Also, set goals and work toward them — a drawing each day, a finished comic, a collection of short stories, etc. Then celebrate with friends when you've reached that milestone. And celebrate yourself whenever you've created something new, something you like, or something that was hard for you.

BGC: Any future projects you’re working on?

I enjoy long-term projects that I can manage to sustain in 3-5 hours a day. I'm currently developing three projects. One is, Bay Area Heart and Soul: Black Artists in a Time of Change (with Filmmaker Pam Uzzell). I am creating a series of portraits of Bay Area Black artists (visual, performing, and literary), and I will be posting them on a website, in much the same way as I did with 1001 Black Men. The difference is that these portraits will also incorporate the words of the artists themselves. Pam Uzzell is creating short video interviews with roughly one in every 5 of the artists I'm drawing. Check All that Apply is a web-based comic strip about life as a Black nerd, and it's inspired by events in my own life. I'll be launching that project in early April. In addition, I'm working on a bi-monthly web comic about time travel. Stay tuned!

#Visual Arts #Art

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meowsaidmayaanime · 6 years

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What I'm Watching September 2016 as of 9/27

Big Windup! 9/27

My girl friend and I have been watching this anime for the past month, since we only watch it together it took quite a wile to get through, but it was well worth it.

The anime follows a first year high school baseball pitcher, Mihashi, who joins his schools brand new team. Mihashi, because of his experiences with his middle school team, is significantly less than confident in not only his pitching but in his ability to make friends. He is very much a kid who suffers from severe anxiety, self worth, and some PTSD caused by bullying in middle school. Despite this he was convinced to join the baseball team at his new school and the rest of the series focuses on his relationship with his catcher, Abe, who recognizes that Mihashi has great talent and tries to get him to realize that, as well as his own self confidence and worth.

From the description above it makes the show seem rather dark and serious, but it is not whatsoever. Its a very light-hearted show, with its own unique brand of comedy. The English voice actors, while not so great at first, really grew on me and fit very well with their respective characters. In fact, now I can't see the characters being played by anyone else.

This anime definitely grew on me, especially after watching the teams first practice match in the first few episodes. It makes you feel for and understand Mihashi and Abe, and root for their relationship despite being so blatantly different. It very 'natural' too in the way that the characters interact with each other and especially how they respond to Mihashi's mental problems.

If your into sports anime, this one is wonderful. I've only seen the first season (25 episodes), and plan to continue watching. The only problem is that the second season is a half season (12 or 13 ep) and there is no word on whether or not the show will ever continue. By the look of the end of the first season, there is no way the show could be wrapped up in the second season. So if you do decide to watch it keep that in mind. When I finish the second season I will give you guys a little more info about it. But for now, I really love it. (and the facial expressions are great!!)

Silver Spoon 9/25

Silver Spoon is a semi-natural (but still mostly natural) anime about a boy who decided to go to a high school in the country focused on agriculture in order to get away from his parents home in the city. Upon arriving he finds that all his classmates attend the school because they grew up with the farm life. Being a city boy, he is thrown into the farm/agriculture classes learning about raising animals and growing crops.

I was a little skeptical going into this anime, but the moment I finished the first episode I realized that this would be an anime I would thoroughly enjoy and love. And I do!

Like many of my other favourite slice of life anime, I love this one because of the deep topics it explores and discuses. In here Haciken, the main character, struggles with not knowing who he is or what his dream for the future is, the stress and complications from his family, as well as dealing with issues regarding the animal industry. The first season primarily deals with Hachiken's struggle to decide where the line is drawn between a pet and livestock. Can he care for an animal, in this case a piglet, and then accept it when the animal goes to the slaughterhouse for food? That being just one example of the real-world struggles and debates that the anime discusses, and does so rather directly. hey do not beat around the bush with these topics which is great.

On top of discussing deep topics the anime is also rather hilarious often giving chances for comedy, as well as deep thought, interpersonal relationships between teachers, classmates, friends, families, and some mild romance.

I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants something more out of slice of life than just comedy or just school life. I would highly recommend you watch the first episode because you will know immediately whether you will like this anime or not.

Millennium Actress 9/19 re-watch

Millennium actress is a movie released in 2001 about a director who finally finds the actress he admired the most after decades of hiding. Chiyoko, now in her 70's, was famed in cinema from the 20s to maybe the 50s or 60s until she mysteriously vanished and became recluse at the height of her career. After finding a key that once belonged to chiyoko and finally finding her home, the director asks for an interview and the chance to return the key. The rest of the movie is about the actress recounting the tale of the key in question, explaining why it was so important to her and how it caused her to go into acting when she was young. Reality and the roles that she played in cinema merge and intertwine with her tale, as we watch her grow as an actress in the roles she played and the feelings/inner turmoil she experiences.

I had first watched this movie when I was much younger and first got into anime, so it must have been sometime between late elementary and middle school. Back then I thought the film was beautiful and amazing, but could not truly comprehend what it meant. I had re-watched it a few times to try to understand it, but I never did. At-least not until I re-watched nearly 8 years later. I understand it now, i completely understand it, its definitely a concept that is better understood by at least someone in their late teens who knows more about the struggles of constantly searching for someone. I won't say more here about it, but I will say that its a fascinating story.

What I love most about this film are the moments we see Chiyoko's films, most of what we see focuses on historical periods from a thousand years ago to the 50's. And there are a number of films she acts in that I would personally love to watch more of. Along with her recounting, the die hard fan director pops up and plays the other supporting roles he knows well from re-watching her films, giving a great bit of comedic relief. The only thing I didn't like was the filmography who accompanied the director, his presence was largely only comedic relief and i felt was mostly forced into the film.

Regardless, this is a great film, constantly filled with action, a little confusion, mystery, drama, and romance. It's a more serious film better suited for adults and young adults simply because of the overarching theme/concept the film focuses and relies on to tell the story. As I have before, I would definitely watch it again.

Shirobako 9/14

This is an incredibly meta and 'natural' anime. It begins with 5 high school girls creating an animated short film for their anime club. Each of the girls has a passion for the different parts that goes towards making an anime, production, writing, animating, art, and voice acting. They promise that in the future they will make their high school production a reality. Jump forward a few years, and most of the main characters are out of collage and fresh in their new jobs. The show takes over following one of the girls, Aoi Miyamori, who joins a production studio as a production assistant. We watch her go through the stress and struggle of dealing with the numerous people working on the project, deadlines, and life in the industry. We also watch how the other four girls are doing with their careers.

Overall its a very good story about being young post graduation individuals trying to discover their dreams, make their dreams a reality, and struggle with figuring out if what your doing is not only right for you, but feasible at all. As a senior in college and being only 2 years younger than the main character (I am currently 21 and the five characters are 22-23) I can really understand what they are going through having struggled with the question of what I want to do, study, and whether its the right choice for me.

It's an incredibly good young adult story. A large portion of the characters are well rounded and different (there is a huge cast because we meet nearly every employee), and no one falls even 90% into one particular archetype, but rather feels like a real person. In terms of how accurate to a Japanese production studio it is, I can't say for sure considering I've never worked in the industry. However I will go on a limb to say that a production company who writes a story about their own business would be pretty accurate. And from an outsiders point of view, it feels very accurate.

I wholeheartedly recommend this anime. Especially if you like slice of life that is 'natural', focuses more on real life scenarios, and for once does not take place in school, but focuses on adults and the adult life.

10/10 would watch again and recommend. In fact I've already convinced a friend to watch it and after the first episode was hooked~

I Can't Understand What My Husband is Saying 9/13

This is a cute 3 minute, 26 episode series. It follows the daily home life of an otaku husband (verging on, if not already a NEET), and his wife who is not interested in anime or manga. It's interesting seeing how they make their relationship work together despite the lack of understanding between each other on the topic of the husbands large obsession of anime and manga (as well as his no will to work.) It's a cute series, and if you want a quick cute and funny watch this is a good one that you can blow through in an hour or two. Not the best short series out there, but still cute.

Free! Iwatobi Swim Club and Eternal Summer 9/11 re-watch

This really is an amazing series. I just finished and wow. Even when the giddy blindness that you get from a show after watching it for the first time has passed and your re-watching it with a clearer head sometimes shows turn out to be not as great as you first thought. This is not one of those shows. Yes there's a whole lot of fan service mainly with all the muscles, but it's still an incredible show, it still has an incredible story and character relation, and wow the second season is fabulous.

The show follows Haru and his friends as they start a swimming club and try to climb their way past their own limitations, strengthen and repair their bonds, fight their way to regional and national competitions, and in the second season struggle with their uncertainty towards the future.

Where the first season focuses more on the 'now' of making new friendships and rekindling old ones, the second season really is a coming of age/growing up story focusing on their future. As sappy as that might sound you don't even realize it until its all over. Hell, I didn't even realize it until someone mentioned it online and gave me that epiphany that I now see should have been pretty obvious.

Yeah, the character designs are not new, or innovative, or terribly complex at all, but they are characters that grow on you. As long as you can still love the characters, care about them, and watch them grow, then that's all you need. Couple that in with the uniqueness of the characters situations, the lighthearted comedy of the show, and the underlying messages that really do sneak up on you and you have one hell of a sports anime.

If you ever want to know where to start your sports anime obsession, start with Free! or even with its amazing parody 50% Off which got me obsessed with sports anime! Seriously this show is fantastic, 10/10 would watch again. Two seasons of 12 and 13 episodes, its a quick watch with a very good English dub~

(Speaking of sports anime, I started doing sports anime bingo recently and played it while re-watching this show. It took a while, but oh man did I hit bingo with Free!)

Natsume's Book of Friends Seasons 1-4 9/3 TOP PICK FOR THIS MONTH!!

This is an incredibly adorable show. Its heartwarming and has a 'feel good' movie feel to it. If anything taking into account the art style and how good it makes you feel it reminds me a lot of Fruits Basket. Don't get me wrong, its nothing like Fruits Basket in terms of story, but its got the same 'feel'.... if that makes sense.

Anyway, the premise is that Natsume is the only one able to see yokai (Japanese monsters/spirits/gods). After moving into a new town with some distant relatives, Natsume finds out that is deceased grandmother could also see yokai and made quite the reputation among them. She would take the names of local yokai and put it into a book called the book of friends, with their names she could control the yokai. Now yokai are coming after Natsume either to ask him to return their names or to take the book of friends for themselves.

The majority of the show is about Natsume steadily coming to understand both humans and yokai more clearly than he has before. Making friends, learning about the lives of others, learning about his grandmother, and finding out what it really means to be apart of a family and not be ostracized by others because of his ability.

This show is wonderful, its not as gripping or super emotion/action driven as some other shows are, but its very well done. The character are great, the stories are so heartwarming, and it breaks a number of the stereotypical cliches that are often found with anime about a character who can see something that others cannot. An example that I particularly love is how other characters who come into the mix who are also able to see yokai are not automatically 'evil' or an antagonist. So rather than causing mroe trouble for Natsume from the 'get go' they are actually there to help develop him into a better character. Which I love~ Any actual antagonist that shows up are antagonists for a real reason, rather than just for the purpose of having one.

If your into exorcism anime or anime that focuses on traditional Japanese monsters/spirits/gods you will love this one. It is slower paced and focuses more on story than action so keep that in mind. Also keep in mind that there are only 4 season out right now as of this post. Season 5 will be coming out with this falls simulcasts and I'm super excited for it~

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