A Little Art For A Change

Art patron views my piece Envisioning Freedom at the ART214 Exhibit, where the reception was held this past Sunday.

It's been a minute since I've actually blogged, for several reasons, some personal, and on some occasions it just felt as if the timing wasn't right.

For example I wanted so bad to discuss these plethora of marches that are going on, especially in the U.S.A, especially doing a close-up on my opinion of one David Hogg, and the March For Our Lives event that took place last March, but other things got in the way, and after trying to discuss this issue with people, it seems as if  I needed to gather my thoughts before I go full blast on what I see as a serious failure to connect going on in America, which concludes in all of these marches and rallies going on in this country.

Trust me. I haven't left, nor forgotten, because I just have a funny feeling things will come back around, and this situation will be discussed at length again. Why do I feel this way?

Simple, we haven't learned our lesson yet. So we're doomed to repeat it in some form or fashion.

But in the meantime and in between time, I wanted to show a couple of pics from the ART214 exhibit going on right now in Dallas, Texas, where 4 different cultural centers celebrated this occasion by selecting artists residing in the Greater Dallas area, the Bath House, Latino, South Dallas, and Oak Cliff Cultural Centers.




My piece entitled "Envisioning Freedom" was selected to be displayed at the Bath House Cultural Center, located at White Rock Lake in Dallas, Texas.




Envisioning Freedom is simply a token gesture at paying homage to those previous generations who strove for freedom and justice against great odds being  levied against them. Regardless of whether I agree with some of their stances and tactics, they must be given their due respects, and their histories fully narrated and analyzed, whether  the outcome was successful or not, in order to continue the struggle, and claim victory in the end.

Envisioning Freedom, created by the artist, is now on exhibit at the Bath House Cultural Center from March 24th to April 21st, 2018.

This is not the first time I've done such a piece, I did a piece for Staff Sgt. Homer Hogues in 2013, and presented it to him at a tribute for his contributions to the Tuskegee Airmen. It was a great event, and the piece was well received by him and the family, as well as the community of Highland Hills, who finally got a chance to pay tribute to a legendary figure, who lived in the area. 

Doing pieces like these has taught me a great lesson in telling stories, regardless of my personal opinions. 

I'm now waiting to hear word from an upcoming exhibit, Art and Activism, slated to be held at the South Dallas Cultural Center from May 5th to July 29th, 2018. I'll be sure to keep y'all posted....

Until next time....

Quwwa Artworks | Textile & Apparel, Paintings & Prints, Digital Art

Quwwa Artworks | Textile & Apparel, Paintings & Prints, Digital Art

My First Artwalk and the Liberty and Justice FOR ALL Exhibit

 This past weekend was filled with more excitement and enthusiasm from a creative perspective than I have witnessed in few years. Why do I say that, you may ask? Well let me tell you. The last time I participated in an art exhibit was almost 2 years ago, when I presented a piece to a gallery located downtown called The Art Hotel Collective. The reception was positive, and I met some cool artists down there. Well due to unforseen circumstances, the gallery moved to the Valley View Mall located in North Dallas, and the gallery became The SLANT Gallery Collective.  It's a much broader layout, and they're able to exhibit more work, including their own, like this cool piece here.

 This piece came from a young local artist Madelyn Sneed, who had an exhibitt with some wonderful paintings inspired by a trip to France. Great oil paintings!










However it is the following exhibit that delighted me, because 1) it deals with something close to my heart, that being social commentary. For the months of May and June The SLANT Gallery will hold an exhibit entitled Liberty and Justice FOR ALL...This one was right up my alley, although I must say I didn't expect my entry to be accepted. Over the past couple of years I experienced so many dry spells, rejections, illnesses and personal issues that I had developed an attitude where my art was only to keep what little personal sanity that I may have. Lack of funds, resources, and the inability to find gainful employment kept me down. Not to mention offers to hold an art workshop at my library somehow fell through the cracks. After submitting proposals and stuff, and watching other programs become approved, as well as getting paid for those programs, I began to become completely despondent, and my art suffered greatly. My spirits had reached a critical low, and depression set in, followed by anxiety. This is not something I would wish on anybody.

When I submitted the pieces the previous weekend, I awaited for the response, which was supposed to have been before midnight Sunday May 3rd. I woke up the next day, didn't see any response, and chalked it up as another loss. However lo and behold, that notification came later in the day, and my picture Pariah: Apocalyptic Now was chosen to be displayed at the exhibit. The exhibit deals with all of the plights of different sectors of people and what they experience in the US, however there is an international flavor added to the exhibit as well. I did not get a pic of all of the pieces, nor did I get the names of the artists and the pieces for everyone, but since the exhibit will be shown during the month of June also, it gives me a chance to collect more for the next blog. 

       
                                                                                          

    This piece was on the exhibit poster, and the artist Karen Jacobi gave me a heads up on the construction of this piece. 

 This piece talks about the Arab Spring. I wanted to meet the artist, Seun Karim, but did not get a chance to. Hopefully next time around.

This was another one of my favorites, commenting on Mexican immigrants. 

This is Pariah: Apocalyptic Now, the piece that I entered into the exhibit, which by the way won rave reviews from many of the visitors, including the proprietor from the SMALL Gallery, which is right across from the SLANT Gallery. They had a similar exhibit, being that they are like a sister gallery to the SLANT Gallery. She has informed me that there will be an exhibition in the upcoming months, and would like to see me submit an entry there as well. 

The SMALL Gallery had an exhibition entitled Listen To The Songs of the Times, and had some marvellous presentations there as well. I plan to get more pics and info on this showing in next month's artwalk as well.

The only odd event that happened that day occurred while riding the bus to the gallery, and noticing the lady on the other side of the bus actually doodling me! Now that was AWKWARD as HECK! I'm not a photogenic type of guy, nor do I consider myself the type that could be an actual study. So, modesty and anxiety kicked in, and I turned my head toward the window so she couldn't continue...Not trying to be difficult, because I'm a chatty person, but that's gonna take some time to get used to....Anyway, till next time....Take care...

Well Lookee Here!

Peace All! It's been a very trying time for me, dealing with delays and other things that dealt with my art,  along with other issues, and to be honest, it took a great toll on me. My blogging and my web presence suffered greatly, and burnout seeped in. I had blogs planned from Nicki  Minaj to Azealia Banks to Bill Cosby(again), but gotta take care of home first, meaning my personal life.Maybe call it dogged determination or faith, but I'm still at it. Just wanted to brief you on what's going on in my life, and the blogs will keep coming, God Willing. There's always something to blog about.

The above piece was a  12 x 12 that I went over in black about a couple of weeks ago. Didn't want to, especially with the texture, but I'm finding my art needs more space, and this was one of those pieces. I don't think I can define clearly what I want to express on a 12 x 12, so hopefully for future ideas, I'm keeping the photo.

Take care, more to come.

...seasons change

Peace all,

Summer's kicked off, and where am I you may ask? Well I'm up north, but only for a couple of days though. But it is a different atmosphere than in Dallas, especially with it being the month of Ramadhan, the holy month of fasting for the Muslims. When I got here I figured that I would not fast during my brief stay due to the travelling, but felt that well, maybe I would try Saturday, since it would be a full day. The biggest difference is that here sunrise begins around 3:30 AM!!!! So that's like an hour and a half difference as opposed to Dallas were it begins after 5AM. With that said, I missed my pre-fasting meal, and with the lack of sleep preparing for this trip, I decided that I will resume after I get back. I wish I could stay much longer,  I saw some excellent shots that I could've used, but my batteries needed recharging. waaah waah waaaaaaah.... Hopefully I'll be able to take some shots before I leave, but I have priorities back home...Maybe sometimes soon.

But before I left, I completed a display at my local library containing a few piece I'd finished, plus an additional piece I finished a day before leaving. The entire display is entitled Portraits of My Neighborhood, depicting the scenes that I see and wish to talk about in my area in Southeastern Dallas.

 The piece on the upper left hand is part of my Complex series, dealing with inferiority complexes in the African American communities, especially among color and class. Usually these talks are taboo in our neck of the woods, but somebody's gotta open up the discussions. It's touchy, but very needed that we get an honest discussion about internal issues as well, that is IF we want to grow and progress. Too many times people fall into the old mode of blaming those who did not follow the footsteps of the civil rights movement as the reason why Blacks are still behind in the social structures of America, but fail to look at the WHOLE picture.

 This was the first piece I did, I entitled it specifically Portrait of My Hood, which I exhibited in June's Uncensored exhibit at the Art Hotel, which resided in Downtown Dallas before their recent move to the Gallery at Midtown, in Valley View Mall. This piece has a collage on the sides, which depicted the many aspects in my area, from the lottery tickets, to condom boxes, cigar wrappers, and what have you. The collage on the bottom was my thinking, to give display a little ambience. I was a little hesitant you know, seeing that I was exhibiting things of a more mature theme, but after you see how the youth are behaving, I thought of it as a necessity to point out a few things. The other picture on the right was done in late 2012, where I used sgraffito with oil pastels. Came out nice, I think.

This piece on the right I finished it shortly before Thursday, as a complement to the other portrait, however I was unable to add any collage to it, due to the texture that I constructed on the piece, which didn't allow the pieces to stick consistently, so I just left it as it was.

So overall it's been a very interesting weekend, and it's looking up. On the downside one of my biggest and best supporters from the Highland Hills Library branch will be leaving, she'll be reassigned to another library, where she's making connections to have my work exhibited there as well. At least she'll be present for my project with the youth on July 27th. Ms. Almetta Russell has been very instrumental with my progression as a community artist, along with Ms. Letissa Milburn. They have both been in the trenches as far as the Dallas library branch is concerned, trying to get my work exposed through those channels. It's not easy being from my area, trying to break into certain arenas and bring a voice from the other side. But they've supported me, and I support my area to the fullest....This is just the beginning....

Reporting Live From Edgeville......PEACE OUT!!!

Good Night all.... www.qartworks.com

UPDATE: This blog was finished a few hours before the unsurprising verdict of George Zimmerman was handed down. My heart goes out to the Martin family or any family for that matter, but this was not a surprise in the least. At least for me it wasn't. I won't go into a long drawn out tangible over something that didn't surprise me in the least. If you've followed my blog you will know that I have put out articles from Democracy Now about the murders of the Sikhs in their temple, along with Kenneth Chamberlain, and the injustice he received, so it's no surprise that racism rears its' ugly head again, and reason goes out the window. I'm just surprised that a nation who continues to brag and boast about its intellectual prowess can't seem to figure out what type of crash course it's headed towards....oh well...some people gotta learn the hard way....peace out and THINK! 

Sum-ma Sum-ma Summahtime!!! (Scenes from the Uncensored Exhibit)





Had a great time at the Art Hotel's Uncensored Exhibit in Downtown Dallas on June 15th. Saw some amazing work, also received news that the gallery is moving from its Downtown location and heading up north to the Gallery at Midtown at Valley View Mall. Kinda saddened in a way, but happy for them, especially because there will be more space for them(and me too!) to exhibit their work, and plus being in the mall will give them a bigger presence, especially since the Gallery at Midtown holds an artwalk every third Saturday of the month.  I tried submitting my work to the gallery about a month ago, but ran into some difficulties. Hope this move will work out for them.

Some people(like me) took a lot of shots that night, although for viewer discretion, I didn't include any of the mature themes in this blog. Guess you had to be there to see it. The piece on the wall was done by Sharon Neal Bagley, one of the co-ops at the gallery. Couldn't take separate pics of the piece, so I got it all in one shot. Please excuse the lady taking pictures....lol

This is another interesting piece by Rita Barnard, entitled Ball of Confusion, a piece that also contained a book made by her describing the inspiration behind the piece. She had a lot of questions, especially after her only sister died of cancer. This made her question a lot of things in life, and she also offered viewers to add their own questions.

Artist Samantha McNulty created these two exciting pieces called Escape. They were done with screenprint and other mediums. This gave me some ideas about some things I am working on, especially with the screenprint.



This was a nice piece about Bob Dylan. I can't remember who the artist is who created it, but they also included some 3D glasses, to give it a certain feel when you look at it. I didn't try it out though.



This is my piece Hardwired 101, which is a look into addiction. I want to get the people to start looking at addiction in an emphathetic way, instead of casting judgement on people for either becoming addicted or not rehabilitating as quick as we would like for them to.  I'm pleased with the outcome, but I want to do more, and increase the scale.

Another patron looking at my second entry entitled Portrait of My Hood. This piece gathered alot of attention and compliments for the theme and styling. The sides of the canvas have collage ranging from lotto tickets to condom boxes, depicting scenes and thoughts about the area I live.

I enjoyed this piece as well, although the name and the artist escapes me. My sincerest apologies to the artist.



This is one of the funniest and best pieces there. It's an assemblage entitled The Nut Doesn't Fall Far From The Tree. It's filled with some of the most peculiar statements that former President George W. Bush made while in office. The one that got me was the statement that he wanted to shake the hand of the brave Iraqi who had his hands cut off. I'm still tripping over that one.



  

Overall is was a great event, and what a way to cap off a great first half of the year artwise for the Q. I was blessed to participate in 4 shows, two at the TVAA Gallery earlier in the year, the TVAA New Members and the Wildness of Nature exhibits, and two with the Art Hotel Collective's exhibits The Whole Enchilada and Uncensored. Not bad for someone who basic is not known in the art scene. I had hoped that my work would be considered for the New Texas Talent show at the Craighead Green Gallery, but that looks bleak. Am I down? Honestly, yes, but not too down.  I've enjoyed the openings I've crashed at the Continental Gin Studios, Waleed Arshad, Jamaal Stafford, Kijana Martin, Janice Thacker, Jerome Bolden, and others that I've had the privilege to meet and greet and share infomation. I may take a break from it all, especially in getting ready for Ramadhan, the Islamic month of fasting, which should start in July, but I do have a community program in late July, where I will be helping the youth in creating collages.  Hopefully I can resurface in late August, when the Art Hotel Collective opens up at the Gallery in Midtown...who knows? Take care all... www.qartworks.com