I don’t know where it’ll look hey everybody it’s Donna kada and we’re back with the real 50 over50 again and this is one of our wisdom panels and we are celebrating black women in art today and I’m really excited to have a couple of very creative very talented women with
Us um Patricia Andrews Keenan um after a long career in PR and and corporate Communications she left it all behind and launched Pigman International black women founded and led multimedia art platform that reports on the art people issues Trends and events shaping Black Contemporary Art and examining the linkages connecting historical and
Contemporary black art and she’s invited some of the artists from her community to join us in the panel today um D Lamy Hansen her career has spanned more than 25 years and a few highlights include um an exhibition at the UN Geneva Palace um in Switzerland in support of their
Efforts to address Global homel homelessness and being chosen as the artist of the year for Brooklyn Academy of musics bam dance Africa Jade Williams our only woman under the age of 50 so far is an inter disciplinary artist and designer whose practice reflects the ways that she engages in the radical traditions
Of um adornment collecting and congregating her Works have been exhibited at spaces including the Craner Art Museum the Evon Art Center the leather archives and Museum State slate arts and performance center and womenade galleries so that’s a lot of experience in the room here and and I believe
You’re all in Chicago right yes chicag okay so I just wanted to give a little brief background um if people come in the conversation we’ll kind of bring them in here as well but um Pat would you like to kind of you know talk about
How how how you moved from what you were doing to what you’re doing now and and how everybody else fits into this conversation absolutely so Donna first off thanks for hosting us you do some amazing work with your PR clients and it’s great that you created a form like
This where women can show that they continue to in inovate create and and do what they do like age is not a limit here and definitely you know I think that’s one of the things that has been a driver for pigment International I along with h Phyllis
North who is also a woman over 50 uh started this organization in 2018 and the love for me came for I have been collecting art all through my corporate career you know and I never considered myself a collector but I just love having images that reflected people
Of color and I wanted to have that in my home so everywhere I would go everywhere I would travel I would seek out art exhibitions or go to museums or even go to flea markets I think the first piece of art I bought when I was really young
Were from flea markets and posters you know so even before I could buy art from fabulous artists likees the ones here with us today I was always looking for those images um and then I had the long corporate career and corporate Communications which I think set up the
Basis for this because I was in the cable television industry and that industry was all about marketing and PR and building Brands so those were the experiences that I had over 20 plus years how to build a brand how to set up a platform how to do Advertiser related
Things so after I left the corporate business I started doing PR media on my own much like you do and uh I ended up starting to get clients in the Arts uh one of my first bigger clients was the African Festival of the Arts and that’s been happening here more than 35 years
In Chicago and they were a big client of mine so and then I had the Harlem Fine Art Show which was a national Traveling Show and what that did it actually put me together with these artists and what I realized was that if you’re going to buy art that whole process is enhanced
When you meet an artist and you get to talk with them and you get to learn what they do so it adds so much more meaning to the things I’m putting on my wall and I wanted other people to have that experience too so um in 2018 no
2017 2017 we decided to go to the biggest art show in the country and that’s art Miami week everybody calls it art basil but art basil is only one component of art week in Miami there is Art all over that City that city gives itself over the art so Phyllis and I
There uh we experienced everything and one of the things that we saw very clearly was a lot of artists were coming and they didn’t quite know what to do they were partying or they were going to shows but they also wanted an opportunity to show their work and so
After we came back from that December you know I sat here and I thought about and I thought about I’m like what if we gave them an opportunity to showcase their work so we undertook you know we started I I sat and I kind of put it
Together an outline you know much like a marketing plan so if we had an organization what would it do and it would be about elevating the visibility of these artists of color giving them an opportunity to showcase their work and most of all telling their stories because at my core I’m a Storyteller
I’ve been a writer my whole life I was a journalism major and school and I know that publicity and these kinds of things help boost artist careers so taking the one thing I’ve always known how to do is write and weave that into the mix I
Think I sat here for like a week just trying to think of what’s a great name for this and when I I pulled up a list of art terms and when I got to pigment you know the whole thing about it being the basis of the paints that artists use
Plus we’re pigmented people it just it was it just clicked immediately so we started it and we started reaching out to these artists that I’ve been meeting through these PR engagements and almost immediately we had 15 artists who said hey can we get we’ll be involved we’re
All in and so for that whole year we planned a show in 2018 in Miami and we went to the Bickle neighborhood to a place called the um the penthouse and it was a ninth floor building and it was the ninth floor Penthouse and we had a
Space there and we mounted a show now in hindsight it might not have been the smartest thing to do it cost a lot of money and it didn’t make a ton but boy we mounted a beautiful show we printed our first pigment magazine so it gave us
This big lift and big visibility you know that we continued to build on over these five years so now you have now you have images to share absolutely absolutely I have the best pictures in the entire world we took 15 Chicago artists to that show and mounted a beautiful show we made relationships
There in Miami that continue to this day because our team just left Miami last week they were there all week and we continued to do that we continued to produce the magazine we launched a KN for profits so we could get grant money and so this year we’re on our fourth
Magazine and out of the four three of them have had either Awards or honorable mentions for their cover and we continue to add great artists uh both lamby and Jade just joined us in the last year or so so that continuing relation relationship with artists we traveled globally in
2022 we took a leap of faith and we went to the Venice viali which is the largest art show in the entire world and the oldest because we followed a gallery a black female own Gallery there who was exhibiting eight ARS which was fairly unheard of and the artist representing
The United States was the Chicago one based in New York Simone Lee so we got to follow that progression this year we took a trip to the 154 contemporary African art show in marash Morocco and we followed a a group of artists there so we’ve taken we’re very Chicago based
Because Chicago is a great place for the Arts but we try to have also a global and look at the bigger issues so that’s just a little bit about you know the journey that we’ve taken and we just sat yesterday and did our 2024 planning so
We’re in the in the thick of us getting ready for the new year oh that’s great and where where will you be heading in 2024 we don’t know yet we’ve been the banali is in every two-year event so literally from the relationships that we developed our group of artists we have a
Group of artists that have a studio in Navy Pier here in Chicago because we were publicizing them so heal uh steadily they got an invitation to be in the be knowledge now they’re working now to see if they can actually you know get there because it happens in April
And that’s a quick turnaround they were exhibiting in Miami but they got that invitation and we reached out to the banali about being a media partner for them because that’s you know that’s our core we are an Advertiser generated platform so we have a Weekly Newsletter that goes out every
Week almost all year long if I got enough energy I’ll produce it all 52 weeks but we give news and information 52 weeks of the year we do the magazine once a year because it’s real labor intensive but we’re always communicating and and what I saw happen was when I
Launched this newsletter we were getting a 15% open rate today we get over a 42% open rate that amazing so you know we bring value to advertisers we Smithsonian advertised in our magazine last year so you know we bring a very big ma value ad as a media
Platform to people that are interested in reaching our engaged audience around black art that’s amazing congratulations hold that holds up the magazine oh yes absolutely so this is our from Venice uh and this artist ton Chapman was one of the ones that exhibited at the bonali she’s amazing artist go on Instagram
Look up Tony Chapman go on Instagram and look up Pigman inl and follow us on Instagram as well we’re continually trying to build our audiences so yeah this is the most recent magazine and you can get this on Shopify our shop is we love art 2022 on Shopify so you can order that
Plus you can order art you can order paraphernalia so we also have a shop as well okay and I’ll I’ll add all of the links to your page on the 50 website um and um Lamie and and um oh yes let me let me let me te okay all right you
Do J I’m gonna T up J first okay because you were talking about her as the only one under 50 here but what we found with Pigman is that you know a lot of the artists we work with are younger artists some of them I think some of them when
They started with us were barely you know were in their 20s but we believe in helping push their careers so it’s really important the work that we do with young artists and when Jay came on board she’s always been so engaged she’s done events with us across the city
Uh most recently she was part of a talk for black fine art month which we launched in 20 2019 and I just find her so mature and and poised and and she’s gotten a lot of recognition in the city so it’s been just an honor for her to be a part of
What we do so please welcome yeah and um I just want to chime in that I get a lot of feedback a lot of um information and and comments from um women under the age of 50 that are really learning from these stories that we’ve been sharing in these
Interviews so I’m really excited that um we actually have someone here representing thank you for having me I’m excited to be here do you want to share a little bit about your work or yeah so I um interdisciplinary artist and designer I primarily work with uh fiber and text
Files but I also do a lot of sourcing of found objects and family heirlooms and kind of combine those things together um I’m also like very interested in storytelling and building and use writing a lot in my practice and that’s kind of been the basis of me just trying
To flush out this world that I want my inner child and future children to live in and kind of bring that to life through the art that I’m making um do you have is there anything you can maybe like hold up or anything of something yeah like my studio is so
Empty right now I actually if anyone’s in Chicago I have a big show up at a gallery called co- prosperity in Bridgeport um so I’m like I don’t have a ton with me but my website is sexand the studio.com like Sex in the City what is um because this is the one that
I have ah yeah you can there’s probably a few images on there as well I was a artist with Chicago artist Coalition last year um so I just kind of wrap that up at the end of the year but I’ve put my personal website in the chat okay great I’ll share
That um so everybody can go and take a look all right there we go and um and Lamie you want to share a little about your work and your background um I was primarily a painter um and paintings that I did was uh portraits I had a couple of um series
One was called one ey Two Lips I would only paint one eye and Two Lips but it was always about emotions um particularly about women um and then around 2016 I went to Barcelona with my husband and I was uh teaching I was doing an artist residency and I was teaching
Myself how to do silvero um um and working with Metals it’s actually drawing with um a metal wire um and it dates back to Da Vinci 156th Century um one of the things that I loved about doing this is the fact that I Lov Da Vinci but I didn’t see likeness
Blackness um and I was curious to see what metal point would look like or silver um predominantly in Gold would look like with black skin so what I did was build from and these are different ones where this one hold on this one’s black so I would actually build up from a dark
Surface um and I would use the shine of dark skin in the metal so I’m actually going in reverse where people would use a light surface and build it with um the darkness of the um medium I actually use the reflection of the metal to bring out
The beauty in in black skin so it’s bipac but it’s a lot of more dark black skin looking gorgeous and um with pure metal so that’s um and Lambie uh I was fortunate enough to go to her studio and see her work and and it was just a no-brainer
And since we’ve met uh her she did an exhibition with us we partner with our fairs in the city so Expo Chicago the other art fair the 57 Street Art Fair we bring our magazines and we display art so she worked with us at the other art
Fair and had some great and did a sale there of one of her works and then this summer we were in Martha’s Vineyard and she came to Martha’s Vineyard and so the uh one of her Works to a Ghan Emissary who uh and it was a piece on on um it
Was done brown paper bag you have to about that and he literally rolled it up and took it off the wall so it resonates so well with people and it’s just really exciting tell them about the paper bag P so right before I left um literally 6
Months to a year before I left um New Orleans to go to Barcelona I was um doing brown paper bag paintings and there is a story especially in New Orleans where the brown paper bag like just think of just the regular brown paper bag of like a a lunch you know bag
Um was actually used um black um black is a colorism thing where if you were darker than the brown paper bag you weren’t allowed in the certain um bars churches you weren’t worthy to get married to um even sororities of fraternities and this is something you know it it’s just showing how people
Treated each other based on the pigment of their skin and so and and to tell you the truth I didn’t know about it because I grew up in New York um and most of the people I grew up with were either Jamaican or they’ve been in New York for
A while so it wasn’t past but when you get to Southern certain Southern States there’s a whole another history that you actually learn and that was one of the things I learned is and and they still talk about it if somebody is not um talking to you a certain way some people
Will assume the only reason why they’re being talked to that particular way is because they’re too dark to have to be considered respect so they would turn around and they would say are you brown paper bagging me and I’d be like oh my God I can’t believe you’re still you
Know you’re thinking there and and I was I had to do these paper bags the one that sold was 95 brown paper bags made into a tapestry um and then I put the one of the darkest women with the most Afrocentric features on there and then I made her background like lightly gold
But yet the brown paperback and I just wanted people to see how gorgeous she was in her natural state and she is just as beautiful as somebody who would be a lighter skin who was accepted in society so that that’s why the brown paper bag was like a really big thing
Yeah it it was amazing um for Jade Jade tell the eyes a little bit because you’re different you don’t just do acrylic on canvas you do a lot of installation work you do audio multi media and I was thinking of one particularly you have a piece called
Salvation and Glory where were you when I needed you how do you come up with those ideas because they are so outside the box and there are things here and bells and all these different things tell them what’s in that piece and and where that came from yeah so that piece
Initially um the title actually came from a Stevie Wonder song that I was listening to and it was uh part of lyrics but I take a lot of inspiration from like Funk and disco music and some R&B music and that also helps to inform some of the pieces I’m working on um I
Feel like I kind of make like a little playlist every time I’m working on a body of work but that piece specifically I made it around the time that I had lost my maternal grandparents and I was thinking about um their home and like my place in their home and the way that
Their home’s kind of oriented and where their um porch and balcony and stuff is I kind of wanted to emulate the feeling that I would have sitting in their living room looking out of the window to see like my grandma just sitting on the porch like facing the Sun and when I
First installed it in the gallery I had a sculpture of um a sun that I kind of did that sat on the one side of this Salvation and Glory piece um where it’s like a kind of like a alter leg with a window frame the sun
Was on one side and a tapestry that has my grandmother and mother and great grandmother on it is on the other side of it so depending on where you’re standing you can either look through the window and see the Sun or you can look through and see their faces on the
Tapestry and the materials of the sun are also mirroring the materials of the tapestry so it’s all kind of like a full installation kind of just like experiential moment when you’re standing there um but I have a background in doing some set design and visual merchandise all that so that’s where a
Lot of my techniques come from you go to school to learn how to did you start with painting or was it the set design that brought you into art yeah so I I never did painting of ever I started I actually I started in business and then
Moved into sculpture and art history at the same time um I initially wanted to go to school to be a fashion designer so I’ve always had this love for textiles and worked in visual merchandising because of that but as I got deeper into art um I just kind
Of grew to love that even more and just all the different possibilities that laid within that I just I really just always love to build things and so was whatever I could build and make involved Fabric in that was where I felt at home
I want to try and see if I could share the screen so I can show what you’re talking about but I’m it might not work so give me one second let’s see if if it works um I know the technology is always the most challenging thing there we go you
Can see it you did it did it it all right okay so there we go this was the art piece that um jade was just talking about yeah I think that’s so cool that she comes to it from such a different perspective and I think I like that
About all of our artists they all have this kind of specialty thing so with Lamie it’s the it’s the metal Point there’s Jade’s installations we have artists that do murals um you know in addition to painting So this whole thing about the art world I think you learn learn
Something new all the time and I’m always you know I didn’t come from this with any kind of background and or just knowing that I loved it so for me it’s a matter of reading and and you know every I watch documentaries about art I’ve seen the bosot I’ve seen the Goan I’ve
Seen you know I’ve watched documentaries about artists all kinds of artists to kind of get perspective because everybody is influenced by some body you know uh there’s a famous artist um her name is escaping me a black artist but she did an exhibit in Paris because she was influenced by Monae so there’s
Leakages across the art world and I think it’s always interesting to find out who inspires artist and maybe I well Lambie is devening and so maybe Jade who are some of the artists that have inspired you oh handful of them um some Chicago based people like Nick Cave and
Ebony G Patterson uh paen Smith nicolene Thomas tons of tons of influences there I’ve always just been drawn to things that are really like colorful and things that have the shine and the adornment and know something that’ll really like catch your eye it makes my inner child’s
Thing yeah those were great pieces of lamies did you want to talk about any of them wait let me put them let me put them back one minute I’m having I’m going out of uh I’m having fun now with my on you my trigger finger all right can you see it so yep
Um so the pieces that you see they’re actually um on black surfaces the black is like 99% um light absorption and then the silver which looks white to you is actually pure silver and it’s drawn um with a silver wire Al last silver Point um and these pieces these the ones that
You’re seeing right now I did them during my uh High Park uh Art Center cohart um program when I was part of it I did about four of them and they’re four feet by four feet um one of them the first one the one at the top of the
Page was actually collected in the permanent um collection of uh the Hiller uh Museum Art Museum which is the University of Louisiana at Lafayette um in their permanent collection and I’m their first living artist and it felt great because I’m like yay we get to you know living artists are actually
Starting to be um you know celebrated the one right there that I think you just clicked on where the city yeah go go back yeah go down where it looks like the city that is I think and I know it is the largest silver point in the world
If not in the world definitely of black people in my old neighborhood in Harlem and it has pictures of my mother my father my brothers and sisters all in different ages like my father is holding my sister who’s four years older than me and her daughter who is literally in her
Mid-30s now is the little girl in the window on the bottom floor um a friend of mine’s daughter in their top uh right hand or left corner Your Love um is she plays violin I thought that was the most beautiful thing to see so she’s practicing but and then you have my
Mother in the in the window but also down on the street and it’s you know it’s just showing you how a community is a real Comm a black community is there’s no drugs there yet cuz that was like kind of before crack really started kicking in um but there’s a little girl
Standing in the bottom and she’s dancing to the violin player in the window you know and she’s not being sexualized the little boy that is a little bit further down where the fire hydrant is he’s being a little boy he’s not being demonized for wanting to play a little
You know like what do you call it um he’s playing a little sports car in the middle of the street literally children being children and men who are actually at the urban Port you know like the the stoop right there we call the urban porch they actually are brothers you
Know and it’s just showing you the community also in the top window it’s we didn’t have the um the hair salons I remember at the time I was growing up we actually got our hair done in the kitchen of somebody’s house you know and
So I put that in there so you can see we have so many Dynamics in our community and I want I did that all in silver to show the beauty that when you walk by it it moves with you and to actually celebrate this community that I grew up
In that I you know I’m still very fond of in Harlem you know New York yeah I got to see this piece up close and personal not all all the panels I saw some of the panels but it’s is huge and is just so such a dynamic
Piece uh when we were at the other art fair what we would ask uh visitors to do is to look at it through their phone screen because then you get a real feel for you know for what she’s accomplished and the intricacy of those designs so
The the phone thanks Pat for saying that because the way it’s done that when you use your phone phone um you’re actually able to the lens in the phone takes light from all other your naked eye does one thing but the phone takes a whole another feeling to it and you can
Actually move around and it looks like you’re actually looking at an a real photorealistic feeling of it so you know the depth of it is built in and you know when I create it it’s buil in so it’s it’s a fun thing to do it’s a fun thing
To stand in front of and it’s I call it an experience you go through an experience you know and each time you do it you’ll see something different every time you walk by it you’ll see something different it’s beautiful thank you beautiful do you want me to show
Anything else any other um maybe if you could go back to Jade’s site yeah yeah she’s got um some work there that I think is really cool you want to tell them about the blueprints Jay what’s it what are they called oh when I think of
Home it should be closer to the top on the website okay give me a minute because again that just shows another Dynamic and tell them a little bit you know the materials is that on paper it’s on paper yeah they are on paper and it’s really it’s funny to me how that came
Together because it was intent to be a fabric piece when I first started kind of concepting it and I’m very happy that we went with paper like yeah yeah I think it it’s just you know another tool and it shows that artists can do a variety of things so go ahead yeah so
This first image is um a full picture of like the full installation each page is actually roughly what is it like 26 by 40 so they’re actually quite large prints um and when you put all 15 of them together like that the wall probably spans close to like 10 feet so
It’s quite a large installation um but these prints serve as the actual blueprints for the world that I’ve been building within my practice I wanted to just kind of take all of the different uh like religious and spiritual teachings that I was learning things that I learned during my upbringing
Questions that I was posing during this time um this was all created at the same time as the last piece that we looked at when I had lost my grandparents um right before the pandemic or sorry right during the pandemic um I included some images of my hands with my grandmother’s
Hands both my maternal and paternal grandmothers um one of them is my hand with her while she’s actually laying in her coffin that I took during the funeral another one is with my um paternal grandmother’s hand While She lays in her bed she unfortunately suffered from Two Strokes at the
Beginning of the pandemic so she’s been bedridden ever since um so there’s just a lot of grief that I was going through during that time and this piece sign it kind of helped me to flush through all of that and figure out you know what lessons and memories are worth holding
On to and what I can kind of release and like what do I what’s the essential that I need for and creating this space Within Myself and externally very nice um Donna I’m gonna pull up something else for you to send if I can figure out how to do this so
You keep talking I’m gonna if you just send if you just send me the link send me the link in a comment I will give me just a second I’ll just keep scrolling on Jade if you want to keep talking through this I’ll keep scrolling while we’re waiting for
Pat I was actually gonna mention also that these pieces are cyanotype prints and so the interesting thing about cyanotypes is that it’s kind of a uh print media process as well as a photography process so you have to actually like coat the papers in a dark
Room and expose them in a way that you would with a photograph but this is the method that was uh traditionally used to create blueprints when they were first making them um so it was my first time actually doing this sort of process but since then I’ve gotten a pretty good
Hold on it and been able to do a few other Series in this method and yeah it was just a really fun project for me to create and try to explore some of explore how to show some of my writings in a different way outside of just like reading them for video or
Audio pieces or displaying the actual words on the wall and kind of combine some of my like research processes in a more public platform it’s beautiful and Donna just sent you that link this will take you to the latest magazine I would love for kind people to get a feel for all right
What it looks like so hopefully it’ll open up okay give me a moment and we’ll see what no I need access no problem Lamie where are you exhibiting currently you have some exhibits coming up I just got into the black creativity show um and there’s another set of artwork that
I do that’s a fusion between painting and metal point and one of those pieces got in the show which one because I have the site up I’ll show it um it would be the with the fusion is and it would she wears her Joy uh and a little background on black
Creativity again Chicago is such a has such a rich history in the Arts that goes back 50 years and they it’s a jured art show that’s held at the Museum in Science and Industry if you know anything about Chicago History the Museum of Science and Industry was left
Was the building that was at the left at the end of the 1893 World’s Fair and it became the Museum of Science and Industry one of our most popular attractions so they bring in artists they bring in students they mesh science and art and Technology and it’s one of the most longstanding
And most um you know one of the biggest Galas that happens in Chicago kicks it off at the end of January so to be a jured artist and be invited there is a really big deal artist all over the and artists I mean we’ve worked with at
Least four or five artists that have been part of that jured show so it is just an amazing show and then uh to delve into the history of a little bit more uh in N at the Museum of Science and Industry in 1940 they hosted the Negro exhibition which was to
Mark whatever year that was since since slavery and they had artists there so the city is so rich the other landmark here in Chicago is the Southside Community Art Center which is now 83 years old and it is the long is continually running Black Arts Center in
The country and today they have you know they have a whole new crop of young people that are doing programs there and and the building itself is historic they purchased that building by literally doing fundraisers and and they did this thing called the mile of Dimes and
People would give dimes and they line them up they helped them buy that building and it’s it’s in the process of having a remodel now and they’ve gotten fund so they can update the center keep the historic part because the walls of their Gallery have the nail hose of
Every exhibit that’s ever been there so that’s you know that’s historic but they’re going to add new parts and renovate and modernize so again I think having an organization like Pigman come out of Chicago is just so Rel bit because of that kind of History so so that’s beautiful work lamby I think
That’s that’s really exciting I think they should put that on the cover of the program is from you to God’s a but you know uh I do have one other show um it’ll be in June and it’ll be at the international Museum of uh Surgical Science and that’s on Lake Shore I think
It’s Lincoln Park it’s like right off of Lakeshore north um and I’m creating a series of these which is uh dancers the muscles of dancers so um I’m you know it it’s taking me a while but I’m building up my um what do you call my inventory
For the show to do this Donna will let you click on that Google Drive Link let me see I might have to give you permission for yeah you have to give me permission okay let me go in and get that for you but in the meantime I’ll
Will share some of your pigment magazine that I okay that’s online Donna cada there you are there I am okay so it’ll come it’ll come up shortly oh yeah if you go to the Shopify site they can at least see the covers and then if you get the Google link we
Can see the pages so okay D you’re working this technology I’m working this technology give me one sec that’s the Shopify site yes and I’m G to open it up and then go to magazines and they can see all the covers so all right right I’m there okay let me
Share okay could you see it oh yeah there it comes so if you click on order today all right and then it’ll show you all the and then scroll here okay so the first one you see is the one that I just uh showed you okay and then come down a
Little further when you go on the site if you want to order you can uh the fall winter issue that is the cover artist for the one we did last year she’s actually in Nigeria and and the way I found her is being on Instagram and I
Just thought her work was so distinctive uh she really put she rather than representing people as a color black white whatever she turns them into these mosaic her name is r rwa and she’s a very prominent artist in Nigeria and it just so happens after I found her that
She was in the States during art basil so I got to meet her you know some artists we don’t get to meet so but that’s R’s cover and if you go back and go down a little further okay we’ll show you the cover of uh so
This was our first cover the red one that was the first magazine we ever did and it was done by Chicago artist named James Nelson who I think does such fabulous work and he he delves into afro futurism I don’t know your audience might know who Octavia Butler is and she
Was a science fiction writer who delved into a um afro futurism and we have quite a few artists here in Chicago who who follow that same kind the pattern so that’s our first one and then there’s one more let’s see oh um come keep coming down you’re doing
Good Galler guide you can click on that so we launched this in this year just this year and what we wanted to do is give people a resource so that they could find Galleries and art fairs and Services across the country that that reflected the black art aesthetic you
Know because we think it’s for everybody you can be anyone those statues you see there are at a gallery in Memphis uh called watercolors Gallery the artist is woodro Nash and I feel very pleased and fortunate to have a piece of work by woodro and he’s a he’s a sculptor based
Out of the akran Ohio he’s doing this for probably 40 or better years and they they sell his work a number of galleries do but we wanted to give people a resource so if they were going somewhere because like me I would travel so if I’m in San Francisco can I find an
Africanamerican own our Gallery so that’s what it does it gives you links and we also keeping with our profile of Storytelling we actually wrote profiles of some of these galleries watercolors being one of them and then if you go back the the other cover and come down a little further and the white
One uh the white one is a nationally renowned artist named Deborah Roberts who deals primarily in collage she’s had her work in National magazines like Harper’s Bazaar and she actually let us come in and interview her and profile her work so those are all on our site along with art
And and other things as well so why don’t you to be able to take a look at those really nice really thank you so um does anybody want to share anything else from the websites any other um of your art or any anything actually if you go to my site there is
One uh link on the side that I just want to point out for a second okay um so hold on one sec let me just okay all right so if you scroll on the side towards the bottom there should do a link that says yeah yeah so I um I have a
Collective called the black Bloom project and right now we um have some work up together with my pieces from my own practice at um the gallery in Bridgeport co- Prosperity so if anyone is in Chicago me I’ll fix it keep talking okay yeah yeah so if you go to the show in
Bridgeport it’ll be a combination of work from both myself and from the collective with my uh business partner chrisel Martinez we work together to put this display up so just wanted to shout that out for a second and I also have some of the blueprint pieces on display at the bronzville
Winery I just passed it today the Bronzeville Winery I love that place yeah really great spot oh look at that that was beautiful sorry um so what’s been coming to my mind as I’m listening to this amazing conversation is um like what is the impact of your art in the communities
Where you live or where you show your art and you know how is it um helping people and like you know what is like what is the impact and the changes that you see happening through the art through your Visions I think that’s a great question I’m Gonna Leave It to the
Art yeah you go first with my Collective we actually got an award through uh Dee which is the Department of cultural Affairs and special events here in the city of Chicago um last year they launched a program called together weal creative Place program and it was specifically for artists who do creative
Collaborations in some of the underserved neighborhoods that we have around the city and so my Collective is working with a black woman owned farm and nonprofit called so we grow they’re based in West Coleman which is a very historic neighborhood here and we’re doing a bunch of installations and
Projects that are kind of tying together um textiles and fabric with earthw work and agriculture and just seeing the community’s reaction to some of the pieces that we put over there has been just such a joyous moment so to see people kind of Envision neighborhood differently take more pride in their
Community and also just in their own skills and talents it’s been really rewarding and I think that has been um kind of the biggest benefit to me of the work that I’ve been doing more so than some of the things that go into galleries like I think being
Professional artist you know on one end hearing the feedback and how the work has impacted you um or how it impacts people when they see it in a gallery or Museum or something that’s always really nice to hear but that’s the thing I’m more used to so now getting to do it in
A community where people aren’t paying attention to art as much or don’t necessarily think of some of the things they create as art and he how it’s changing their mindset has been more fulfilling to me and I’ll share something too we uh started a project last year through my my partner Phyllis
Initia with the Gary comr Youth Center so we’ve been able to have our professional artists mentored their student artists they’ve done works together they’ve done murals together and right now we’re we just had a meeting yesterday about a project in the grand Crossings neighborhood where we can work in do
Murals and underpasses to create more of an inviting space for these kids that Traverse these underpass to get back and forth to school right now you know they don’t look like too much and they’re rund down and then we’re we have another partner the Inglewood Art Center they’ve
Done some murals that are going to abut the ones that are going to start but this project will also employ students so they’ve gotten a grant that for a year will employ students and they will be the initiators of this project they’ll do the designs and they’ll you
Know they’ll say what they want in the community and then we’ll work with them to get the professional artists to assist them in it but they’re driving that project and it makes that neighborhood safer it gives them you know safe Passage through sometimes neighborhoods that aren’t so great so
They the south side of Chicago more refs the things that happen on the North side so that’s another Community impact and I just think comr Youth Center is doing such amazing work in the community and we’re really fortunate to to have them as a partner that’s great that’s really
Good and then there’s me who actually is just selfish in being a well now you know representation of the block no I’m so I’m so honored that everybody is has done that I most of the stuff that um you know the Outreach stuff I did a lot
Of it in Brooklyn and I love the I love supporting the other artists in the community because you know people it it it unified a lot of people it unified the families and the businesses and everybody together um through ART and but then I stopped being an artist you
Know I didn’t get a chance to actually hone in on what I wanted to do so I and and actually my husband said it to me he was like you know all these little things that you’re doing you’re putting so much energy in it and you’re not
Really getting anything much out of it and that goes for making small stuff as opposed to big stuff and as well as you know working with other people is a good chance your intentions are good but the people you know you’re you’re trying to motivate and motivate and I’m like I
Think um Patricia knows me by now I’m a huge ass cheerleader you know for for people to do stuff but it sucks when you’re the only cheerleader you know in in certain so I made a focus to go you know what you want to be excellent Focus
On Your Excellence okay I’m at the age now where I can you know but there was something that really um moved me I had a a roommate at the time in New Orleans she had a young daughter she was 12 years old she goes to the museum and the
Museum didn’t have many female artists so she asked her father about um why aren’t there many female artist out there and he said to her his daughter he goes well women artists aren’t that good and that pissed me off because number one you just told your daughter
That no matter how much she could be good she’s not going to be good enough and I was so but you know what that that really gave me fire to sit there and go well you know what you’re mediocre you know you’re just going to
Have to stay in your your lane I’m going to do everything that I can to make sure that I can move people through ART and thing I started that’s exactly how this whole thing started Donna that’s a whole another hourong conversation about women being kind of relegated to certain parts
In the in the art community I told you about the group of female artists that went to scope Miami the women’s live arst studio they operate Studio out Navy Pier and that is their whole raison Detra is to elevate women and support women in the Arts and they had an
Amazing show there so that’s that’s a whole another conversation but I wanted to invite Lambie and Jay if you want to do something with us with the kids at comr we’d love to you know have you come in and and work with them so I’ll come
Back to you about that later but yeah that whole women in the Arts thing can be something but you know people like Amy Cheryl and Deborah Roberts and Molene Thomas and I can’t even begin to name all the women or the women that went to Venice tnie Chapman delita Mart
They are definitely the anti- antithesis of of that whole premise because these women are excellent they’re badass and they’re doing their thing so yeah and when I started this that was what got me started was I was pissed off at the fors 50 over 50 because I was like you know what about
All the people I know what about me so the whole thing was to highlight and shine a light on people that are you know over 50 that are women that are like you know on the front lines of Life of business of Art of Doing you know of
Living of just surviving and creating and um Pat was one of the first people that I thought of because I knew that not only has she she changed her own trajectory of her life and the way that she worked but she’s opening up the opportunities for so many women um I
Know that you work not only with women pat but you know I’m focused on women at the moment but I do have to tell you something about Pat there was something that happened before I met Pat I didn’t have to tell her much but she knew what
It was I left the gallery and the moment I met Pat the freedom of just being who I am in my art doing what I do best and Pat gave me that for you know the opportunity to just be yeah and it was the most beautiful feeling to feel you
Know how you you would quit a job and then you’re like you know you’re like you want to say that job you know and and you know you want to come in and throw your you know I just walked out the door and before you know the moment
The door closed that other door open and the window and everything was opening and I was like oh I should have done this a while ago you know just because she let me be me you know just be the artist she trusted me she got
What I was doing that’s all I wanted you know and she is so Community oriented the the beauty about it is that she reaches out and she gets you going and you know and you want to support her too and so to me I’m like she was the most
Beautiful thing her and Phyllis were the most beautiful thing I ever had in 2023 ever so much yeah I Echo that coming to work with uh pigment was probably the first time I felt what it felt like to be in an artistic space where I didn’t necessarily have to defend my artistic choices
Like explain it but you don’t have to defend it and it’s like oh this is what it feels like to be in a place where they actually support you it’s like I don’t have to try to fit in here it’s just you know here his face welcome yeah
Phyllis you’re listening out there I know hey phis and it was important for me to share this with my community because my community does not have a lot of Art in it and I thought it would be a way to open up to an entirely new audience of
People and um and maybe that would make a difference Donna thank you so much for anybody can reach out to at any time we’d love to share the things we’ve learned and we continue to learn yeah and I will load up um their Spotlight page the spotlight page for this um for
This panel with all of the links and everything that have been shared throughout this call Pat will provide me with everything and we’ll put up some art um both lem’s and Jade’s art and anything uh path that you want to share um some of the magazine covers or
Anything like that but we’ll we’ll make the page um very visual and um and hopefully bring some some more new uh people new eyes to the work that you do and what you bring into the world because it’s very much appreciated and shout out to Aisha kada I saw she
She did Aisha my lovely sister-in-law is how I met Pat years ago and we stay connected on social media all these years I think we met at the wedding yes we did we met at her wedding she’s in the dance s so another Arts person so
Yeah yeah yeah and and she’s married to my brother who’s a photographer so got we’ got all the bases covered yes um so thank you this hour just flew by and it’s been an absolute pleasure to learn more about all of you and your work and everything that you’re doing
And I hope you’ll stay connected and I will share um the recordings with you and we will be back next week on Wednesday with another interview and um we’re going to be having monthly panels every month um starting in January so thank you all for joining and for
Sharing and um and have a very happy holiday thank you you thank you for inviting us hi
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