The Locust Effect and The Problem of Poverty

The main topic in “The Locust Effect” breaks my heart. It is basically the argument that I made for my final project in my Ethical Philosophy of Global Justice class.

Violence and crime affect the poor. Trafficking, rape, and other forms of violence are problem of an unequal distribution of resources.

Though this book is specific to the developing world, it was seeing this poverty in my backyard as a kid that helped me to really see the problem of poverty for what it is.

Maya and Mucha

In the video below I talk about a poster I created in response to black beauty and Maya Angelou. Though this video is about black beauty the overall theme is that all people need to love themselves for who they are.

Phenomenal Woman
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Maya Angelou
I completely understand and believe that confidence and beauty issues apply to all people regardless of gender, class, size, and race and I talk about beauty in general a bit.

This specific post talks about black beauty and my art. I will link to a blog post about why I think black beauty is important.

Phenomenal Woman Blog Post

Blog post about a controversial black reality in America

Art In Haiti

Me sharing a a Paper Bead Lesson

Here is a post from my religion blog. I talk about my experience teaching art in Haiti leading art lessons. I will edit the post a bit. To see the original and more about the religions of Haiti and my spiritual experience check out my SckRlgn Blog.

As many of you know I was fortunate to be able to take a trip to Haiti last summer (2011). The goal of our group was to build a chicken coupe in a small village community while spreading the Good News.

One of the cultural differences led to the Haitian males taking away most of the American women’s jobs while working on the chicken house (polaye in Creole). Though frustrating for some of the ladies in our group, this was a good thing for two reasons. First, I strongly believe that it was our job to equip people rather than do for them. And second (third, fourth and fifth), this dynamic led to me being surrounded by tons of kids, and the opportunities to lead art lessons, learn some Creole, and having the chance to spend quality time with one of the older girls. One-on-one time with a role model of some sort is a major need for many young women in Haiti. In fact if I go again I plan to take nail polish to share with the young women (probably women of all ages).

The photo above is me teaching some of the order girls and young boys how to make paper beads. You can read more about the Upcycled paper beads in my tutorial. I also took around 60 friendship bracelet kits (just cut string ready to be braided or knotted) Using art to connect with people was a unique and beautiful experience. I went in with no Creole and some of the older kids knew how to count to 5 in English and say Miami. The art lessons allowed me to make friends with one of the families as well as some other kids and leaders in the community. Using art allowed us to teach each other basic language skills but also forces us to use sign language (actually having sign language experience was more beneficial than my Spanish) and other forms of communication such as body language and sounds.

I would love the opportunity to go back to the small village again, to show the kids that it was not a one-time event, but rather a sincere investment in their lives. I also have a small amount of money to take back from selling my art in response to the first trip.

230 Nooses for Black History Month

I hope everyone has a fantastic Black History Month!!! I wanted to share some artwork with you from my last exhibition titled "Make it Plain."

This video shows a piece names 1982 and talks about why I chose to create 230 nooses. The song playing in the background, Strange Fruit by Billie Holiday, was also written out in one of my books. As you will see he goal of my noose artwork was to help people understand a bit more about African American history and the racism that existed and to some extent still does exist. You can see images of the finished piece at the end of the video.


To see more of my art check out my YouTube channel.

Brown Girls Dream Come True

Michelle Obama

"Thank you for being a brown girls dream come true, something tangible to look up to."
 ~Jasmine Mans



I love this poem.  I think it is beautiful for those of us who do not share the physical characteristics of many past American leaders to be able to relate to someone in power in a way we have never before been able to.

I am not posting this post to tell you to vote for Obama this election. I think that there can be wisdom behind any vote.  I simply wanted to honor an inspirational First Lady who has made a significant impact in the lives of many young ladies out there.  I know that the African Community (Mexican American, and Native American communities as well) all need some more strong positive and beautiful role models for our children.

Reguardless of the outcome of the 2012 election I do not want this amazing woman to be forgotten.

James Cone Graffiti Art

This graffiti style name drawing is in honor of James Hal Cone.

James Cone is an African American hero and the founder of Black Liberation Theology.

Make it Plain focused on religious leaders such as James Cone and Malcolm X. 

Cone is a fascinating theologian who combined the idea that you should love yourself first (Malcolm X) with the more well known ideals of Martin Luther King. 

Read more about James Cone on my Religion blog.

Social Justice Today (and This Week)

Trayvon and his father

In the past two weeks I have had two sets of parents come talk to me about race and how it impacts their young children. One is the mother to an adopted son from Africa who had to watch her little preschooler come home and try to scrub his blackness off because he was told he was dirty and wasn’t allowed to play with the other kids at school. Anther, the father of a young girl, who had to deal with his daughter coming home crying and saying “I want blue eyes.” In addition was also a major event (The murder of Trayvon, a 17 year old boy) that made many people rethink the race situation in America.

The mom with the preschooler is now dreading telling her son that just because he looks a certain way, he will need to be careful in certain neighborhoods, he will not be able to wear certain colors or certain clothes. Even if he is on the honor roll and gets into a good school, people will assume it was affirmative action because he couldn’t possibly do it on his own.

Noose

The father with the girl gets to explain to his daughter that she is beautiful even though everyone she studies in school, everyone she is surrounded by, models she sees, and the majority of people in power do not have the same skin tone, eye color, or hair texture as she does. She will need to learn to love her own beauty in a world that does not call her beautiful but rather exotic or ethnic.

I am reminded of a story I was told about two police officers sitting in a bar across from one of my friends talking about profiling Native Americans just for fun.

I am reminded of the time(s) I have been profiled, followed through stores, or stereotyped simply because of the color of my skin. I am reminded of family members murdered because of their race (and their successes in a white neighborhood) and I am reminded of violence toward myself and my friends because of my dark skin.  I have been told what it is like to be black in America by many white folks and I am here to tell you what it is really like.

People ask why I chose to use nooses in my artwork.  This is why.  People need to see that, though better, things are still a mess. We are not beyond racism. Racism is learned and we have not adequately taught our preschoolers to accept others. We, ourselves, have not learned to fully accept others. We have not acknowledged these problems, nor have we decided to actively fight against them. 

The nooses not only force us to think about racism in its present day form, but allow us to remember those who have been murdered because of their race or other forms of prejudice and hate such as sexuality, or gender, even modern day slavery.  We are still fighting this battle...

Some helpful links

Black is Beautiful Pin Board - This is an excellent way to help focus on images of people that look like you.  Also turn off the television

Tips to help your child see themselves as beautiful even when people at school do not

My Black is Beautiful - Celebrating African American women

More of my Artwork

Body Image
Native American
Human Trafficking

Shabazz Ink Drawing

El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz was Malcolm X's Muslim name. 

I have posted some about Malcolm on my SCKRLGN blog and other spots on this blog. You can also find information on Wikipedia (Most of it seems fairly accurate when compared to other sources, though it is still Wikipedia).

Sharpton: Creating your own Graffiti Tutorial

Reverend Al Sharpton is a significant player in the field of African American religious culture.

Since I have a couple decent photos of this graffiti name drawing, I thought it would be appropriate to talk a bit about my process of creating my graffiti style letters.

 While I was creating these name drawings,
 I drew several versions for each name both in pencil and in ink. 

I always begin with doodleing some letters and seeing if I can get any to fit together.

Sometimes I will look up graffiti I like or have photographed to see if there are any inspirational graffiti styles or letters that I like.  If I find one, I create a font based on the characteristics of that letter.  The letters(s) I sue for inspiration allow me to create a unique style or font. 

I then continue to work on other letters of the name using a consistent style.

My typography class plays a huge role here. 

I learned about parts of letters such as the x-height, serifs, ascenders, descenders and several more aspects of developing fonts and typefaces.  I know to keep a consistent x-height and I usually drop rounded letters just below the baseline.

Once I decide on the rules I can create most any word I want out of that style.  I think I have created around 7 different graffiti letter styles.

After creating the outline I decide whether I want the text to be 3-D or flat.

The last step is to add a background and value.

See more of my graffiti photographs and inspiration.

Hot Combs

I drew these hot combs while I was debating whether I wanted to go with African American religious culture or beauty for an overarching theme for my exhibition.  I went with religious culture but do still have some work focusing on beauty issues both from the "Make it Plain" exhibition and other work. 

See more of My Artwork

Body Image or Black is Beautiful
Make it Plain - my art exhibition

Black Hair

Startling but true.

When you look at the price of weaves, relaxers and wigs you will understand where these numbers come from.  If you look at the history of black hair in America this statistics takes on another meaning.  Black hair is a social justice topic that is important just like any other topic dealing with self-love, self-worth and beauty issues.

Marcus Garvey

Marcus Garvey is a significant figure in the field of African American religious culture for a variety of reasons.  He played a major role in the Back to Africa movement as well as the RastafarI religion.  In addition he was viewed by many as an African prophet.

Read more about Marcus Garvey on my religion blog, Sick Religion.

Student Juried Exhibition

The annual Student Juried show is a pretty big deal at the University of Wyoming. This is my first time having work selected for the show.  Persistence certainly pays off.  My Malcolm X poster, titled "Who Taught you to Hate?" made it into this art show.

There are a variety of awards at the opening.  I received a purchase award from the Information Technology department and the Margaret Murdock Award for Social Justice cash award.

After the opening reception all students with work attend an after party with the president of the university, the college, and the Art Department faculty.  This event is referred to as the “Prom for the Art Department.”

Though this event is over there is certainly time to visit the University of Wyoming Art Museum.  There is even an audio recording about this work to which you can listen.

Check out my Facebook page for more artwork and photographs from the event.

The Good Mule: Artist Statement

This past weekend I was fortunate to be able to attend The Good Mule 2012 Conference as the Featured Visual Artist. I participated last year so was pretty excited about being invited to be the artist. See more of my thoughts from The Good Mule.

I am currently finishing up my last semester at the University of Wyoming and will be graduating in May. I will be graduating with a in Fine Arts and a second major in Humanities and Fine Arts (HUFA) as well as a minor in Graphic Design. My areas of emphasis for the HUFA degree are Philosophy, Religious Studies, African American and Diaspora Studies, and Art History. My dream job is to have an art studio where I can continue to create art and work with people through teaching, art therapy, and graphic design lessons.

The pieces that are on display come from a couple different bodies of work and addresses a variety of topics. These topics include LGBTQ issues, Christianity and the LGBTQ community, African American religious culture and history, Native American reservations, and poverty.

Make it Plain is my most recent body of work and focuses on African American Religious history and culture with the goal of helping people understand religious figures such as Malcolm X and James Cone. Make it Plain will be up in the 234 Gallery during the Shepard Symposium. If you would like to see the entire show, this would be an excellent opportunity.

My next body of work will be dealing with sex trafficking and modern day slavery. Be sure to check out my blog and Facebook page to track the progress of my upcoming work and learn more about individual pieces and the research that went into their creation. The URLs are on my business card.

I am certainly up for discussion about concepts, inspirations, the bodies of work these individual pieces come from, collaborations, sales, or art and activism in general.

To learn more about the Good Mule check out their website.

Why We Must Kill Those Bastards: An Essay by General Nathan Bedford Forrest

This book began with a lot of play (you might not have guessed that from the content).  I wanted to see how I could play with form and pages of a book created from one sheet of paper folded to create pages.  It ended as a very strong piece showing some of the hatred our country was built on.

This essay was written by General Nathan Bedford Forrest, Civil War hero and found of the KKK, about why the Klansmen needed to fight against Negros, Jews, carpetbaggers and a variety of other hated people groups.  This essay plays on the fear and ignorance that if they don't fight to the extent that we are willing to kill anyone who is not a white Christian with the same cultural background, they will loose everything. 

This essay was found in a book compiled of the essays of various Klan leaders.  Some gave the history but many really focused on the core values.  This book really helped me gain an understanding of the psychology behind racism.

Much like the modern day Klan the original Klan was formed on the foundational values of hatred, ignorance, and racism disguised as self-love.

Strage Fruit in Book Form

Southern trees bear strange fruit

Blood on the leaves

Blood at the root

Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze

Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees

Pastoral scene of the gallant south

The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth

The scent of magnolia sweet and fresh

Then the sudden smell of burning flesh

Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck

for the rain to gather

for the wind to suck

for the sun to rot

for the tree to drop

Here is a strange and bitter crop

Composed by Abel Meeropol (aka Lewis Allan)

Originally sung by: Billie Holiday

The original song

Phenomenal Woman

Phenomenal Woman

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Maya Angelou

Who Taught You to Hate Yourself?

Although King and Malcolm had their differences (theological and social) I would like to share a poster I created featuring the famous Malcolm quote "who taught you to hate yourself" in honor of Martin Luther King day.  Malcolm and King were both extremely important leaders in the African American community and the Civil Rights movement and both deserve to be honored.  The goal of my art exhibition was to create dialog about race, religion and the significance of African American history.  King and Malcolm both succeed in pushing this same conversation forward.

The famous "Who Taught You to Hate Yourself" speech by Malcolm X.

Below is an example of how young children have been taught to hate themselves through the images they see and what they are told.

Another video on the topic (great for parrents)

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American Dream: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Truth

American Dream

Though America is great, it is important to remember the true history of our country.  It was built on the backs of African slaves and is currently being built on the backs of underpaid, overworked Latinos and other under-privileged people groups (sometimes slaves). Avoiding reality will not make it go away (as we just saw in "History can't be Undone, But it can be Erased").  The idea of the American Dream is based upon ideas that many will never be able to achieve.

Inspiration for American Dream

This work began as a part of 1892 (post coming soon), a work depicting the large number of lynchings in 1892.  America began with the slave trade.  Laws were passed allowing the murder of blacks and lynchings were a weekly occurrence after church on Sundays.  American Dream depicts how American history and some aspects of culture are so ingrained in the culture and our understanding of what it means to be American (even if some refuse to admit and confront this history).  This work is meant to be a criticism (constructive criticism) of America today as well as a reminder of our history.

The American Flag

I understand that the American flag can be overused; however, it can also be a powerful symbol for cultural values. The flag is the perfect symbol to show our country's history.  I would like to continue to use the flag as a symbol in my next body of work which will be focusing on sex trafficking.  The flag has also been used in mys past bodies of work.  See my Native American history poster "Incarceration." 

Exhibition Feedback

I was talking to a man at the opening; he was reading a slave narrative and this piece really resonated with him.  The book he was reading talked about how breeding with female slaves was just an everyday topic and part of American culture.  One of my favorite aspects of having this exhibition is how many conversations were started in response to the serious topic.  Art is a powerful too for social dialog an change.

On a side, but related not, attacks on the LGBTQ community are becoming increasingly common by the same groups (such as the KKK, neo-Nazis, radical Nationalists, and racialists).


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Klanstory

Klanstory gives a brief backgroung of the various Klans from a variety of time periods including the present and largest Klan.

This book describes the origins of the Klan and the reasons for their costumes. 

 The video Birth of a Nation played a vital role in the resurgence of the Klan.

This Christian group saw the burning cross as a sign of Christian brotherhood.