Esperar - To Hope: Quando as Coisas Não Funcionam

 

People in brazil have a strangely beautiful and amazing ability to wait patiently and maintain relaxed when things não funcionam.

I talked to a man on a bus about this. I pondered "eu não entendo como pesoas em brazil tem muitos patience. É muito interesante pra mim."

I'm pretty sure this man ended up missing his flight because the bus didn't come on time. Yet...

We calmly talked about brazillian patience, lack of function, and a myriad of other topics for over an hour (em Português, I might add). 

Em los estados unidos pesoas....grrrr (meu mao português at work here...)..." In the US we want our money back if we stand, waiting, almost two hours for food.

But, I suppose it is rare that we would ever wait that long in the first place. We refuse to pay and walk out long before the 30 minute marker. 

If something goes wrong we get angry and try to get the priority service we paid for. After all we either earned or deserve it.  

At the end of out conversation, I think this man and I came to the conclusion that Brazilians are used to things não está funcionando so there is "no problem" and a backup plan will come along so that eventually things will work out even if they don't work... But Brasileiros sabem that eventually it all works out and not staying relaxed doesn't help.

If you wait through, it will all work out, even if it doesn't function properly or work. 

Se você tem patience, todas as coisas vão funcionar, mesma que ele não funciona direito.

I will end this post with a message I sent my husband while I was waiting for a delayed airplane with some Spanish-speaking imagrants coming to Pasco to work...

"well a cool fact...Portuguese and Spanish both use the verb esperar. It means "to hope" but is used for "to wait" as well. So you are literally hoping for something or someone. I like it. I think it shows insight into the hopeful mentality and patience Latin Americans have...anyways back to hoping :) love you"

What Makes Me Happy

Henna Design
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Ink+Watercolor on Paper

As a part of my fellowship, I was asked to create a list of 10 things that make me happy…Here is my list of the first thirteen things that I thought of.

Having good conversations with people
Playing Legendary with my husband
Making art that I am happy with
Dancing
Playing cricket (or softball)
Snowboarding
Studying a language
Riding my bike
Hugs
Learning about a new culture
Teaching others
My grandma
Baby animals

This is a great journal prompt. What are the first thirteen things you can think of that make you happy?

India Inspired Art

Be sure to check out my Indian Inspired Artwork in my Facebook gallery. I will be adding more to this album as time goes on and as more work is displayed in public. If you are interested in purchasing work please message me on Facebook or email me at FeliciaFollum (at) gmail (dot) com.

Some of the topics that my Indian Inspired Artwork addresses include Women in India, Trash, and the Mixing of Religion and Culture. 

Keep an eye out for my Artist Statement about my India Inspired Artwork to learn more and see how the body of work develops.
 

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.

Talent Showoffs: Water LIlies+ Social Justice

I recently had the opportunity to have my artwork in Talent Showoffs, a local event for artists and musicians.  Here is the Artist Statement that I used for the event.

Felicia Follum, Water Lilies (Untitled), 11x15

My work combines social justice themed Fine Art with graphic design techniques and processes. I tend to use a variety of mediums. Through research and brainstorming I strive to develop a creative language to talk about current social issues as diverse as African American hair, the LGBTQ community and Christianity, and world water.


The work on display tonight is from my in-progress series dealing with human trafficking and sex slavery. Though water lilies are beautiful plants the eco system that they have adapted to survive in is not so glamorous. The root system and underground workings of the plant are extremely complex and parallel the system that supports human trafficking. The most basic, yet significant, comparison is the function of the lily pads. Each pad takes back energy to the root, which would otherwise shrivel up and die in the mud.

Since I am still in the process of creating water lilies to represent those who have been trafficked in the United States, there are many directions in which this body of work could travel.

Please check out my Facebook page or this blog to keep up with my work and learn more about the symbols and comparisons I am making.

My Top Ink Drawing Supplies

Here is a list of the ink drawing supplies that I take with me when I travel.  I don't always get to bring them all.  I also have a great watercolor kit as well.

1. Pen and Ink (duh!!)

 2. Kneaded erasers are the best  I sometimes use them to lighten up (just a little) washes or to create the appearance of an extra wash.  I also use it to clean up any pencil marks I may have left behind (although I tend to leave pencil marks)

3. Watercolor Paper or sometimes drawing paper

4. A brush for large spaces with a rounded tip - These brushes hold a large amount of water making it easier to wet a larger area

5. A brush with a straight flat tip - great for straight lines

6. A second brush with a slanted tip - great for curved lines

7. I use more water for the washes than I do ink

8. Misket, Frisket or other masking fluid - I'm still mastering this one.  I use it for small spaces that I want to keep white.

9. Sketchbook and sketches - I have been creating a large amount of composition sketches lately.  It is nice because if I don't have a subject to draw I can just create a composition and work on technique or a specific element/principle of art (ex. Maybe I would focus on unity and variety)

10. Waterbrush - I use this guy more when I am traveling and don't take much else...for example, backpacking or in a car.

11. A variety of pen tips - I don't use these much but I do every now and then for lettering

12. Paper towel - This may be one of the most versatile tools that I use

13. Watercolors - I have not mixed the two for quite some time, but I do have some quick flower sketches that utilize watercolor

Chuckwallas

I am currently working on a series of snakes, lizards, and frogs. When people who are unfamiliar with watercolor or ink they tend to be surprised to watch the piece progress. When I was learning watercolor we had a joke that you have to ruin and then save it if you want a good piece in the end.

Here is my painting of a Chuckwallas from the Denver Museum of Nature and Science Snakes&Lizards exhibit.

This seems to be true for many of my paintings. They all go through a rough patch or two right before they work out.

These rough patches are what keep me going. I love the challenge of fixing what seems to be ruined.  

The finished work is up on my studio wall…

Subscribe to my newsletter to see the finished Chuckwallas and other paintings before they are seen online or at my open studio (August 17, from 3 - 7).

If you are interested in attending  my Open Studio Party RSVP or learn more follow this link.

Backpacking Artwork

My travel watercolor kit

I love love love water media.  I have been using ink for some time now, just recently took a watercolor class, and have fallen in love with both.  This past weekend I had to opportunity to go backpacking and painted some quick studies (two watercolor paintings and one ink drawing).  Which is your favorite.

Click here to see more watercolor photos.

You can read more about my backpacking and camping watercolor kit here. 

Staring out of our tent

The fire pit in the afternoon

A friend sitting by the fire pit

  

14 Art Inspirations from My Past Haiti Trip

Though I am not sure exactly will come out of my Haiti trip(s), I do have many ideas floating around with a percentage of all work (40% for photographs) sold going back to my experience in Haiti (You can see my journal entries in my Personal/Religion Blog).  Here is some of the work created so far as well as ideas I am still playing with.

1. I gained an understanding about communication and languages…. though I am not sure how, this concept/new understanding could be used in the future.  Read more about communicating while in Haiti.  Communication Part 1  Part 2

2. I can sell photographs and ink drawings

3. Sell work and give a percentage back (for photographs, 20% will going back to pastor Mark and 20% will go toward a trip back to Haiti)

4. Use imagery (photographs and drawings) for posters

5. Poster on world poverty or education

6. Poster on world water issues

7. Poster on children and death (or other) statistics. Knowing that Mikindy, a 2 month old boy that I held, is much 10 times more likely to die by age 2 than an American child, is pretty sad.

8. This trip brings back memories of the Home Depot clay pot factory in Tecate, Mexico…Maybe a poster could be created on this…This concept (and others) could easily be morphed into another zine.


9. I would still like to Create jewelry for the girls next time I go back (could create one small bracelet for every photograph, or other Haiti work sold)...Though creating jewelry would be great, it would also work well to cut the embroidery floss and teach the kids how to make bracelets.  This might mean more to the kids.

10. Think of more art projects for the kids to take back (I made bracelets and paper beads with the kids. They loved both)

11. The political graffiti had great textures...not sure how to use this

12. Haiti’s flowers were unique and beautiful (so were the landscapes)

13. Draw some of the names in graffiti style.

14. The teaching experience has proven useful in my current job teaching people with disabilities (link to the Coper Center for Creative Arts).

Encounters

My final exhibition as a University of Wyoming student is a group showing put on by the Student Art League and is located on the third floor of Coe Library on the way back to the rare books library. This body of work will be up through the summer. If you get a chance to stop by it will be well worth the trip.

"This show features work from a small group of art students that represent the Student Art League at UW. Through the use of different media and techniques, this particular body of work focuses on human experience with animals. These encounters may be real or imaginary, and they ask the viewer to examine their own encounters, either those that took place in reality or those in dreams."

To see more of my snake and lizard paintings, check out my other scalia posts or my Facebook page.

Scalia

 

Scalia is the animal family that encompasses snakes and lizards or animals with scales. While in Denver I attended the Denver Museum of Natural Science and the exhibit happened to be all about Scalia. I went photo crazy and decided to paint many of the creatures I had photographed.

Which is your favorite?

University of Wyoming Art Museum

My painting (See more watercolors on my Facebook page).  Be sure to like it...

I am currently in my first painting class at the University level.  I have really been enjoying the process of learning to work with watercolor and certainly plan to continue to utilize the media.  I love using ink to draw and think that the two mediums will work well together.  The painting of the American Heritage Center/University of Wyoming Art Museum was a study we did the second week of class.  Achieving the dark color was a huge challenge.

Photo by Jason Urban on Pinteresting.com

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.

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

Martin Luther King

In honor of Martin Luther King Day I figured I would share this drawing.

I completed a series of African American History name drawings.  

Some are of heroes or African American religious figures like this one

and other are of people who have become famous for a variety of reasons.

I also thought you might enjoy reading
MLK's Letter from Birmingham Jail

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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Graffiti Drawings

I recently started a shop on ETSY where I am selling personalized name tags ( graffiti style drawing) in various graffiti styles.  I typically create a new style for each drawing (although some letters look really cool in a certain style).  I also like to include shapes or backgrounds that relate back to the person and his or her interests.

I will be posting more of these drawings as a part of my Make it Plain Walk-through series of posts.  The drawings included in my Make it Plan art exhibition featured some significant leaders in African American religious culture. 

If you would like a chance to win a free drawing, be sure to like my Felicia Follum Art and Design Page on Facebook.  You can see a larger variety of my artwork there.  If you would like to purchase one for a gift or for yourself, be sure to let me know.  The example below is a drawing I gave to some friends for their wedding.  These unique drawings do make excellent gifts.  It is framed in a simple glass frame. 

1892: 230 Lynchings in America

There were 230 people lynched in 1892 and this piece is dedicated to each of those individuals.

Lynchings in One Year

1892 (originally titled 230 nooses) is the piece that started the idea of using nooses. Through research I found that there were 230 people lynched in 1892.

Viewing X and Cone in Historical Context

I had been trying to figure out how to help people understand Malcolm X and James Cone, two historical figures often misunderstood. Using nooses to show the extent of the overwhelming hatred, racism, ignorance, and bigotry to which they were responding seemed like a perfect solution to help people see the necessity for their intensity. I wasn’t sure where I was going with this idea of creating nooses or how I was going to display the 230 drawings. All I knew was that I had to make over 20 every week to make enough in time for opening night.

Experimenting

In addition to the 230 nooses, this piece actually morphed into several other works including Negro Family Tree, History Can’t be Undone, but It Can be Erased, American Dream, and Noose. The variety of works developed through the process of making 230 drawings.  I experimented and the experiments ended up being separate works.  The text hidden in this piece is composed of quotes from KKK leaders and essays I read while researching for Make it Plain.  These quotes and more text will reappear in a post about one of my books exhibited in this art show.


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