Category: black history
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Artist a Day Challenge No. 25: Patrick Kelly
Saturday’s and Elsa Klensch were about as regular as watching Soul Train for me in the 80’s, and when I first saw Patrick Kelly on Klensch’s CNN weekly style rewind, I was inspired. He was one of the first black designers I ever saw and he was one of the first designers that made an…
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Artist a Day Challenge No. 24: Beauford Delaney x Ella Fitzgerald
This painting by Beauford Delaney out of all his portraits of fellow artists really stuck out to me, not just because it is a beautiful piece, but I wonder why he chose to obscure the Queen of Jazz, Ella Fitzgerald amongst this colorful palate of brushstrokes. Delaney’s work transitioned from figurative to abstract upon his…
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Artist a Day Challenge No. 22: Carrie Mae Weems
There are photographers that make me wish I was in an MFA program for creative writing. Their work begs for a story to be told. This is how I feel about Carrie Mae Weems’ Kitchen Table Series. Using a simple setting Weems was able to create a rich albeit fleeting glimpse at complex relationship dynamics in this series of photographs. This…
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Artist a Day Challenge No. 21: Charles Gaines
There is something so oddly compelling about Charles Gaines work. The first time I saw one of his pieces, it was a beautiful piece seen from a distance. When I looked up close I was hit with a puzzle I still cannot figure out. Up close was a pixellated mass consisting of uniform squares containing numbers. I…
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Artist a Day Challenge No. 20: Kehinde Wiley
Los Angeles born artist Kehinde Wiley has developed his career in New York as a portrait artist whose work is being celebrated in an exhibition that recently opened at the Brooklyn Museum. In “A New Republic” his work depicts men and women placed in traditional forms of portraiture fusing that history with a present day aesthetic. It is…
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Artist a Day Challenge No. 18: Ann Lowe
As we reach the height of awards season with the Oscars, it is hard to imagine a time when the designer of a high profile individuals dress is NOT well known, but in 1953 when Jacqueline Onassis married John F. Kennedy, when she was asked who designed her gown she demurred and did not credit…
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Artist a Day Challenge No. 17: The Kara Walker Challenge
Kara Walker’s art disturbs me. The first time I experienced her work, I was in Arcana Books in Culver City and I found a catalog from one of her cut out shows (I think it was at the Walker Art Center). I was drawn by the nostalgic look of the cutouts which on some cellular level tapped into fond memories. Then…
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Artist a Day Challenge No. 16: Nile Rodgers
Of the hundreds of songs that are in regular rotation on my iPod, I am willing to bet that Nile Rodgers had something to do with over half of them. There was a period of time as a child when every record or tape I owned carried a Nile Rodgers producer credit. The man is a…
Colony Little, Culture Shock Art 