Karon Davis Explores the Spirit of Home and What it Means When We Must Leave it Behind: Muddy Water at Wilding Cran

Two separate migration patterns brought Americans from the south and mid-west to California in the early 1900s: The Great Migration and the Dust Bowl. One group fled persecution under racist Jim Crow laws, while the other fled droughts exacerbated by over farming. The economic and social impacts of these migrations not only shaped the state … Continue reading Karon Davis Explores the Spirit of Home and What it Means When We Must Leave it Behind: Muddy Water at Wilding Cran

Artist a Day Challenge, 2017 Finale (28): Augusta Savage

As we close out Black History Month and usher in Women’s History Month, today’s post on Augusta Savage made sense for a number of reasons — the most important being that today is the artist’s birthday.  Born on a leap year 125 years ago, Augusta Savage’s life story still resonates and her career exemplifies an unyielding determination to her art and a strong dedication to her … Continue reading Artist a Day Challenge, 2017 Finale (28): Augusta Savage

Artist of the Day Challenge (25):Kevin Beasley

I’m currently writing a separate piece on Kevin Beasley’s current installation at the Hammer Museum, but I thought I would highlight him in my artist a day challenge as well. Artists that incorporate sound into their work interest me these days because they activate their environments in an entirely new way.  Some of Beasley’s ghost like … Continue reading Artist of the Day Challenge (25):Kevin Beasley

Artist a Day Challenge (5) Beulah Ecton Woodard

In Los Angeles in the 1960’s many black artists including Charles White, Ruth Waddy and Samella Lewis fought for representation in local museums including LACMA.  Little did I know that at least one artist had been given a solo show there decades prior. Beulah Ecton Woodard was an artist/sculptor born in Ohio in 1895 who grew up in Los Angeles. … Continue reading Artist a Day Challenge (5) Beulah Ecton Woodard

Artist a Day Challenge (3) Elizabeth Catlett

I hear Shakespeare’s “what’s past is prologue” on a regular basis these days.  When we study history with the unique privledge of time and ideological distance, it’s too easy to criticize what we once considered unfathomable. The atrocities of the past would not dare repeat themselves in the present, because the scars and the pain remain fresh–they never … Continue reading Artist a Day Challenge (3) Elizabeth Catlett