But I have been working madly to finish the projects for the Lark book. They must be mail tomorrow and then I'll still have the writing portion of the work to do -- but it can be emailed, so I have a bit of time on that.
So, instead, I'll just post a few quick pictures and a few quick thoughts.
We went to see the William H. Johnson exhibit titled World on Paper. Have you ever heard of William H. Johnson? I hadn't until I had a conversation with Sonji about African American visual artists. I couldn't name a single one. Poets, dancers, musicians, playwrights, novelists, etc ... sure sure sure, but a painter? Sculpter? Nope. So I studied a bit and William H. Johnson's name kept coming up. And then the exhibit came to town. I really wanted to go see it and I wanted my kids to see it. It was excellent.
Three Friends by William H. Johnson, 1944-45
This reminds me a bit of Pamela Allen's work. (Scroll down to "Two Sisters." The hair shapes, the eyes, the color, the composition...)
The grounds were lovely too.
There were several sitting rooms in the lobby with interesting quotes on the walls.
And interesting people in the chairs.Can you read the quotes? (I found that I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say in any other way -- things that I had no words for. Georgia O'Keefe)
Big art is the process of elimination... Cut down and out -- do your hardest work outside the picture, and let your audience take away something to think about -- to imagine. Frederic Remington
Good stuff to think about. Back to the studio.
2 comments:
Hi Deborah, it is very difficult to find written materials/comprehensive catalogues still on African American artists or African artists.
My youngest son in the 9th grade was introduced to Wm. Johnson and Jacob Lawrence in his art class at school...they spent quite a bit of time on Lawrence's work which really impressed me.
Cool stuff...there are some definite advantages to being in a big city. They are called museums and good restaurants!
Cheers, Sarah
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