Explore the misunderstandings
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Captioned Black Art
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“She’d learned early on about a certain unfairness in life. Some folks struggled disproportionately, carrying things that others couldn’t even lift.”
— Diane Marie Brown, Black Candle Women
A Snippet:
Did you know that Diane Marie Brown, a professor at Orange Coast College and a public health professional for the Long Beach Health Department, received a BA and a MPH (Master of Public Health) from UCLA, plus owns a degree in fiction from USC’s Master of Professional Writing Program? Incredible!
When discussing her many varied interests and accomplishments, Professor Brown commented, “I want my students to know that they can have multiple passions, that they can have multiple careers.”
Learn more . . .
55. “Mississippi Blues Man” (2008)
“My most important goal is to make profound aesthetic statements that are ethnically rooted, and at the same time, arouse spiritual emotions within all of us.”
— Charles A. Bibbs
Did you know?
Did you know that Charles Bibbs (born in San Pedro, California, and raised in Harbor City, California) used his God-given, creative talents to create in his spare time, while working an eight-hour job during the day?
In 1991, Bibbs decided to leave his management position of 25 years to form his publishing company, B Graphics and Fine Arts, Inc.
Today, Charles Bibbs is considered one of the top-selling artists in the country, his humble beginnings having grown to market leadership in the African-American print market.
56. “Blue Monday” (circa 1985)
“Just do the things that people can identify with, that’s what I would try and do, see if I could capture a feeling.”
— Annie Frances Lee
Did you know?
Did you know that Annie Lee’s railroad job inspired one of her most popular paintings (Blue Monday) which depicts a woman struggling to pull herself out of bed on a Monday morning? Can you relate?
Raised in Chicago, Illinois, Annie Lee attended Wendell Phillips High School and was offered a four-year scholarship to attend Northwestern University but instead married and started a family.
Not until age forty, did Lee pursue an artistic career, enrolling in Loop Junior College and completing her undergraduate work at Mundelein College in Chicago.
It took eight years of night classes (while working during the day as a clerk at Northwestern Railroad company) for Annie Lee to earn her M.A. degree in interdisciplinary arts education from Loyola University (Chicago).
57. “No Woman, No Cry” (1998)
“Somehow through the exploration of race, you can get to a new place—a new form of understanding. And somehow maybe even explore the misunderstandings.”
— Chris Ofili
Did you know?
Did you know that Chris Ofili (a British Turner Prize-winning artist, known for having incorporating elephant dung in his work) painted, No Woman, No Cry, in 1998 while living and working in London?
The title of the artwork shares its name with the 1974 song by Jamaican reggae musician Bob Marley, entreating a female listener to not be sad.
The inscription in the painting indicates that the crying woman depicted is Doreen Lawrence (now Baroness Lawrence of Clarendon OBE), the mother of Stephen Lawrence.
Stephen was murdered as a teenage boy in an unprovoked racist attack in London, in 1993, and the photographs inside the painting of Doreen Lawrence’s tears are all hidden images of Stephen.
A new form of understanding is due to arrive (in due time)
(Breathe In . . . Breathe Out)
Explore the misunderstandings
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