Under Eden's belly
#CaptionedBlackArt | Thursdaysº
Captioned Black Art
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“It is blasphemy to separate oneself from the earth and look down on it like a god. It is more than blasphemy; it is dangerous. We can never be gods, after all—but we can become something less than human with frightening ease.”
— N. K. Jemisin
A Snippet:
Did you know that American author N. K. Jemisin is the first to win three successive Hugo Awards for Best Novel—plus, the first to win them in a row for every novel in her Broken Earth trilogy (2015, 2016, and 2017)?
Learn more . . .
4. “The American Dream” (1964)
“You cannot—should not—ever make something as an artist (or even as a writer) that is outside of your experience. I am Black, and I am a woman. There it is.”
— Faith Ringgold
Did you know?
Did you know that Faith Ringgold, born in 1930 in Harlem, New York, was a painter, mixed media sculptor, performance artist, writer, teacher, lecturer, activist and pioneer in the use of quilts to tell stories?
Ringgold received her B.S. and M.A. degrees in visual art from the City College of New York in 1955 and 1959 and was professor emeritus of art at the University of California in San Diego. In all, Ringgold received 23 honorary doctorates.
During the early 1960s, Ringgold traveled to Europe, creating her first political paintings, “The American People Series” from 1963 to 1967 and had her first and second one-person exhibitions at the Spectrum Gallery in New York.
In the early 1970s, Ringgold began making tankas (inspired by a Tibetan art form).
She made her first quilt, Echoes of Harlem, in 1980, in collaboration with her mother, Madame Willi Posey. The quilts were an extension of her tankas. However, these paintings were not only bordered with fabric but quilted, creating a unique way of “painting” using the quilt medium.
By the way . . .
By the way, speaking of invention, did you know that the term “American Dream” was coined by American writer and historian James Truslow Adams in his 1931 book entitled, The Epic of America?
Adams wrote about a “dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement.”
5. “A Mother’s Lullaby” (2021)
“My art is merely an extension of who and what I am. I can only sculpt, paint or produce my experiences. For that, I thank God.”
— Darlington Dike Ike
Did you know?
Did you know that Darlington Dike Ike is a graduate of The School of Art and Design, Auchi Polytechnics (one of the top art schools in Nigeria) and his works have been exhibited in art galleries all over the world?
A man of many mediums, Darlington Dike Ike is known for using a variety of techniques and media in order to create a style all his own.
Some have said sitting with Ike on any given day is like, “Riding the rapids.”
6. “Hoodratgurl” (2011)
“I want the same thing for Black girls that white girls receive . . . I want Black girls to know, just because they appear mighty doesn't mean they can’t be vulnerable.”
— Deborah E. Roberts
Did you know?
Did you know that Deborah E. Roberts (American, b. 1962) is a mixed-media artist whose work challenges notions of ideal beauty?
Roberts work has been exhibited internationally and is found in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; The Studio Museum in Harlem; LACMA, Los Angeles; the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; and the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, among others.
Deborah Roberts was selected to participate in the Robert Rauschenberg Residency in 2019 and was a finalist for the 2019 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, as well as the recipient of the Anonymous Was a Woman Grant in 2018, and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant in 2016.
Roberts received her MFA from Syracuse University, New York, and currently works and lives in Austin, Texas.
Be careful. All that glitters ain’t gold
(Breathe In . . . Breathe Out)
Under Eden’s belly
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