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MAYA ANGELOU PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL
Washington DC
MAYA ANGELOU PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL
Washington DC
MAYA ANGELOU PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL
Washington DC
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ANNAPOLIS MD
THE ARTIST BLOG
MIRACLES
- I made a turn off of Highway 84 through an archway reading “Ghost Ranch”. Driving down the dirt road, the landscape enveloped me, colors dazzled me, and the quiet peacefulness overwhelmed me.
There was a girl on a ladder picking apples from the trees just past the welcome center. She offered me one and I came away with my white sweater full of little sweet apples that turned into the best apple cobbler I have ever made. She never told me her name but casually said to me, “they have jobs here.” I tucked this information into the back of my head and continued with my day.
Returning to New Jersey, I began to correspond with Debbie Manzanares about the possibilities of a position at the ranch. I was taking care of my mother. She was terminally ill and my life revolved around her care.
As an artist and writer the visions of Ghost Ranch were ever present in my mind. Many people visit this area to learn about Georgia O’Keeffe, when I came here it was the mountains that drew me. Somehow I just knew I needed to spend some time here.
In January of 2010 I returned to the ranch to talk about a volunteer position and went to the top of the Pack Memorial Trail. I had begun learning all I could about the history of the ranch. Returning home after meeting with Debbie Manzanares and Marla Ulibarri I felt more of a connection than I thought possible to Ghost Ranch, but whether or not I was to return was in God’s hands.
My mother passed a few weeks after my second visit to the ranch. She made her transition from this life as I sat with my head on her chest holding her still warm hand. Seven minutes later my cell phone rang, it was Ghost Ranch on the other end of the phone offering me a the opportunity to reside here.
On Abstraction and Reality
My aesthtic is “abstractly real”
So what is that exactly… art is most usually described as abstract or real, but I submist there is a very thin line between the abstract and the real and it is in that somewhat demilatrized zone of existence I am most comforatable.
The eyes which I view the world are mine and mine alone. No one can see what I see or what you see. That vision is uniquely personal.
Everyday I walk my little dog through the wooded area behind my house. In every square inch of earth there resides a beautiful abstract painting, however this is nature and nature is realism at its most essential. It has a concrete existence, definate color and texture. The square inch exists essentially on its own. Each work I produce exists in its own private space. I seek to draw the viewer into a world needing no explaination, just feeling, A feeling between the viewer and the image.
THE ARTIST STATEMENT
The narrative of one’s art is a living document, evolving in phases.
My practice, without any conscious help from me pushed visions out of my soul lingering for years. The most important lessonI have learned has been to get out of my own way and let the art lead me. I am drawn to artists, male and female whose sensibilities are able to look intimately at the feminine mystic
Women express openly among themselves emotion and spirituality. The meaning of feminism is having unparalleled physical strength to quite literally push humanity forward. Feminism silently and most profoundly influences my work. Women are the species I know best.
I am from Washington, DC , lived in New York, New Mexico, and Italia. My work is abstractly real. The techniques are driven by classical art “isms”, indigenous tribal art and a mysterious ancestral DNA. I spend time reading ,studying and collecting mentors to further my art. My influences include, Wilfredo Lam, Picasso, Matisse, Leon Berkowitz, Alma Thomas and contemporary artists who converse with me about art, politics, and concepts of life, Lillian Burwell, Jack Whitten, Oliver Lee Jackson, Akili Anderson, Alonzo Davis and Patricia Michaels.
I m driven to tell the story of my time through the eyes of a Black American woman, a feminist, activist and global citizen.