Share Like An Artist

Chowanook Uprising

My 85 learners have shared many lessons with me this semester, some profound and some tender.  The process of education has wasted energy and missed opportunities.  The values of “handcraftsmanship and pre-capitalist forms of culture and society” are relevant today to get reconnected to creative hands.  The process of making something out of nothing is healing especially when we find ourselves in difficult circumstances.  Life is about taking the bitter with the sweet and learning how to walk out your fears.  I’m living in indigo blues.  I’m content with the circumstances of my life.  I forgive my self and others.  I stay focused on living in the moment and I’m learning to trust and obey God and His plan for my life.  I'm Chowanook Uprising from Toisnoit & Contentnea.

Prep work for teaching contemporary art & design next semester.  Course will be in 3 units:

·      Unit #1 ~ It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be

·      Unit #2 ~ Share Like An Artist

·      Unit #3 ~ Art & Fear

Show Your Work! By Austin Kleon

1.    You don’t have to be a genius.

2.    Think process, not product.

3.    Share something small every day.

4.    Open up your cabinet of curiosities.

5.    Tell good stories.

6.    Teach what you know.

7.    Don’t turn into human spam.

8.    Learn too take a punch.

9.    Sell out.

10. Stick around.

What Do I Want 2 Make Today

Back to journaling my journey.  Now more than any time, I realize the value of sharing creative hands.  It’s by Divine Mercy that I’m able to function day-by-day and breath-by-breath.  I give credit to Almighty Father Creator of all things, whose son’s Passion gifted me sanctification and redeemed by soul.  Jesus Christ is my Shepherd, my True Vine, my BFF.  Birth family circumstances can be complicated and friends come and go.  We have to take the bitter with the sweet.  At some point we’re on our own, where we take responsibility for the steps we make on our earth walk.  Yat say, “Can’t never change nothin’ ‘bout nobody. Change me and I can change the world.”  I get it Mat Randolph!

I’m walking out transformation in my life from creative hands adventures at Penland School of Crafts.  Penland demonstrates by example the values of “handcraftsmanship and pre-capitalist forms of culture and society.” Web Link I witnessed this transformation in my own life participating in my first fiber only art gig – Holiday Market at the Durham Art Walk.

My Table -- Great Location

My observations come from my prep work to teach contemporary art and design next semester at Chowan University.  The first unit in the course will be It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be, the title of the best-selling book, by Paul Arden.

Lesson #1:  It’s Wrong To Be Right | BEING right is based upon knowledge and experience and is often provable. | Knowledge comes from the past, so it’s safe.  It is also out of date.  It’s the opposite of originality. | Experience is built from solutions to old situations and problems.  The old situations are probably different from the present ones, so that old solution will have to be bent to fit new problems (and possibly fit badly).  Also the likelihood is that, if you’ve got the experience, you’ll probably use it.  | This is lazy. | Experience is the opposite of being creative. | If you can prove you’re right, you’re set in concrete.   You cannot move with the times or with other people. | Being right is also being boring.  Your mind is closed.  You are not open to new ideas.  You are rooted in your own rightness, which is arrogant.  Arrogance is a valuable tool, but only if used very sparingly.  | Worst of all, being right has a tone of morality about it.  To be anything else sounds weak or fallible, and people who are right would hate to be thought fallible. | So:  it’s wrong to be right, because people who are right are rooted in the past, rigid-minded, dull and smug. | There’s no talking to them.

["sanctify" derives from the Latin verb sanctificare which in turn derives from sanctus "holy" and facere "to make]

My First Fiber Show

Join me at the Holiday Market at Site 01 in the Durham Arts Council building on November 21 and 22.  This is my first time showing and selling fiber.  I'm beyond excited!  "At Last" I've found the voice of my creative hands.

All About The Blues

My Body Myself as a Clay Vessel with Remnants of My Life Flowing In & Out | Sculpture: Earthenware Clay, Glazed, Fired to Cone 04 | Natural Dyed Cotton Muslin, Paint & Ink

Today the remnants are pulled tight around me like constraints.  I pray to God for mercy and endurance as I breathe each blessed breath.  I let go!  I surrender all to Jesus!  I’m by myself on this journey learning endurance.  Our biggest fear is being alone in life but sometimes the tears of where our Ancestors have been take us to sole survivor places to illuminate the Way.

God has a great sense of humor!  Me -- riding out the Blues!  It’s all so amazing.  I’m walking out submission to God.  I’m learning about freedom and connections we share with others.  I’m learning discernment.  I’m learning to listen to things more than people.  Birthing my past in clay and this moment in fiber as sculpture is helping me clear the cobwebs in my own design thinking.  The road to hell is paved with a lot of good intentions.  It’s easy to get caught up in believing its not enough blessings and goodness to go around.  So, if someone else is blessed it takes something away from what I don’t have.

Hate, envy, jealously, vindictiveness, meanness and sharp tongue words become the norm.  Hate and meanness make more drama on tv over compassion and mercy.  “It’s a trap!” I hear Mat Randolph saying.  Mat said there were four traps set for all folks everywhere – sex, silver, self and sloth.  Hate and meanness is the trap of self and needing everything to always be about you and what you want.  It takes courage and strength of character to put the concerns of others over what we want for ourselves.  Our world is very selfish by any means necessary.  Humanity and Planet Earth are beginning to Reset !!! IAM

 

Riding Out The Blues::One Day At A Time

 

Indigo Blues Vessel

Sculpture: Earthenware Clay, Glazed, Fired to Cone 04 | Skaru’:re Indigo Dyed Cotton Muslin

I don’t ask Creator why I’m not married with a family of my own anymore.  It takes a village to raise a child and I’m a teaching artist humbling trying to empower young people to practice design thinking through creative hands.  I’m where I’m suppose to be, doing what God wants me to do today.  The Holy Spirit reveals signs that keep me on task, like an indigo bush growing on Chowan’s campus and the Holy Father coming to the East Coast of North American on my birthday.

The answer to why me is why not.  It’s not personal, it’s about the stories associated with one of the birthplaces of The Blues, Fort Neyuheruke.  Native Americans on the East Coast from South America to Canada have been living the Blues since 1492.  We are the remnant of a free people from 1491.  Everything has been taken from us!  We have been stripped down, raped, beaten, burned alive, kidnapped, held captive and our children sold as the first slaves.  And after all that, large numbers of us remain forever connected to the land of our Ancestors.  We made ourselves invisible, hiding out in plain sight in small family clusters on Swampland.  The remnant of Algonquin people in the Coastal Plains of Carolina is huge.  That’s why the powers that control keep the people separate by sowing negative energy of mistrust among Indian people.  Some people follow what others say.  But like my momma says, “I rather see a sermon any day instead of hearing one!”

I’ve got new clay and fiber work up in the faculty show at Chowan.  The hardest part was getting big clay from Skarure land to Chowanook.

Driving Back & Forth 2 Work Each Day

You Don’t Know What Love Is Until You Know The Meaning Of The Blues…… I’m riding out this truth on the original Blues Trail on Highways 64, 97, 258 and 301.  Every day back and forth I drive.  My reward from Lord God Almighty is making color with oil paints.  My art journey stated with oil paints inspired by watching Bob Ross on educational tv.  The first painting workshop that I attended was a Bob Ross workshop in Raleigh at Plantation Inn.  I was the youngest participant and the only person of color.  Bob Ross was genuine in his kindness and sharing in his spirit.  Who knew I would get to travel the world as an artist?  My adventure is amazing, most of all to me!!!!

My Lesson 2 Reconnect with oil paint colors ...

Creating Color Lesson #1:

Connecting 2 Place & People

Concept:  Community

Art Element 2 Explore:  Color

My Song:  “That Song” | Oshkè yè ii, Whitefish Bay Singers, 2007

My Place:  My journey begins with me walking the streets of Paris, dipping in the North Sea with the Ramous Family off the coast of Gothenburg, and trekking to Sodankylä with Karin to the Midnight Sun Film Festival for a pottery show.

Algonquin roots in the Coastal Plains of Eastern North Carolina from the Skaru:’re Historical Trails of Highway 301 Business and Highways 13, 42, 58, 64, 97 and 258.  Art community roots to the Arts and Crafts Movement demonstrated by Miss Lucy Morgan at Penland School of Crafts.

IAM:  Who am I?  I’m Contentnea Creek clay pulled from the earth thousands of years ago.  I’m present and in the moment.  I’m studying “The Art of War.”  

My textile is the backdrop for the faculty show card ...

 

Many Moons

It's been Many Moons since my last journal.  Writing class, Penland Auction and teacher work-days are all over.  Finished my first week with learners at Chowan University.  One week down and 15 more to go -- The Count Down Begins!

Baking this weekend helped me clear my head and focus on "What I want to make today!"  I want to make color!  Color, color and more color.  The high point of this semester is my teaching Oil Painting Methods.  Teaching this class at this moment in my life is a blessing from Creator.  God did this!  I know beyond a shadow of doubt that God did it.  I’m so broken and I've missed oil painting.  It's a jealous first lover that warms me in hue, value and intensity.

I'm a Blues Warrior traveling the original Blues Trails on Hwy 301 Business and Highways 97 and 258.  I'm content and at peace with the circumstances of my life.  God's plan is a perfect plan and much better than what I could come up with.  I'm guilty of chasing a Waterfall of a man who talks God, has a sharp tongue and lashes out "to rip you a new one."  The Holy Spirit delivered me.  Looks can be deceiving.

So, it's just Jesus and me on this two hour to and from journey each day.  Patricia is my NDN art sister, the first I've ever had.  Patricia and I are cut from the same remnant of humanity; were like fraternal twins.  Libby Lynn is my love child.  I thank God for the blessings of friendship and my connections to people and places.  It brings me joy as I drive on Algonquin homeland.

Reflections on Week #1 Your Book Starts Here

I’m becoming a writer via online learning at the Loft Literary Center on Washington Avenue South in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  The seed for being a writer was buried deep inside me planted by growing up in Yat’s Kitchen by Mattie Burnette Randolph and her mother, Momma Mary Burnette.  These two French Edisto Gullah grand mothers’ gave me the world through Algonquin fiber arts.  Now Yat’s Kitchen has become Indigo Blues, a book of three short stories, poetry and art about Algonquin culture through the eyes of women’s stories during creative hands activities in coastal Carolina.

Indigo Blues was conceived during my Fall 2014 journey from Toisnot to Chowanook along the paved Algonquin trail that is now Hwy 258.  This road was one of our major Trail of Dreams 303 years ago.  My sojourn reconnected me with childhood travels along Hwy 258 with momma and mama and the stories of adventures along what I knew as The Blues Highway.

Chowanook is the site of the former Chowan Baptist Female Institute, which is now Chowan University.  A large white plantation house presides at the end of a long U-shaped entrance behind Squirrel Park nestled beside Lank Vann.  So much symbolism is attached to my being at Chowanook and I credit it all to Divine intervention.  The Holy Spirit is leading me to a place to walk out God’s purpose for my life.  It’s the experience of being in the right place at the right time under the right circumstances.  It’s my realizing that timing matters, and in life we have to wait our turn.  It’s about God’s will being done, not my own.  My desire to teach at a small college has manifested itself in my life in such a way as to connect me with Algonquin culture.

So, I’m bringing form and shape to my life through writing under the guidance of Mary Carroll Moore at the Loft.  The best writers come out of the Loft community and I plan to be one of them.  I’m part of the 21^st Century generation of women writers coming of age at the Loft.  The sum of the achievements of my fellow learners in Your Book Starts Here is astounding and we have the potential to give voice to the reality of living in the USA.

My memory verse for this week:

“If you hear the dogs, keep going.  
If you see the torches in the woods, keep going.  If there’s shouting after you, keep going.  
Don’t ever stop. Don’t ever quit.  
Don’t give up.  Don’t give in. 
If you want a taste of freedom,
 keep going!”

--Harriet Tubman

The Thrill Is Gone: Observations on Experiencing Freedom

Indigo Blues Fibershed

I was blessed to witness B.B. King perform “The Thrill Is Gone” on more than one occasion.  I never knew his Blues lyrics would one day be an anthem of freedom in the circumstances of my life.  But here we are as I walk out the last summer of life with my momma.  Her broken heart combined with my own is a heavy burden but for the Divine Mercy of Jesus Christ.  Once upon a time I had the love of a family, now in the second quarter of my life it has come down to a few precious moments shared with my momma.  To love and be loved in return is the greatest blessing we can experience on this Earth Walk.  Cherish it!  Guard it as your most precious possession because life is short and fragile, what’s here today can be gone tomorrow and redo isn’t an option.  Some circumstances only happen once in life, choose well!.....

I See It! I See My Visualization Of An Algonquin Blanket Shawl!

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The idea of reconnecting with the indigo blanket shawls of my childhood has been rolling around inside of me since the Woman Scared River Drum Society workshop 15 months ago.  At Last!  It’s no longer a vision!  My first blanket shawl is under construction enough for me to view it as a created object.  Whew!!!  I’m excited to be working on this project and thankful for Creator’s blessing of creative hands.  I’ve got the peace and contentment that comes from contemplative exploration in art making.  So once again, I have an indigo dyed blanket.  Thank you Hattie Woodard Harris and Mattie Burnette Randolph for sharing indigo as a medicine with me while I was a child.

I’ve incorporated a 4 corners square shield representing Creations 4 Daughters, Ahskareen, Maraskarin, Sepoy and Posh.  This teaching was given to me by Lawarence Dunmoore at the Machapunga Tuscarora Pow Wow at sweet, scared Moratoc Park beside the Roanoke River in Williamston.  The food vendor backed out at the last minute, so I had to step to the occasion to cook and feed the People.  I got many blessings being in the kitchen that day and the teaching of The 4 Daughters was one of them.  It was a good day!

Walking On Sunshine Dyeing Cloth

2 Gallons of Stock Solution

Today is exciting!  Two gallons of stock solution makes enough dye for this much.  I needed an extra 2 cups, so to make it work I consolidated containers and put dye samples into large ziplock bags.  Neat tip but place plastic bag in another container after it's filled.  I also put a rubber band around the top of the bag.   The fabric kept bobbing up in one container, so I use empty mason jars to keep the fabric submerged in the dye bath.  Now comes a demonstration of patience because I need to wait 24 hours to see my results. 

 

If At First You Don't Succeed ~ Try Again!

My Studio Desk This Morning

Indigo Bundle Ready 4 Over Dyeing

Got bundles ready to dye.  This morning I'm using fiber reactive dyes.  Over dyeing cloth previously dyed with indigo because I had too much white undyed space.  It happens sometimes!  I'm discovering that over dyed fabric has a richer, more complex visual look.  Personally, I don't like the look of using fiber reactive dye powder straight out of the jar.  I mix up recipes.  I guess this is a carry over from creating glaze recipes! LOL!

Birth of Scared Squares

In this dye session, I'm also creating cloth for "Scared Squares."  This work was birthed while I was living in Cullowhee, and was suppose to be part of my thesis before my creative endeavors were evaluated as unsatisfactory.  But, dreams don't die!  Thanks to God's "Divine Mercy" this body of work is being realized.  The timing and learning environment weren't right at Cullowhee.  For this body of work to be created it needed the journey from Cullowhee to Chicamacomico to Fort Neyuheru:ke back to the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.  "Scared Squares" are about the reopening the Longhouse door at the Outer Banks; about remembering First Contact at Roanoke Island and the Holocaust at Fort Neyuheru:ke; about acknowledging to the world that after 300 years we are "Still Here".  I'm so excited I feel like I'm "Walking On Sunshine!"

Waking Up

I've come to that point in my journey, where I'm wide awake!  I know who I am and I know my purpose according to God's Divine Mercy.  My story is many stories.  I was born for a purpose at this time and at this appointed place.  God Did It!  God Did It!  God Did It!  I'm a witness to the fact that God is real.  I want each breath to demonstrate peace and contentment with the circumstances of my life.  My job is not to judge, but to stay in the moment as a sharing maker and observer of hand made things.  I've got to keep it simple!  Keep it real! And most importantly, I must stay on task!  Don't allow the world's drama to enter cross the door into my studio.  Stick to my own reality and my own responsibilities.

Day 57: Got Fiber Reactive Dye Samples

Arashi Shibori Using 2 Mixed Colors

I love dyeing cloth!  The process puts me in the moment with unexpected surprise.  Of any art form that I ever done; it’s the most wondrous!  Opening a glaze kiln is the next closest experience but because you have so many steps to complete to get to that point, it’s more drawn out.  Besides, I’ve had so many negative experiences with people associated with doing clay that it’s spoiled my joy.  So, clay is on hold until I can get my kilns out of storage and hooked up in my own studio. 

Overdye: MX Over Indigo

I’m enjoying making color on fabric.  One of my professors and mentor’s at UNC, Mr. Marvin Saltzman, always said that I was a colorist – a painter’s painter.  I finally understand what he meant.  I’m drawn to art processes that are timeless and connect me to humanity.  Clay and textiles both do that for me!  They represent my convergence; where all that I am and the hopes and dreams of everyone who’s blood flows in my veins come together.  I love this life!  I’m happy, content and at peace with the circumstances that have brought me to this moment in time.  At times it’s been a difficult journey but such is life!

Press & Fold

 

Silk Scarf