Word Up/ Borderless vol 3

Another week has passed, and still keeping busy.

Last Monday I was given the opportunity to showcase some of my work at a spoken word event called WordUp in North West London. It was a really good night, with such a variety of people expressing themselves through poetry, song and other ways. Good vibes all around. Before the break I went up to tell everyone about myself and my artwork (was really nervous but I got through) and received a lot of positivity from the crowd. Managed to sell a few things and expand my network which was really cool (thanks Charlie :))

Saturday I did a live painting again at my work colleague’s event while he and his friends supplied the tunes for the night. Sooo I came up with a nice little idea before the day which combined the outline of my country of heritage Dominica and some national symbols.

The thing I’ve realised with live paintings is that you never really know how things are going to turn out. You could end up doing too much or end up doing too little. That comes with the territory.

As I was only just reaching halfway and a guy began asking me questions about what I was doing. He expressed how much he liked the piece the way it was and to name my price there and then. It was a surprise to say the least because I honestly had no intentions of selling it plus in my mind I was still in the middle of painting it. I eventually gave him a price but I was determined to finish it.

When I did he said he still liked it but it wasn’t the way he wanted it (ok not in those exact words, but he said if I hadn’t added certain thugs he wouldn’t have dropped the price to buy). So just to be nice I said if he is still keen will he buy if I redid some parts and he did say yes…

Upon further reflection I thought- did my pride get in the way? But then I remembered…this was a personal piece for me. If I sold it like that without my full intentions in the piece then I wouldn’t be happy. I’m happy to sell work no doubt, and whilst I may not be in a financially comfortable position at the moment (and some would say you can’t afford to be picky) but then to drop to half the asking price because it wasn’t how he wanted it? Didn’t sit right. I take on any feedback and appreciate all comments but I think I’d rather lose out.

I’d actually like to hear some opinions on this situation- do you think I made the wrong call?

More drawings…more ideas!

Ok so the self promo unit really kicked things into gear so I could actually get my ideas on paper.

One of the first things I wanted to explore is the notion of the “bright eyed, fair skinned” image of beauty that still seems to dominate the covers of magazines and advertising.
I begun to recall a few things I’d seen over the past year or so on all of my social media such as sterotypical things associated with ‘light-skinned’ black people and ‘dark-skinned’ black people. While they were probably intended on being humorous and not having malicious intent I couldn’t help but wonder if there was real depth to this kind of thinking, and whether there had been real psychological effects on women’s outlook of themselves and others(which in turn could possibly have a physical effect).

By accepting terms such as ‘lighty’, ‘red-bone’ ‘yellow-bone’ to describe us physically, and accepting the ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ stereotypes that come with such terms, I think that contempt has been bred and that these are also responsible for creating divisions within black communities all over the world. Accepting one thing as being more beautiful than the other and criticising those who don’t “fit the grain” breeds insecurites. This is what gives media power.

From this I started to think about Barbie dolls. I remember being a kid and only ever seeing one or 2 black barbie dolls being sold over here in the UK. I searched ‘black barbie dolls’ in google and noticed that they all had a similar look to the white Barbie doll with their hair being long and straight, or curly. I started to question why wasn’t there ones with natural hairstyles: afros, or braids or locs-realistic physical markers that are assoicated with black people…and this again led me to question wheter or not it was trying to portray a particular image of beauty amongst black girls and women.

Amongst doing this search I stumbled upon an article from the Huffington Post, which mentioned a women in America who also felt these things mentioned in the last paragraph, took it upon herself to create a new line customized dolls of different skin shades, with natural haristyles not seen in stores:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/09/natural-girls-united-dolls-hair-makeover_n_4065398.html

I then remembered my “Christie” doll- the first black doll that I ever owned myself. She’s probably stored away in a box in my cellar so I google searched and saw the hair…lol what a mess. Her figure was impossible. And her eyes. I never noticed before, but she had blue/purple eyes. Really? In my mind I genuinely thought…WTAF and chuckled. This then spurred me on to try add text to the above observational painting. I wanted to be direct, but I didn’t want to sound too angry, so I don’t think saying “WHY THE F*** DO I HAVE BLUE EYES FOR” would cut it. I eventually resolved this image and I think it worked well.

From the dolls concept I then started thinking about marionette puppets. I felt the concept was so strong and that I could connect it with the notions of mass media being manipulative; plays with our self-esteem, constantly telling us what products will make us “better” in order to create an image of constructed beauty that doesn’t truly exist. I originally wanted to do my marionettes in black papercuts but I felt I didn’t have enough time in keeping with the self-promo unit. So I drew them digitally to see how it would come out and again I was quite happy with the outcome. I think the papercut versions however will give it more relief, and I can also make them life-sized.

Like the papercuts I did from negotiated study I wanted to have text within the containers of female bodies, so I went a bit crazy and bought as many fashion magazine publications within my means. There really is a lack of publications that feature and represent black women in comparison to white women; both in popular ones such as Vogue and Glamour and even magazines such as Black Beauty are quite hard to find in conventional shops. Anyway I drew the above images using my new Inkling pen and neatened it up using Illustrator and Photoshop. I picked said images to try and coincide with each message:

• “I am judged for going with the status quo”

• “I am judged for going against the status quo”

• “I am now the ideal vision of beauty”

   

The refined versions are on display in the slide show below

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I question whether or not I have been directly or indirectly effected by these factors I’ve researched in one form or another, but I’ve taken quite a personal approach within the images so far, whilst taken into account outside teachings and opinions also. Then again if I didn’t take it personally then I wouldn’t have been affected at all…right? And these images wouldn’t be as powerful without substance and actual feeling toward the issues I’m looking at. I’m hoping I can continue pushing forward with these.