Greetings:
We're off to Philadelphia! Look for HMP's 2nd showning at Holy Family University. Wow, only 198 to go!
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Friday, November 09, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Friday, September 21, 2007
Wow! Our events for the Reception Day went wonderfully... our special guest Dr. Osagie, held up very well as she spoke to students, faculty and the public at separate events during the day.
Please check out the video clips in the “Links” list of Dr. Osagie's "Student Conversations" and "Evening Reception"
Please check out the video clips in the “Links” list of Dr. Osagie's "Student Conversations" and "Evening Reception"
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Monday, September 03, 2007
Michael said...
I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the HMP project.
For years, I created many conceptual images in the service of the advertising business, and that had its benefits, but I never made an image that moved me as much as my Crossings contribution for Haiku #10. That image, I feel, is the most important image I have made to this date.
I thank you for the vision, initiative, and talent you have invested in this project. I am blessed to meet you and privileged to be a part of this very significant collaborative effort.
Since I enjoy the rare position of having seen all the visual art and read the haiku, I heartily commend the exhibition for all to view. It will be a moving experience.
10:05 AM
8/31/07
I am grateful for the opportunity to be a part of the HMP project.
For years, I created many conceptual images in the service of the advertising business, and that had its benefits, but I never made an image that moved me as much as my Crossings contribution for Haiku #10. That image, I feel, is the most important image I have made to this date.
I thank you for the vision, initiative, and talent you have invested in this project. I am blessed to meet you and privileged to be a part of this very significant collaborative effort.
Since I enjoy the rare position of having seen all the visual art and read the haiku, I heartily commend the exhibition for all to view. It will be a moving experience.
10:05 AM
8/31/07
Friday, August 31, 2007
Greetings:
There is little over a week left before Haiku’s Middle Passage opens. I cannot sleep because I’m concerned about the exhibit. I’ve tried everything to make sure people know that remembering the 200 years since the abolition of the TransAtlantic slave Trade is not about any one group of people. Our history of human injustices is a mirror image of our current day issues about human injustices, particularly around force human labor.
For me, the historical nature of the Haiku included in this exhibit is based on multi-racial, multi-cultural, and multi-ethnic interactions of human being. Anytime we engage with another person from an us/them perspective (race/culture/ethnic, class, or gender) – we set the stage for confrontation and exploitation.
We need to begin accepting our past and present for the shared and integrated experience it is. HMP is about such an approach to the people we have always been.
I know I can't really get everyone to understand this idea because such an understanding is not a one-person task. So thank you in advance for helping each other see each other dressed in our complete humanity.
(Really, now I'm going to go to sleep...)
There is little over a week left before Haiku’s Middle Passage opens. I cannot sleep because I’m concerned about the exhibit. I’ve tried everything to make sure people know that remembering the 200 years since the abolition of the TransAtlantic slave Trade is not about any one group of people. Our history of human injustices is a mirror image of our current day issues about human injustices, particularly around force human labor.
For me, the historical nature of the Haiku included in this exhibit is based on multi-racial, multi-cultural, and multi-ethnic interactions of human being. Anytime we engage with another person from an us/them perspective (race/culture/ethnic, class, or gender) – we set the stage for confrontation and exploitation.
We need to begin accepting our past and present for the shared and integrated experience it is. HMP is about such an approach to the people we have always been.
I know I can't really get everyone to understand this idea because such an understanding is not a one-person task. So thank you in advance for helping each other see each other dressed in our complete humanity.
(Really, now I'm going to go to sleep...)
All the things I’ve forgotten:
As the exhibit draws nearer, all I seem to realize are the many things I’ve forgotten to do. Fore example, I should’ve stressed the HMP is only part of other commemorative events happening in West Michigan!
I haven’t given proper credit the other individuals who served for more than a year on the West Michigan Committee to commemorate this historical event so here is that history:
“As part of this global observance, members of the local academic and cultural communities have formed a committee to plan and implement a program of activities throughout the year of 2007 that is consistent with the importance of this anniversary. The program's goal for 2007 is to enlighten, inform and educate students and the West Michigan community about the horrors of the slave trade, its impact, and its residual effects on the lives of Africans and their descendants throughout the Diaspora. Program activities will address a wide range of issues such as the history and impact of the slave trade, slavery, racism, and modern human trafficking. The committee consists of faculty and students from Calvin College, Davenport University, Ferris State University, Grand Valley State University, the Grand Rapids Community College, the Grand Rapids Public Schools, and Hope College as well as staff from the Gerald R. Ford Museum, the Grand Rapids Public Libraries, and the Grand Rapids Community Media Center.”
---From the committee webpage www.gvsu.edu/abolition
I need should’ve stressed the support from several GRCC departments in making this event come together.
Thanks so much it’s darn near un-express-able to
WAYNE NEWTON the former art gallery coordinator for listening and being excited with me when we were finally able to meet and discuss this project
RON STEIN the current art gallery coordinator, he connected me to fabulous Michael Forrest (photographer extraordinaire). Ron meet with me in the summer to work on details of this project and work with Michael to design our invitations and take photos of all the visual art pieces. He gave me pointers on things that I can’t remember right now.
MICHAEL FORREST listened to me when I explained I had no money to pay for photos of the pieces, but thankfully he listened to the scope of the project more. He decided to join and create a piece for a Haiku. He continued to give his talent and time to this project and I’m tearing up as I type at his generosity.
JENNIFER SMITH from our Diversity Center is helping HMP’s details for the reception. Without her patience, knowledge, and willing to take a zillion e-mails from me the planned reception would be quite ugly.
Well, that’s all for now, since it’s still the wee hours the morning, I’m going to try and get s bit more sleep.
Thanks.
As the exhibit draws nearer, all I seem to realize are the many things I’ve forgotten to do. Fore example, I should’ve stressed the HMP is only part of other commemorative events happening in West Michigan!
I haven’t given proper credit the other individuals who served for more than a year on the West Michigan Committee to commemorate this historical event so here is that history:
“As part of this global observance, members of the local academic and cultural communities have formed a committee to plan and implement a program of activities throughout the year of 2007 that is consistent with the importance of this anniversary. The program's goal for 2007 is to enlighten, inform and educate students and the West Michigan community about the horrors of the slave trade, its impact, and its residual effects on the lives of Africans and their descendants throughout the Diaspora. Program activities will address a wide range of issues such as the history and impact of the slave trade, slavery, racism, and modern human trafficking. The committee consists of faculty and students from Calvin College, Davenport University, Ferris State University, Grand Valley State University, the Grand Rapids Community College, the Grand Rapids Public Schools, and Hope College as well as staff from the Gerald R. Ford Museum, the Grand Rapids Public Libraries, and the Grand Rapids Community Media Center.”
---From the committee webpage www.gvsu.edu/abolition
I need should’ve stressed the support from several GRCC departments in making this event come together.
Thanks so much it’s darn near un-express-able to
WAYNE NEWTON the former art gallery coordinator for listening and being excited with me when we were finally able to meet and discuss this project
RON STEIN the current art gallery coordinator, he connected me to fabulous Michael Forrest (photographer extraordinaire). Ron meet with me in the summer to work on details of this project and work with Michael to design our invitations and take photos of all the visual art pieces. He gave me pointers on things that I can’t remember right now.
MICHAEL FORREST listened to me when I explained I had no money to pay for photos of the pieces, but thankfully he listened to the scope of the project more. He decided to join and create a piece for a Haiku. He continued to give his talent and time to this project and I’m tearing up as I type at his generosity.
JENNIFER SMITH from our Diversity Center is helping HMP’s details for the reception. Without her patience, knowledge, and willing to take a zillion e-mails from me the planned reception would be quite ugly.
Well, that’s all for now, since it’s still the wee hours the morning, I’m going to try and get s bit more sleep.
Thanks.
Why I can’t sleep:
Recently, a few people have asked me why, where, how, or what made me think of such a huge project as HMP. This night, those few inquisitive questions have stolen my sleep.
All I can say at this hour of the morning is – if you come across someone flying, figuratively or literally, don’t ask them how – join them in flight.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Part of HMP's commemoration is acknowledging where we are now...
"Mauritania has officially abolished slavery three times -- once under French colonial rule, in 1905; at independence, in 1960; and again in 1980. Despite those edicts, slavery persists. No reliable statistics are available on the number of slaves, but estimates from human-rights groups range from the low thousands to more than 100,000. The U.S. State Department set the figure at 90,000 in 1994, its most recent estimate."
excerpted from, A Sociology Professor in Mauritania Fights Its Slave SystemBy DANIEL DEL CASTILLO
For the rest of this article see:
href="http://chronicle.com/weekly/v48/i38/38a03901.htm">
Lynn Estomin's Artistic Statement:
When I read Haiku #13, the words “hope lives in their DNA” kept looping in my head. The words wouldn’t go away so I knew I had to choose #13.
13
vomiting out life they are
cargo whose hope lives
in their DNA
Initially I played around with sketches of ship cargo holds lined with bodies layered with current photographs of descendants of slaves, but I wasn’t satisfied. What really interested me about this haiku was the idea of hope and resilience. As a mother, I was taken with the idea that what we begin, what we believe in, what we fight for, is carried on by out children and their children. So in the end I threw out the sketches and started adding DNA symbols as background, hair ornaments and toys to a collage of photographs of my daughter’s Washington, DC public school students.
When I read Haiku #13, the words “hope lives in their DNA” kept looping in my head. The words wouldn’t go away so I knew I had to choose #13.
13
vomiting out life they are
cargo whose hope lives
in their DNA
Initially I played around with sketches of ship cargo holds lined with bodies layered with current photographs of descendants of slaves, but I wasn’t satisfied. What really interested me about this haiku was the idea of hope and resilience. As a mother, I was taken with the idea that what we begin, what we believe in, what we fight for, is carried on by out children and their children. So in the end I threw out the sketches and started adding DNA symbols as background, hair ornaments and toys to a collage of photographs of my daughter’s Washington, DC public school students.
Bio: Lynn Estomin
Lynn Estomin is a videographer, photographer and computer artist who has been producing art that speaks to social issues for over twenty years. Her award-winning video documentaries have been exhibited at film festivals internationally and broadcast nationally on PBS. Her still photography and digital images have been exhibited nationally in a dozen solo exhibitions and over 50 group exhibitions. Her work is part of numerous public and private collections. Estomin has received grants and fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Art Matters Inc., Cincinnati Commission on the Arts, Kodak Corporation, Ilford Corporation, Sony Corporation, SIGGRAPH, the Luce Foundation and Women's Film Project. Lynn Estomin is an Associate Professor and chair of the Art Department at Lycoming College in PA, where she teaches photography, and digital art.
Arron Ibn Pori Pitts' Artisic Statement:
my work comez from a luta continuua . . . the struggle continuez / in termz of being grounded in the experience of the afrikan diaspora / it’z an evolution and flowz az an improvisational polyrhythmic revolutionary black experience – a perspective that pealz away the racism / it haz become a procezz or mental memory song using the artz az a spirit that weavez and inter/intra – weavez
imagez and symbolz that can point to r improvised commuality of sharing and dialogue w/eachother / reaching out in celebration of the self and manifestation or remembrance of the creative corridor to the huewhamanistic harmony of being a member of the communal primal dance . . . it iz in essence a converging of the sacred and secular / r ability to open the door to the otherside – gain overstandin’and give back to the universe that which it haz given uz . . . being sanctified signaturez of incantationz beingz who bring forth a better life & society of beingz //ashe / asanta sana
raz baaba elder aaron ibn pori pitts
winter – 2007 / detroit, michigan
my work comez from a luta continuua . . . the struggle continuez / in termz of being grounded in the experience of the afrikan diaspora / it’z an evolution and flowz az an improvisational polyrhythmic revolutionary black experience – a perspective that pealz away the racism / it haz become a procezz or mental memory song using the artz az a spirit that weavez and inter/intra – weavez
imagez and symbolz that can point to r improvised commuality of sharing and dialogue w/eachother / reaching out in celebration of the self and manifestation or remembrance of the creative corridor to the huewhamanistic harmony of being a member of the communal primal dance . . . it iz in essence a converging of the sacred and secular / r ability to open the door to the otherside – gain overstandin’and give back to the universe that which it haz given uz . . . being sanctified signaturez of incantationz beingz who bring forth a better life & society of beingz //ashe / asanta sana
raz baaba elder aaron ibn pori pitts
winter – 2007 / detroit, michigan
Sunday, July 29, 2007
HMP's Planned speaker for exhibit's Reception at Grand Rapids Community College, Wednesday, September 19, 2007:
Iyunolu Osagie
Osagie is Associate Professor of English at the Pennsylvania State University , where she teaches composition, African and African American literary theories, and Third World women's literatures. Her research focuses on Black diasporic/transnational studies, especially African and African American cultural memories, Third world women's intellectual response to Western feminisms, democracy in South Africa and Nigeria , and the revitalization of the Amistad revolt. Her book, The Amistad Revolt: Memory, Slavery, and the Politics of Identity in the United States and Sierra Leone ( Athens : University of Georgia Press , 2000), highlights the historical Amistad as contemporary cultural memory. She is a member of the University senate and is active in both departmental and college committees. She is also a member of the Executive Board of the Penn State American Women Writers Workshop. She holds a B. A. and M.A. from the University of Ife, Nigeria, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Cornell University.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Less than 2 mos. until Haiku Middle Passage opens!
See it
Invite it
Experience it
Remembering the Crossings - Haiku Middle Passage a Commemorative Exhibit
Exhibits
September 10 - October 5, 2007 Grand Rapids Community College, Michigan
February, 2007 Holy Family University, Pennsylvania
Where should it go next?
If you asked, "Why should we remember the slave trade 200 years after its abolishment?"
About 27 million people and current slaves could give you at least one reason why it should be remembered and efforts to eradicate slavery should continue.
Don't believe this hype? Do an internet search using the keyword "modern day slavery" and in .12 seconds you'll receive over 1.9 million hits.
About 27 million people and current slaves could give you at least one reason why it should be remembered and efforts to eradicate slavery should continue.
Don't believe this hype? Do an internet search using the keyword "modern day slavery" and in .12 seconds you'll receive over 1.9 million hits.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Melissa Selmon's Artistic Statement:
I have a great appreciation for poetry….so I didn’t think twice when I was presented the opportunity to be involved in this Haiku collaboration. After reading Haiku # 9 I’m very inspired to produce a piece that represents the pain and desire for freedom through the human form.
I have a great appreciation for poetry….so I didn’t think twice when I was presented the opportunity to be involved in this Haiku collaboration. After reading Haiku # 9 I’m very inspired to produce a piece that represents the pain and desire for freedom through the human form.
Bio: Melissa Selmon
I am 25 years old and born and raised in Grand Rapids, MI. Graduated in 2004 with a B.A. Degree in Art and Design at Grand Valley State University (Allendale, MI). I work with mostly charcoal and mixed media, particularly black and white. My major interest in my work deals with the relationship between emotions and children’s facial expressions. I feel that black and white media deepens the meanings in my work. There is something about the purity of children’s faces that intrigues me. I have been involved in numerous exhibits around the Grand Rapids area. My art work is on display at the Bayard Art Gallery of African American Art and The Peppermoon Art Gallery in Grand Rapids, MI. I’m the in the process of opening my own art gallery in the near future.
Michael Forrest’s Artistic Statement:
Upon reading Haiku #10, I was struck immediately and viscerally by the power-fully brutal imagery. Mothers killing their newborns is so antithetical to maternal instinct that I could not escape visions of the horrendous realities of confinement aboard slave ships like Angel. My contribution is an attempt to reify thoughts of those horrors, and the task requires visual imagery that conveys faithfully the force of the poetic imagery.
Creating this piece was traumatic for me, and I feared that my personal vision might result in a creation that seemed excessively or gratuitously lurid. It is my sincere hope that this piece synergizes with the powerful poetic imagery, and with the work of other collaborators, to serve as a solemn memorial to the madres and their niños — and all the other victims of vessels like Angel.
I hope also that my contribution imprints an indelible cautionary mark that will remind viewers that societal institutions dehumanize persons as they marginal-ize, neglect, and abuse people groups by regarding them as commodities or even by reducing them into memberships of discrete constituent “populations” in the service of political expediency. Institutions have no soul, no conscience, and cannot accept blame or responsibility. All individuals, however, are responsible to respect and promote the humanity of all other humans. I submit my work, there-fore, as a memorial and a challenge for each person to heed the ancient, wise admonition to “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.”
My work is photographic. I implement digital capture, processing, and printing technologies to construct digital mixed media creations on fine art papers. The visual imagery in my creation is not intended to be particularly cryptic or ambigu-ous; the angelic icon has a dual role, representing good and evil forces. The chain represents bondage — bonds of maternal love and the condition of human bondage. To liberate their infants, mothers like “Eve” delivered them from the Angel… to the angels.
Upon reading Haiku #10, I was struck immediately and viscerally by the power-fully brutal imagery. Mothers killing their newborns is so antithetical to maternal instinct that I could not escape visions of the horrendous realities of confinement aboard slave ships like Angel. My contribution is an attempt to reify thoughts of those horrors, and the task requires visual imagery that conveys faithfully the force of the poetic imagery.
Creating this piece was traumatic for me, and I feared that my personal vision might result in a creation that seemed excessively or gratuitously lurid. It is my sincere hope that this piece synergizes with the powerful poetic imagery, and with the work of other collaborators, to serve as a solemn memorial to the madres and their niños — and all the other victims of vessels like Angel.
I hope also that my contribution imprints an indelible cautionary mark that will remind viewers that societal institutions dehumanize persons as they marginal-ize, neglect, and abuse people groups by regarding them as commodities or even by reducing them into memberships of discrete constituent “populations” in the service of political expediency. Institutions have no soul, no conscience, and cannot accept blame or responsibility. All individuals, however, are responsible to respect and promote the humanity of all other humans. I submit my work, there-fore, as a memorial and a challenge for each person to heed the ancient, wise admonition to “Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.”
My work is photographic. I implement digital capture, processing, and printing technologies to construct digital mixed media creations on fine art papers. The visual imagery in my creation is not intended to be particularly cryptic or ambigu-ous; the angelic icon has a dual role, representing good and evil forces. The chain represents bondage — bonds of maternal love and the condition of human bondage. To liberate their infants, mothers like “Eve” delivered them from the Angel… to the angels.
Bio: Michael Forrest, Ph.D.
As photographer, educator, and mental health professional, Michael Forrest inte-grates various domains of interest and expertise to promote holistic, humanistic, and harmonious intra-personal and inter-personal functioning.
With a B.S. in Photography from Rochester Institute of Technology, Dr. Forrest has been an award-winning illustrative photographer, creating images for na-tional and international advertising and editorial clients. His current fine art work is sold in commercial galleries, is exhibited in juried events, and his documentary work is found in the Library of Congress. He has extensive experience teaching undergraduate and graduate photography students.
Since earning an M.A. in Counseling (Cornerstone University) and a Ph.D. (Trin-ity Theological Seminary), Michael practices counseling and psychotherapy, fa-cilitating people’s effective, authentic, and enthusiastic interaction with others and the world they share. Additionally, he teaches behavioral science courses to un-dergraduate and graduate students. His research interests include counseling philosophy, human creativity, and art therapy.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
Monday, June 11, 2007
Greetings:
It has been awhile since I've updated you on the progress of the Exhibit. Well all artwork is in and we're anxiously awaiting opening day. I hope to get all the arttists' bios and statements posted before the month zooms by. Wish I could show ya a piece but we've got to save that treat for the patrons who come out in Sept/Oct. to see them in person.
It has been awhile since I've updated you on the progress of the Exhibit. Well all artwork is in and we're anxiously awaiting opening day. I hope to get all the arttists' bios and statements posted before the month zooms by. Wish I could show ya a piece but we've got to save that treat for the patrons who come out in Sept/Oct. to see them in person.
Friday, March 02, 2007
Stephen Marc's Artistic Statement:
I selected Haiku #5, because I was immediately drawn to the relationship of water and people, in regards to freedom. The Atlantic was the body that connected the Old and New Worlds, and the spirit that witnessed the transportation of the enslaved to an unimaginable place and destiny. The words of the spiritual, "God's gonna trouble the water", was evoked in Haiku #5, playing on the emotional / physical response of the water as the reflection of the ethical and political battle that surrounded the 1807 treaty.
The montage that I created was a response to this reading, but it also shows that the kidnapping didn't cease. The 1807 law that went into effect in 1808, in both England and the United States, still had to be aggressively defended and upheld 50 years later: suggesting that in addition to legal measures and military force, the moral value of human life must be understood and respected. But, even today, we continue to make waves.
I selected Haiku #5, because I was immediately drawn to the relationship of water and people, in regards to freedom. The Atlantic was the body that connected the Old and New Worlds, and the spirit that witnessed the transportation of the enslaved to an unimaginable place and destiny. The words of the spiritual, "God's gonna trouble the water", was evoked in Haiku #5, playing on the emotional / physical response of the water as the reflection of the ethical and political battle that surrounded the 1807 treaty.
The montage that I created was a response to this reading, but it also shows that the kidnapping didn't cease. The 1807 law that went into effect in 1808, in both England and the United States, still had to be aggressively defended and upheld 50 years later: suggesting that in addition to legal measures and military force, the moral value of human life must be understood and respected. But, even today, we continue to make waves.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Bio: Stephen Marc
Marc is a Professor of Art in the Herberger College of Fine Arts at Arizona State University, and is an Olympus Visionary. Before arriving at ASU, he taught at Columbia College Chicago for twenty years. Since 2000, he has documented over 80 Underground Railroad (UGRR) sites in 24 states and Canada, where several photographs are combined to describe individual UGRR sites inside and out.
He also creates montages that weave together: plantation quarters and crops, letters, legal documents, period news text and illustrations, etc. as a way to provide additional background information about the larger scope of the institution of slavery. His book titled “Passage on the Underground Railroad" will be published by University Press of Mississippi, scheduled for release in 2008, with a companion traveling exhibition being planned. Marc has published two books of his photography: “Urban Notions" (1983) and "The Black Trans-Atlantic Experience: Street Life and Culture in Ghana, Jamaica, England, and the United States" (1992). Recently he has created digital montages for several community specific residencies and public art projects.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
M. Saffell & Ibn (Collaborative Partners)
M. Saffell’s Artist Statement:
My departure from representational painting toward abstract works began with my creations of icons loaded with history - from pharaohs to ancient rulers to vessels of enslavement. I have submerged myself in the primal. My work often transports me to my spiritual homeland, the African continent, the cradle of man.
Painting makes me part of the free world in a primal manner. I work from small to large scale, modify my focus, and constantly investigate my surroundings. My smaller pieces become relics that inform my larger works. My larger pieces offer more of a challenge – their ancestral aspects speak to my soul.
I create my works by painting, printmaking, drawing, digital, carving and sculpting. Having worked as a cartographer, my vision is that normal forms are artistic shapes. I use any and everything; from smashed cans to found grids and architectural objects.
The focus of my work is to push the envelope of my subconscious. My current visual vocabulary merges cartography and drafting and is paired with both brilliant and muted hues mixed from dry pigment and balanced with soft and hard edge imagery.
Bio: M. Saffell
M. Saffell Gardner holds BFA and MFA degrees in painting from Wayne State University & currently teaches Black Art history & Computer Graphics at Marygrove College. A master painter and mixed media artist, Mr. Gardner is the recipient of a Regional Artists Project Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and has participated in arts mentoring programs in local public schools. In 2000, Mr. Gardner was selected as the Chivas Regal Artist in Residence at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, during which time he developed a solo art exhibit entitled “Recent Memory”. A commissioned painting “Door of No Return” is in the museum’s permanent collection. Recent commissions include the painting of a trash receptacle for Detroit’s “Pretty City” project as well as major commissions for the City of Detroit and the Detroit Public Schools.
Mr. Gardner’s work is in the permanent collection of Cobo Center in Detroit; Cass, Renaissance and Southeastern High Schools as well as the School for Fine and Performing Arts of Detroit, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Detroit Medical Center. He has exhibited throughout Mid-West, New York, Jamaica, Brazil and parts of Africa.
M. Saffell Gardner holds BFA and MFA degrees in painting from Wayne State University & currently teaches Black Art history & Computer Graphics at Marygrove College. A master painter and mixed media artist, Mr. Gardner is the recipient of a Regional Artists Project Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and has participated in arts mentoring programs in local public schools. In 2000, Mr. Gardner was selected as the Chivas Regal Artist in Residence at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, during which time he developed a solo art exhibit entitled “Recent Memory”. A commissioned painting “Door of No Return” is in the museum’s permanent collection. Recent commissions include the painting of a trash receptacle for Detroit’s “Pretty City” project as well as major commissions for the City of Detroit and the Detroit Public Schools.
Mr. Gardner’s work is in the permanent collection of Cobo Center in Detroit; Cass, Renaissance and Southeastern High Schools as well as the School for Fine and Performing Arts of Detroit, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Detroit Medical Center. He has exhibited throughout Mid-West, New York, Jamaica, Brazil and parts of Africa.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Chen Wang's Statement of participation:
One of my research aspect is culture and social related design. I often use poster as the outcome form for my visual idea. After reviewing all the topic related documents provided by Mursalata Muhammad, I wrote down few keywords that I wanted to interpret my idea: Historical, memorial, horrible, inhumane…that basically determined the tone and color for the poster and gave me an idea what kind of font to chose. The visual idea for this poster is based on Haiku #8:
everything hangs out of her
little black body
torn by big white men
What inspired me first was the internal tension and high contrast of this poem. Words like Little–big, black–white inspired me to use a transition between figure and background. I used two color silkscreen to print it out on a brown paper.
One of my research aspect is culture and social related design. I often use poster as the outcome form for my visual idea. After reviewing all the topic related documents provided by Mursalata Muhammad, I wrote down few keywords that I wanted to interpret my idea: Historical, memorial, horrible, inhumane…that basically determined the tone and color for the poster and gave me an idea what kind of font to chose. The visual idea for this poster is based on Haiku #8:
everything hangs out of her
little black body
torn by big white men
What inspired me first was the internal tension and high contrast of this poem. Words like Little–big, black–white inspired me to use a transition between figure and background. I used two color silkscreen to print it out on a brown paper.
Bio: Chen Wang
Chen Wang obtained a Master of Fine Arts degree from University of Iowa in 2003. He has taught at Texas Tech University as an Assistant Professor in the Graphic Design Area. Currently he is an Assistant Professor at California State University, Fullerton.
Since coming to the United States, Chen has been included in numerous national and international contests and exhibitions. In 2006, his work has been selected into The ninth International Biennial of the Poster in Mexico (Mexico) and 4 Block: VI International Triennial of Eco Poster (Ukraine). In 2004, his work was selected into 19th New American Talent Competition (TX, USA). In 2003 his work was part of The 46th Annual International Award Exhibition (San Diego, USA). In 2002, he was included in The 2nd International Chinese Graphic Design Competition (China) and Click- Midwest Print Invitation: Digital Focus (WI, USA). He also received a cougar student design award (USA) and a Honorable Mention from Twenty-seventh Annual Rock Island Fine Arts Exhibition (IL, USA).
Sunday, January 14, 2007
From: Mursalata Muhammad
To: HaikuArtist
Date: 1/3/2007 10:26:46 PM
Subject: Artwork Deadline
Greetings and Good New Year!
Just a reminder that the original deadline for getting your pieces to Grand Rapids is January 19, 2007! ...
FYI:
I've been asked a few (un)interesting questions about our little group. Usually the question comes out something like "After looking at the artists involved in the project, I don't see a connection between their work and the subject of your theme. Is there supposed to be a connection, will there be a connection, and how will a connection be accomplished?"
Here is my response to questions like this (yeah, it's a little long sorry):
Your question of connection is one I’ve gotten before and I’m always surprised when it’s asked. Many of the artists who showed an interest in this project expressed that, though the collaboration was intriguing, they didn’t see how their work connected to interpreting a set of Haiku about the TransAtlantic Slave Trade. My surprise by that sort of response is because I’ve always thought of artist as people whose life work was about connection, experience, empathy and stretching beyond narrow interpretations of individual and collective human experience.
This collaboration doesn’t ask artists to connect their work to the Haiku it asks them to interpret the Haiku. The unrestricted demand of interpretation makes up the core of what an artist is, in my humble opinion anyway. Our fearlessness to reach for interpretation and not rely on what we’ve already done makes the work of an artist a vocation that transcends a resume, curriculum vita, set of images on a website, in a magazine, or hanging in a gallery.
Each artist participating in this project is not expected to dust off a piece of previous work. Each artist has read and been moved by one of the 15 Haiku. Each artist is using their selected poem as a prompt to move toward an interpretation they have not considered before reading the Haiku. Each artist will create a work of art exclusively for what they’ve understood from their chosen Haiku. In creating their artwork each artist’s goal is moving beyond merely making a connection to the human experience embedded in the TransAtlantic Slave trade (and the theme of the 15 Haiku).
When this collaboration is done the various artistic genres that make the exhibit will look much like the present day fruits of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade a sight to behold in wonder with no clear way of distinguishing its once individual parts. So yes, there is supposed to be a connection once artists are moved by one of the Haiku, there will be a connection as each artist interprets the haiku in his/her work, and that connection will be accomplished through each artists’ personal vision of their vocation as artists. So keep this in mind all I say, I say for me and the artists working on this project have some strong feeling(s) calling them to participate. I think it will all be all right.
"summum bonum"
Friday, January 12, 2007
Hello,
I wanted to make an additinal comment on the Haiku project.
My first thoughts on Haiku#11 is that in a way it relates to my spiritual visual vocabulary as a visionary artist. I have collaborated with Ibn Pori Pitt for many years in printmaking, murals and installations.
Haiku #11
a celebrated
jailbreak from the whale's insides
Cinques come pouring
Historically I've studied artist such as Hale Woodruff and Romare Bearden who have used Cinque as an icon for their murals and prints. Over the years i have created middle passage iconography for my work. I have also visited Goree Island and made my connection with the middle passage.
The piece Ibn and I are working on will speak to that wondering spirit of Cinque and the middle passage.
Saffell peace
I wanted to make an additinal comment on the Haiku project.
My first thoughts on Haiku#11 is that in a way it relates to my spiritual visual vocabulary as a visionary artist. I have collaborated with Ibn Pori Pitt for many years in printmaking, murals and installations.
Haiku #11
a celebrated
jailbreak from the whale's insides
Cinques come pouring
Historically I've studied artist such as Hale Woodruff and Romare Bearden who have used Cinque as an icon for their murals and prints. Over the years i have created middle passage iconography for my work. I have also visited Goree Island and made my connection with the middle passage.
The piece Ibn and I are working on will speak to that wondering spirit of Cinque and the middle passage.
Saffell peace
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Lynn's Statement of participation:
When I read Haiku #13, the words “hope lives in their DNA” kept looping in my head. The words wouldn’t go away so I knew I had to choose #13.
Haiku 13
vomiting out life they are
cargo whose hope lives
in their DNA
Initially I played around with sketches of ship cargo holds lined with bodies layered with current photographs of descendants of slaves, but I wasn’t satisfied. What really interested me about this haiku was the idea of hope and resilience. As a mother, I was taken with the idea that what we begin, what we believe in, what we fight for, is carried on by our children and their children. So in the end I threw out the sketches and started adding DNA symbols as background, hair ornaments and toys to a collage of photographs of my daughter’s Washington, DC public school students.
When I read Haiku #13, the words “hope lives in their DNA” kept looping in my head. The words wouldn’t go away so I knew I had to choose #13.
Haiku 13
vomiting out life they are
cargo whose hope lives
in their DNA
Initially I played around with sketches of ship cargo holds lined with bodies layered with current photographs of descendants of slaves, but I wasn’t satisfied. What really interested me about this haiku was the idea of hope and resilience. As a mother, I was taken with the idea that what we begin, what we believe in, what we fight for, is carried on by our children and their children. So in the end I threw out the sketches and started adding DNA symbols as background, hair ornaments and toys to a collage of photographs of my daughter’s Washington, DC public school students.
Bio: Mollye Chudacoff
Mollye is an Art major at the University of California Santa Cruz. Her medium of artistic expression is photography, particularly black and white. Mollye’s major interest in photography is working with issues that deal with social change/documentation. Traveling plays a vital role in her recent work. Studying one semester in Ghana, West Africa this year has been the inspiration for her Haiku piece as well other projects that deal with globalization and neocolonialism.
Bio: Lynn Estomin
Lynn Estomin A videographer, photographer and computer artist who has been producing art that speaks to social issues for over twenty years. Her award-winning video documentaries have been exhibited at film festivals internationally and broadcast nationally on PBS. Her still photography and digital images have been exhibited nationally in a dozen solo exhibitions and over 50 group exhibitions. Her work is part of numerous public and private collections. Estomin has received grants and fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Art Matters Inc., Cincinnati Commission on the Arts, Kodak Corporation, Ilford Corporation, Sony Corporation, SIGGRAPH, the Luce Foundation and Women's Film Project. Lynn Estomin is an Associate Professor and chair of the Art Department at Lycoming College in PA, where she teaches photography, and digital art.
Lynn Estomin A videographer, photographer and computer artist who has been producing art that speaks to social issues for over twenty years. Her award-winning video documentaries have been exhibited at film festivals internationally and broadcast nationally on PBS. Her still photography and digital images have been exhibited nationally in a dozen solo exhibitions and over 50 group exhibitions. Her work is part of numerous public and private collections. Estomin has received grants and fellowships from the Ohio Arts Council, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Art Matters Inc., Cincinnati Commission on the Arts, Kodak Corporation, Ilford Corporation, Sony Corporation, SIGGRAPH, the Luce Foundation and Women's Film Project. Lynn Estomin is an Associate Professor and chair of the Art Department at Lycoming College in PA, where she teaches photography, and digital art.
Chris Garcia's Statement of Participation:
In 2005, I began a series of sculptures, collages, and pottery based on the written works of other people. The ongoing project has led to pieces based on such diverse texts as The Kalevala, The Book of Mormon, R. Brautigan’s In Watermelon Sugar, and James Branch Cabell’s Jurgen. All of these pieces took on a playful, strange and whimsical character and were a lot of fun to create.
When I was approached for this project, I thought it was “right up my alley”. After all, I had spent the last two years working as a 3-D illustrator to other people’s text. What I had not counted on, however, was the difficulty I would have matching my style and ideas to Mursalata Muhammad’s Haiku poetry. My “whimsical” approach obviously would not fly, so I could get rid of that, but how about my artistic style? I tend to render figures that are primitive and grotesque. Could this work do visual justice to such a deadly serious and sad subject?
After several failed attempts, I came up with the conclusion that honesty, in art as in life, is always the best policy. From there, I re-read the Haikus and picked out the one that grabbed me personally, not visually. From there, I thought through my choice and decided that my reaction was not only led by my anger at injustice and cruelty, but also my own fears and phobias. What was it like to lie cramped in the dark, sailing to an unknown and dreaded end, shoulder to shoulder with the sick, dying and frightened? You could call out for solace, but you don’t speak the language of your fellow captives. The experience was, and is, the thing of nightmares and something I personally could never have endured. With this in mind, I molded a sculpture in reaction to Muhammad’s Haiku.
In 2005, I began a series of sculptures, collages, and pottery based on the written works of other people. The ongoing project has led to pieces based on such diverse texts as The Kalevala, The Book of Mormon, R. Brautigan’s In Watermelon Sugar, and James Branch Cabell’s Jurgen. All of these pieces took on a playful, strange and whimsical character and were a lot of fun to create.
When I was approached for this project, I thought it was “right up my alley”. After all, I had spent the last two years working as a 3-D illustrator to other people’s text. What I had not counted on, however, was the difficulty I would have matching my style and ideas to Mursalata Muhammad’s Haiku poetry. My “whimsical” approach obviously would not fly, so I could get rid of that, but how about my artistic style? I tend to render figures that are primitive and grotesque. Could this work do visual justice to such a deadly serious and sad subject?
After several failed attempts, I came up with the conclusion that honesty, in art as in life, is always the best policy. From there, I re-read the Haikus and picked out the one that grabbed me personally, not visually. From there, I thought through my choice and decided that my reaction was not only led by my anger at injustice and cruelty, but also my own fears and phobias. What was it like to lie cramped in the dark, sailing to an unknown and dreaded end, shoulder to shoulder with the sick, dying and frightened? You could call out for solace, but you don’t speak the language of your fellow captives. The experience was, and is, the thing of nightmares and something I personally could never have endured. With this in mind, I molded a sculpture in reaction to Muhammad’s Haiku.
I am a mixed media artist. My studio and residence are in New Jersey.
I received my MFA from New Jersey City University. My work revolves around social issues. I am a pacifist. I believe in world harmony. I believe in justice.
This project is important, the stain on our nation’s history needs to be seen, acknowledged, and wept over.
Wrong was wrong, wrong is wrong. Enslaving another human being was wrong. Enslaving another human being is wrong. It is wrong today and it was wrong yesterday. The notion of relativism as an excuse for our forefathers and foremothers is not appropriate.
This is a moment for reflection.
My work for this project asks one to consider the pain, to consider the loss.
Pamela Flynn
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