Camille Rose Garcia: Sweet and Sour Storyteller

Camille Rose Garcia tells stories in which sticky sweet characters maneuver through monstrous worlds of greed, temptation, and destruction. She uses pink swans and smiling cupcakes to tackle issues like addiction, environmental destruction, and corporate greed.
Each of Garcia's paintings has an accompanying story or theme. If you have the chance to catch one of her gallery shows, you'll see the paintings are usually displayed with a beautifully lettered painted piece outlining the story for that particular body of work. The story behind the Dreamtime Escape Plan series (featured above) was "Created a short time after the giant tsunami that wreaked havoc on parts of Asia. Disaster is an everyday occurrence in this flooded world, the characters take pills, sleep a lot, and plan elaborate escapes from the quagmires implding around them."
Camille's paintings have a balance exhibits her incredible skill as an artist. Her pieces are elaborately layered and have a real sense of depth and texture while also being "super flat", so they look like the pages of a storybook.
Camille grew up in Orange County, California, and was very much influenced by living in close to Disneyland, the "happiest place on earth", while witnessing darker things happening just outside Disney's walls.

Visiting one of Camille's exhibits is literally like stepping into another world. There are huge sculptural pieces surrounded by theatrical looking sets, and plush dolls that scale the walls. In addition to her amazing artist books, she also has a series of limited edition vinyl toys.
Camille Rose Garcia holds a wonderfully distorted mirror up to our society, and tells stories we all know in a new and different kind of way. She blends the sweet with the sour to create a mix that is intoxicating and irresistible.

To see more of Camille Rose Garcia's work, visit her website http://www.camillerosegarcia.com

Camille Rose Garcia: Sweet and Sour Storyteller

Camille Rose Garcia tells stories in which sticky sweet characters maneuver through monstrous worlds of greed, temptation, and destruction. She uses pink swans and smiling cupcakes to tackle issues like addiction, environmental destruction, and corporate greed.
Each of Garcia's paintings has an accompanying story or theme. If you have the chance to catch one of her gallery shows, you'll see the paintings are usually displayed with a beautifully lettered painted piece outlining the story for that particular body of work. The story behind the Dreamtime Escape Plan series (featured above) was "Created a short time after the giant tsunami that wreaked havoc on parts of Asia. Disaster is an everyday occurrence in this flooded world, the characters take pills, sleep a lot, and plan elaborate escapes from the quagmires implding around them."
Camille's paintings have a balance exhibits her incredible skill as an artist. Her pieces are elaborately layered and have a real sense of depth and texture while also being "super flat", so they look like the pages of a storybook.
Camille grew up in Orange County, California, and was very much influenced by living in close to Disneyland, the "happiest place on earth", while witnessing darker things happening just outside Disney's walls.

Visiting one of Camille's exhibits is literally like stepping into another world. There are huge sculptural pieces surrounded by theatrical looking sets, and plush dolls that scale the walls. In addition to her amazing artist books, she also has a series of limited edition vinyl toys.
Camille Rose Garcia holds a wonderfully distorted mirror up to our society, and tells stories we all know in a new and different kind of way. She blends the sweet with the sour to create a mix that is intoxicating and irresistible.

To see more of Camille Rose Garcia's work, visit her website http://www.camillerosegarcia.com

The World of Mallory Michelle Dover

Mallory Michelle Dover is a Kentucky-based artist who addresses themes ranging from black women's relationships with their hair to domestic violence with vibrant color and texture. Dover, who is currently an M.F.A. candidate at the University of Kentucky, says her work "is rooted in cultural acceptance, perceptions and identity. " Mallory has literally created her own universe, a language of elaborate shapes and symbols that are both eye-catching and thought-provoking. When she isn't teaching, Dover spends just about every waking moment hard at work in her studio, as she gears up for her M.F.A. Thesis exhibition, Strange Malaise, on April 2nd.

What was the inspiration behind your most recent body of work, The Angry Hair Series? What did you discover in the process of making and exhibiting this work?
My inspiration behind The Angry Hair Series came from personal experiences with relaxed and natural hair, along with the experiences of other women of African decent. At age 21, after 14 years of relaxing my naturally thick, curly hair, I cut it all off and began wearing it natural. I was angry with all the women in my life that encouraged relaxed hair and discouraged natural hair. After awhile, I realized that even with my hair in its natural state, I felt that similar need to always do something to it. In the Angry Hair Series, I include women with natural and relaxed hair. I also include expressions that don't look so angry at all to comment on how we often mask our true emotions because of social constructs.
While making and exhibiting this work, I discovered that the issue of Black hair is multi-layered. When older women see these paintings (i.e. my Gramma), there is a completely different discussion that occurs than when people in younger generations view them. With them, there is a stance that has been taking against natural hair that runs deeper than vanity, it is a means of protection. With these works, I leave traces of my actual thought process because of my desire to get people to talk about what is actually driving the need to permanently alter the natural state of their hair.
What was the inspiration for your extensive crocheted installations? What has the process of creating them been like?
My crochet installations are inspired by issues of domestic violence and family dynamics. The process is monotonous, yet comforting. Tedious and uncomfortable, yet familiar and necessary. Crochet for this project is ideal, to me, because it serves as an umbrella for emotions that run deep within the dynamics of family.
The wigs you create are colorful and very tactile. What inspired you to create wigs "no one would actually wear in real life"?
The Wigs are a direct result of the Angry Hair Series, haha. I was doing public projects and interviewing so many people about hair--people of all races, both male and female and realized that no one was satisfied with the hair they were born with. I had people draw their favorite hairstyle and not one person ever drew something the resembled what they already had. So these wigs were created by drawing from the imagination and asking the question, "How would you like to see yourself?"


What artist has been particularly influential to you and why?
There are so many artists that I enjoy, but I would say Chakaia Booker has been one of the most influential. I admired and met her when I was in undergrad and she is just amazing. The way she dresses is uniquely and is unapologetically her. I am also always drawn to artists that think outside of the box. I love materials that are clever, so automatically I am wooed by what she does with tires. Her sculptures have such presence. You have to see them in person-photos just don't do justice.You explore various aspects of African American culture in your work. What places and people have you drawn inspiration from?
I am very interested in African American history and varying family dynamics within this and other cultures. I draw inspiration from my grandmother and the older people in my family. I love listening to old stories-it's like a free history course. I also observe my own relationships with people-not limited to people of African decent-and am very much inspired.


You are currently working towards your MFA in Arts Education. Has working on art with young people influence your practice in any way? And what made you want to go into arts education?
I am currently a MFA candidate in studio art, although there was a period of time that I was going to get an additional degree (Masters in Arts Education). I am no longer pursuing that at this time but working with young people is still very important to me because these people need someone to help nourish their dreams. Working with young people has inevitably influenced my practice--I want to create work that inspires, encourages, informs, and transforms.

What is the legacy you hope to leave as an artist?
I want to make great art that opens the minds and hearts of all people. I want to make art that touches lives. That's the legacy I intend to leave as an artist.

Mallory Michelle Dover's MFA Thesis exhibition, Strange Malaise, opens April 2nd, 2010 at the Tuska Center of Contemporary Art on the University of Kentucky campus in Lexington. The reception is from 5-7:30 pm

For more on Mallory's work, check out her blog: http://mallorydover.blogspot.com/

The World of Mallory Michelle Dover

Mallory Michelle Dover is a Kentucky-based artist who addresses themes ranging from black women's relationships with their hair to domestic violence with vibrant color and texture. Dover, who is currently an M.F.A. candidate at the University of Kentucky, says her work "is rooted in cultural acceptance, perceptions and identity. " Mallory has literally created her own universe, a language of elaborate shapes and symbols that are both eye-catching and thought-provoking. When she isn't teaching, Dover spends just about every waking moment hard at work in her studio, as she gears up for her M.F.A. Thesis exhibition, Strange Malaise, on April 2nd.

What was the inspiration behind your most recent body of work, The Angry Hair Series? What did you discover in the process of making and exhibiting this work?
My inspiration behind The Angry Hair Series came from personal experiences with relaxed and natural hair, along with the experiences of other women of African decent. At age 21, after 14 years of relaxing my naturally thick, curly hair, I cut it all off and began wearing it natural. I was angry with all the women in my life that encouraged relaxed hair and discouraged natural hair. After awhile, I realized that even with my hair in its natural state, I felt that similar need to always do something to it. In the Angry Hair Series, I include women with natural and relaxed hair. I also include expressions that don't look so angry at all to comment on how we often mask our true emotions because of social constructs.
While making and exhibiting this work, I discovered that the issue of Black hair is multi-layered. When older women see these paintings (i.e. my Gramma), there is a completely different discussion that occurs than when people in younger generations view them. With them, there is a stance that has been taking against natural hair that runs deeper than vanity, it is a means of protection. With these works, I leave traces of my actual thought process because of my desire to get people to talk about what is actually driving the need to permanently alter the natural state of their hair.
What was the inspiration for your extensive crocheted installations? What has the process of creating them been like?
My crochet installations are inspired by issues of domestic violence and family dynamics. The process is monotonous, yet comforting. Tedious and uncomfortable, yet familiar and necessary. Crochet for this project is ideal, to me, because it serves as an umbrella for emotions that run deep within the dynamics of family.
The wigs you create are colorful and very tactile. What inspired you to create wigs "no one would actually wear in real life"?
The Wigs are a direct result of the Angry Hair Series, haha. I was doing public projects and interviewing so many people about hair--people of all races, both male and female and realized that no one was satisfied with the hair they were born with. I had people draw their favorite hairstyle and not one person ever drew something the resembled what they already had. So these wigs were created by drawing from the imagination and asking the question, "How would you like to see yourself?"


What artist has been particularly influential to you and why?
There are so many artists that I enjoy, but I would say Chakaia Booker has been one of the most influential. I admired and met her when I was in undergrad and she is just amazing. The way she dresses is uniquely and is unapologetically her. I am also always drawn to artists that think outside of the box. I love materials that are clever, so automatically I am wooed by what she does with tires. Her sculptures have such presence. You have to see them in person-photos just don't do justice.You explore various aspects of African American culture in your work. What places and people have you drawn inspiration from?
I am very interested in African American history and varying family dynamics within this and other cultures. I draw inspiration from my grandmother and the older people in my family. I love listening to old stories-it's like a free history course. I also observe my own relationships with people-not limited to people of African decent-and am very much inspired.


You are currently working towards your MFA in Arts Education. Has working on art with young people influence your practice in any way? And what made you want to go into arts education?
I am currently a MFA candidate in studio art, although there was a period of time that I was going to get an additional degree (Masters in Arts Education). I am no longer pursuing that at this time but working with young people is still very important to me because these people need someone to help nourish their dreams. Working with young people has inevitably influenced my practice--I want to create work that inspires, encourages, informs, and transforms.

What is the legacy you hope to leave as an artist?
I want to make great art that opens the minds and hearts of all people. I want to make art that touches lives. That's the legacy I intend to leave as an artist.

Mallory Michelle Dover's MFA Thesis exhibition, Strange Malaise, opens April 2nd, 2010 at the Tuska Center of Contemporary Art on the University of Kentucky campus in Lexington. The reception is from 5-7:30 pm

For more on Mallory's work, check out her blog: http://mallorydover.blogspot.com/

Karen Seneferu Presents: Techno-Kisi

A few months ago I shared an interview with artist Karen Seneferu, who was then installing her latest work Techno-kisi, at the Skirball Museum in Los Angeles, California. Seneferu's piece got a lot of positive feedback, and was recently the subject of an interview for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's Open Space blog, which you can read here:
http://blog.sfmoma.org/2010/02/techno-kisi-interview-with-artist-karen-seneferu/#more-9489

Check out some video of the installation here:


And here is the artist's statement on Techno-kisi

Karen Seneferu – Techno-kisi, 2009
http://anideacalledtomorrow.wordpress.com/category/karen-seneferu-and-kwahuumba/
Technology has become the primary vehicle to navigate multiple discourses. But to some cultures, a future embedded in technology alone is not possible without engaging multiple mediums of communication for a sustainable future. Thus, collaboration will be at the center of inclusive change.

The ancient force and form of the Nkisi is to protect. Out of the Congo Basin in Central Africa, the Nkisi literally means sacred medicine; the Nkisi takes a variety of forms from sculpture to container to a charm. Seneferu’s piece Techno-kisi is the first of its kind for the entire piece is made up of charms symbolic of individual community members in need of healing while multi-media, the center of the power force, protects the community.

The technology symbolizes the belly. In this case, the console created by Buglabs shows a slide presentation of people Kwahuumba and Seneferu interviewed on film, named after the exhibition: An Idea Called Tomorrow. In collaborating with Buglabs, Seneferu attempts to unhook the seat of power, by enclosing the images of those who are often times outside of it.

In a third element of the project, Kwahuumba and Seneferu recorded interviews of people from a broad cross-section of society to answer the questions “what is a sustainable future” and “who and how is it determined?” They were interested in looking at historically excluded communities who have been deterred from participating in the dialogue and the actions needed for change. They interviewed a wide range of activists both prominent to the world of the Green Movement, such as Majora Carter, an environmental justice advocate, who promotes green-collar jobs as a route out of poverty to Tyrone Stevenson, aka “Scraper Bike King,” a youth from East Oakland California who created a mobility craze that has gained worldwide fame by incorporating art and an eco-green philosophy to change his community. There are other diverse individuals who are just as relevant. What they all have in common is that they point out that in order for us to have a sustainable future, that “everyone on the planet must be seen as having a particular value that should be shared with the world.”

Techno-Kisi is on display as part of the exhibition An Idea Called Tomorrow until March 7th, 2010. http://www.skirball.org

Karen Seneferu Presents: Techno-Kisi

A few months ago I shared an interview with artist Karen Seneferu, who was then installing her latest work Techno-kisi, at the Skirball Museum in Los Angeles, California. Seneferu's piece got a lot of positive feedback, and was recently the subject of an interview for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's Open Space blog, which you can read here:
http://blog.sfmoma.org/2010/02/techno-kisi-interview-with-artist-karen-seneferu/#more-9489

Check out some video of the installation here:


And here is the artist's statement on Techno-kisi

Karen Seneferu – Techno-kisi, 2009
http://anideacalledtomorrow.wordpress.com/category/karen-seneferu-and-kwahuumba/
Technology has become the primary vehicle to navigate multiple discourses. But to some cultures, a future embedded in technology alone is not possible without engaging multiple mediums of communication for a sustainable future. Thus, collaboration will be at the center of inclusive change.

The ancient force and form of the Nkisi is to protect. Out of the Congo Basin in Central Africa, the Nkisi literally means sacred medicine; the Nkisi takes a variety of forms from sculpture to container to a charm. Seneferu’s piece Techno-kisi is the first of its kind for the entire piece is made up of charms symbolic of individual community members in need of healing while multi-media, the center of the power force, protects the community.

The technology symbolizes the belly. In this case, the console created by Buglabs shows a slide presentation of people Kwahuumba and Seneferu interviewed on film, named after the exhibition: An Idea Called Tomorrow. In collaborating with Buglabs, Seneferu attempts to unhook the seat of power, by enclosing the images of those who are often times outside of it.

In a third element of the project, Kwahuumba and Seneferu recorded interviews of people from a broad cross-section of society to answer the questions “what is a sustainable future” and “who and how is it determined?” They were interested in looking at historically excluded communities who have been deterred from participating in the dialogue and the actions needed for change. They interviewed a wide range of activists both prominent to the world of the Green Movement, such as Majora Carter, an environmental justice advocate, who promotes green-collar jobs as a route out of poverty to Tyrone Stevenson, aka “Scraper Bike King,” a youth from East Oakland California who created a mobility craze that has gained worldwide fame by incorporating art and an eco-green philosophy to change his community. There are other diverse individuals who are just as relevant. What they all have in common is that they point out that in order for us to have a sustainable future, that “everyone on the planet must be seen as having a particular value that should be shared with the world.”

Techno-Kisi is on display as part of the exhibition An Idea Called Tomorrow until March 7th, 2010. http://www.skirball.org

Now Showing: An Idea Called Tomorrow

You may remember artist Karen Seneferu from her inspiring interview featured on Black Butterfly a few months ago. Well since then she has been hard at work literally taking her Techno-Kisi concept to new heights. The life-size figure, this one done in warm shades of red and yellow (and with new interviews broadcasting from its belly), is on display at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles as part of their latest exhibition An Idea Called Tomorrow. This is one piece that is definitely worth seeing and experiencing in person.
An Idea Called Tomorrow runs from November 19th to March 10th. Log onto their website for more info. :
http://www.skirball.org/index.php

Now Showing: An Idea Called Tomorrow

You may remember artist Karen Seneferu from her inspiring interview featured on Black Butterfly a few months ago. Well since then she has been hard at work literally taking her Techno-Kisi concept to new heights. The life-size figure, this one done in warm shades of red and yellow (and with new interviews broadcasting from its belly), is on display at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles as part of their latest exhibition An Idea Called Tomorrow. This is one piece that is definitely worth seeing and experiencing in person.
An Idea Called Tomorrow runs from November 19th to March 10th. Log onto their website for more info. :
http://www.skirball.org/index.php

Kelly Shaw Willman: grunge*quest, Movement 7

Performance artist Kelly Shaw Willman's grunge*quest continues, with the most recent glittery installment, Movement 7, taking place within her apartment in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The performance space (Kelly's shared living room) was dimly lit, her audience encircled on plush couches and chairs, surrounding a sculptural installation. The installation evoked feelings of intimacy and girlhood with toys, candy sprinkles, and brightly colored panties carefully arranged. There were three sets of small shelves in the space, containing an array of small spheres covered in glitter, and panties bundled into more sculptural pieces hanging from the ceiling. The piece that most struck my fancy was a brightly colored toy bunny head sitting in a bowl of sprinkles. As the performance began, Kelly started two tape players, one playing recordings of a conversation between several people, and the other playing what seemed to be the sounds of some kind of airplane or engine.
Willman moved through the space doused in flour (or baby powder?), performing a series of almost ritualistic actions. She was a woman stirring her own pot, making her own magic right before our eyes. At one point, she sliced open some apples and filled them with crimson glitter. They looked as though they were oozing a beautiful blood.
At another point, Kelly poured a bowl of honey over her head, most likely as an ode to Oshun, an African deity of love, sensuality and fertility. Oshun's energy was a perfect addition to this very womanly performance piece. And one can't help but make connections between the use of apples in the space and the temptation of Eve in the garden of Eden.
Further into the performance, Kelly picked up the various pairs of panties that were on the floor, and placed them at the feet or on the laps of her audience members, along with a small bottle of blue water. Then she walked into the bathroom. Everyone followed her in, and there we witnessed the grand finale, which was Willman sitting in a bathtub full of blue water, covered in red glitter.

Audience members took the bottles full of blue water they'd been given earlier and added it to the bath water. It was almost like a communal baptism of some sort. There she sat peacefully in the tub, as sounds from one of the tape recorders squawked and sputtered in the background. I was reminded of a scene in Ousmane Sembene's 1966 noir film Black Girl, where a French Family's Senegalese maid commits suicide and is found in the bathtub, killing herself in anguish over being mistreated and feeling out of place in a strange new land. Kelly is indeed far from home, but her bathtub scene marked a rebirth of sorts. I cannot wait to see what this remarkable young artist offers up next.

Kelly Shaw Willman: grunge*quest, Movement 7

Performance artist Kelly Shaw Willman's grunge*quest continues, with the most recent glittery installment, Movement 7, taking place within her apartment in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The performance space (Kelly's shared living room) was dimly lit, her audience encircled on plush couches and chairs, surrounding a sculptural installation. The installation evoked feelings of intimacy and girlhood with toys, candy sprinkles, and brightly colored panties carefully arranged. There were three sets of small shelves in the space, containing an array of small spheres covered in glitter, and panties bundled into more sculptural pieces hanging from the ceiling. The piece that most struck my fancy was a brightly colored toy bunny head sitting in a bowl of sprinkles. As the performance began, Kelly started two tape players, one playing recordings of a conversation between several people, and the other playing what seemed to be the sounds of some kind of airplane or engine.
Willman moved through the space doused in flour (or baby powder?), performing a series of almost ritualistic actions. She was a woman stirring her own pot, making her own magic right before our eyes. At one point, she sliced open some apples and filled them with crimson glitter. They looked as though they were oozing a beautiful blood.
At another point, Kelly poured a bowl of honey over her head, most likely as an ode to Oshun, an African deity of love, sensuality and fertility. Oshun's energy was a perfect addition to this very womanly performance piece. And one can't help but make connections between the use of apples in the space and the temptation of Eve in the garden of Eden.
Further into the performance, Kelly picked up the various pairs of panties that were on the floor, and placed them at the feet or on the laps of her audience members, along with a small bottle of blue water. Then she walked into the bathroom. Everyone followed her in, and there we witnessed the grand finale, which was Willman sitting in a bathtub full of blue water, covered in red glitter.

Audience members took the bottles full of blue water they'd been given earlier and added it to the bath water. It was almost like a communal baptism of some sort. There she sat peacefully in the tub, as sounds from one of the tape recorders squawked and sputtered in the background. I was reminded of a scene in Ousmane Sembene's 1966 noir film Black Girl, where a French Family's Senegalese maid commits suicide and is found in the bathtub, killing herself in anguish over being mistreated and feeling out of place in a strange new land. Kelly is indeed far from home, but her bathtub scene marked a rebirth of sorts. I cannot wait to see what this remarkable young artist offers up next.

Performance: Aisha Tandiwe Bell

Bear with me folks. I'm going to try really hard to describe what defies description. Artist Aisha Tandiwe Bell's performance at Brooklyn's Corridor Gallery was mesmerizing and soul-stirring. I've never seen anything like it.
Aisha is a multimedia artist. She works in performance, sculpture, and painting, so I arrived at Corridor not knowing what to expect. I found a space that was alive with her installations of Black girls gracing the walls.
When viewing Bell's visual works, I was struck by the skilled rendering of her figures. The Black girls were drawn with sullen expressions on their faces, and had hollow white ceramic faces attached to their heads. I loved the fact that the ceramic faces cast shadows onto the girls' heads.
Other figures incorporated fabric and more of her beautiful sculptural pieces. The repetition of faces and forms, with some emerging out of bodies suggest connections to ancestry. And for people of African descent, ancestry can be fraught with pain and mysteries to unravel. Bell's characters appear to carry around ghostly weights. Aisha says her work "is about our individual burdens, insecurities, and self-prescribed traps, walls, armor, masks, stereotypes, that we wear/carry out of habit, comfort, fear, sloth, and shame. However, my work also explores our ability to transform, resist and escape these traps." In the center of the room was a tin tub filled with blue water and surrounded by rows of ceramic faces. When the performance began, she handed each member of the audience 2 faces and instructed us to bang them together in a particular rhythm. As we beat the faces together, Aisha donned a white skirt and top, and a belt with the ceramic faces hanging from it. She began to wind her waist in time to the beat, and the faces began to clatter and crash together. The sound it created was otherworldly. Bell danced until the faces broke in pieces and fell to the floor. When all the faces had broken and fallen off, Aisha got into the tin tub and began bathing herself in the blue water. By this time the energy in the room was so heightened that the rhythm the audience had started beating with the faces sped up to a feverish pace.
The performance and installation were so powerful. It was the finale of Bell's month-long residency at Corridor Gallery, and what a finish it was! Aisha Tandiwe Bell is definitely an artist to watch. Expect to see much more of her here on Black Butterfly. For more on Bell and her work, check out her website:
http://www.superhueman.com

And for more info. on the Corridor Gallery:
http://www.corridorgallerybrooklyn.org

And check out this amazing video of one of Aisha's past performances: