The Work of Titus Kaphar

Shroud, 2007


If art was like a basketball team (and this was 1992), Titus Kaphar would be part of my Dream Team. His work deals with similar issues as my own work, but he does it in a completely unique way.

Watch out world, this guy is going to be a quick rising star. I mean, I carve into my surface to give it form, but this guy literally cuts his canvas, repositions it, and even balls it up to give it form! It's wild. He has found a way to marry painting with sculpture and the pieces are powerful. I really don't need to expound any further on their meanings...he's direct, and the message is clear to anyone who is open enough to receive it. Mark my words.... you'll want to watch this one, and if you can get your hands on one of his pieces-- do it now.

Spouse, 2006

Conversation Between Paintings #2: The Meeting:
"We Was Jus’ Talkin,’” 2007

Joan Armatrading

Speaking of breaking the mold and defying the stereotype - Joan Armatrading is AMAZING!!! Although she pre-dates Tracy Chapman, their singing styles seem so similar to me. I guess it's the soulful, yet folksy flavor they bring to their music. Joan's style is hot. Her music is passionate, inspiring, and when she sings about love in this song... well, I wanna give someone some love. Seriously, check out this live video of her and her band:

Niroga Institute - Integral Health Fellowships

I have been studying Yoga for a several years, but recently, I began training to be a certified Yoga instructor. It is amazing, and only possible because of the vision of an amazing program, Niroga Institute.

As a person of color, I am usually always the only, or one of two of the only folks of color in a Yoga class. That's cool, because it's all about the Self and finding union with your higher power, and when you go to that level everyone is the same, right?.....

Niroga is different, though. BK, the man envisioned this program, is a really hip, conscious, and enlightened teacher from India. My other two instructors are of the recent African Diaspora - Anthony who is from the U.S. and stretches us out to the flyest jazz tunes during class, and Sasi, who comes from Jamaica and is as cool as an island breeze.

My classmates are all African American. And that is beyond amazing. It is completely unlike anything I've ever experienced-- to be surrounded by positive, conscious, and about-something folks that look like me in a Yoga class! But we're by no means a homogenous group-- the diversity is out of this world. Every time I leave a class, I am literally BUZZING with self pride and a feeling that I cannot explain.

I'm sure that any person of color who has gone to 95% of the Yoga studios in the U.S. can probably imagine what that must be like -- you know what I'm saying, right?

Ok, and if that was not enough-- now brace yourself -- it's Free. All we have to do is commit to teach twice a week for a year following our two year process! And Yoga has, until now, been very cost prohibitive for me!

Here is an excerpt from the Niroga Institute newsletter by Bidyut K. Bose, aka BK, founder and director of Niroga Institute:

Yoga Joins Fight Against
Crime and Violence
Niroga Institute, in collaboration with the Bay Area Black
United Fund (BABUF) and the International Association
of Black Yoga Teachers (IABYT), is currently training African
American young adults to become Certified Yoga Teachers
to bring self-transformative life skills into their communities
in Oakland. Given the success of Niroga’s program at
Alameda County Juvenile Hall, BABUF is awarding Integral
Health fellowships to sixteen selected interns to begin
a two-year training program. Bobbie Norisse, President of
the Bay Area Chapter of IABYT, said of the program,
“This is simple, direct, and doable.”
Woody Carter, the Executive Director of BABUF, said “We
are very excited about partnering with Niroga. Yoga is the
cornerstone of our African American Health Initiative.”

Check out this YouTube video:

Dark Symphony: The Paintings of Demetri Santiago-Broxton

So, folks keep asking me about my own work, and I just needed to get it out there. I am a museum educator by day and painter by night... perhaps one day I'll flip the script on that one... but for now this wild schedule works great for me.

My current body of work examines specific aspects of my spiritual and cultural background and attempts to unify them. I am especially drawn to saints and the divine moment of catharsis or enlightenment. The divine presence is represented by orbs of light which are either actively materializing or fading away. I carve grids into the surface of the painting to not only add depth, but also because it allows the image to fluctuate between deep space (transcendent) and a flat picture plane (profane). To further this effect, my painting ground is deeply textured while my subjects are rendered in multiple layers of thin glazes of paint.

In making my work I take inspiration from the Baroque masters of light (chiaroscuro) and the religious and cultural stories of my ancestry. My backgrounds are left formless and misty, creating the sense that the chosen moment could be happening at any point in time or space.





This painting is called Inner-Self. I had a dream about a tree materializing from a void. The tree just made its way into the painting, because it seemed so important in the dream. I now believe that it represents my origins and the physical world.













This painting, Unguarded, really speaks to my concept of the spiritual realm. This being is both physical and fading into the "landscape". What is the orb of light behind her? I love to hear what people have to say about this piece. It really depends on your own personal perspective....










Once Again, is so incredibly hard to photograph. I really carved deep lines into the surface and the surface is extremely shiny. The woman is lying in an unidentified field, reaching for something.... Is the time of day dusk or dawn? Black, moth-like insects float around her. Why is she lying on the ground and what is she reaching for?

Yep, I'm going to leave you with more questions than answers.


Stay tuned, I am currently working on a huge piece and will post photos of different stages of development.

The Art of Being Obama

Michelle Obama:

A Phenomenal Woman

This isn't from me, but it's fascinating and I had to share it, because it completely works against stereotyping!!!

I know that potential readers of my blog may have their own political ideas, which vary from mine-- that's fine. However, what is irrefutable is that the Obama's are always defying anyone's attempts to place them in a box. I love that most about them, and they do it with grace! That is artful and it completely inspires my art making process..... which by the way, will be finding its way on this blog in the future-- I keep getting asked about my own work.

Anyhow, back to the subject at hand:

Check out this article about Michelle Obama: http://afrobella.com/2008/04/16/phenomenal-woman-thats-her/#more-480 The best part of the article is about her white roommate at Princeton who requested to change rooms, because she didn’t want a black roommate and her recent regret of that decision: http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/04/12/roommate_0413.html

Is This Art Racist?

Gary Baseman is not an artist of recent African descent, but his work may or may not have something to do with the Black experience. I am no expert on his art or his theory, so I only throw this out as a question:

Can Baseman's work be crossing the line into racist sterotyping?

It has been said that Baseman is one of the most successful artists in America today. Baseman states that his work "blurs the line between toy culture and fine art." My question is, what is the message he is trying to convey? Clearly, the non-human creatures in his paintings are modeled off of vintage cartoon figures. He is stripping away an perceived innocence the viewer may have of these animal-like cartoon figures, as they have their way with the female figures.

The big question I ponder is why the animal-like figures seem so much like black face icons to me? How should I feel about a monkey-like figure tying up a pale fleshed woman and spilling his (Baseman's words) "creamy goodness" on her ? Who is the perpetrator? Is it Baseman, or is it me? Am I just looking to point a finger at a man whose intentions are good?

Is this not a perpetuation of the racist cartoons from the 1930's and 1940's?

What's more-- this guy is making a killing off of these images. He's not the only one, but he has been featured in prominent magazines like Esquire, Forbes, the NY Times. He has works featured in the National Portrait Gallery in D.C. and has a children's TV show on the Disney channel. I even own the board game he illustrated, Cranium.

Clearly, I'm missing the point. Will someone please enlighten me? Maybe to be a successful artist these days you have to study under Dorr Eldred Wood, President of the ACME School of Drawing in the 1940's (see the advertisment below).

I don't know, maybe I'm way off Base.......

Lorraine Bonner: Daughter of Perpetration

Lorraine Bonner is an AMAZING Bay Area artist who was just introduced to me by my co-worker, Erica. I was immediately drawn to her work. It hits me right in the chest, like a slug from a Smith & Wesson. Her work is powerful, thought provoking, and very particular to the experience of people of the African Diaspora. I won't say very much about the work, because it is DEEP! Some folks may not like the direct nature of her pieces, but her work is not meant for the weak. She uses contrasting clay to not only add drama, but to help us focus on the real issues being addressed by the Perpetrator. Don't get it twisted, although the clay used to represent the Perpetrator is stark white, it is not ONLY white folks who play the Perpetrator. If anything, the Perpetrator is starting to take hold within the international Black community, and even more so, today, the perpetrator is starting to take hold from within the individual.

Check out this quote from Bonner's Artist's Statement: "I believe that we must break free of denial and bear witness to our own and one another's pain. We must do so holding in our hearts our connection to the stars, the mountains, the vast larger world within which we live, the unimaginable beauty in which we participate. How else can we heal the world and have hope for a future as a species?"