Reflecting on 2020, I’ve realized that, despite grappling with numerous COVID-19 adaptations, I’ve actually been quite productive this year! So I’ve created an inventory of art moments and chosen my Top 5 to share with you! Here are my 5 Favorite Art Moments of 2020!!
#5. A Scary Art Business Milestone!
7/2020- Live “Happy Hour” Art Show Broadcast Direct From My Studio.
As the heading suggests, out of my 5 Favorite Art Moments of 2020, this “moment” was the scariest. Why? Because this was my very first live show, I had been on lockdown for months, and now I was suddenly in the spotlight!
…But it seemed like a good time to release some long awaited “straggler” art works that had been hiding in the recesses of my computer for far too long!
Specifically, I made use of the COVID-19 adaptation of running a live art show webinar on Facebook, where I unveiled the work at severely discounted prices!
Watch The Replay Here:
“Ecological Grief” is one of the “straggler” digital composite pieces I finished in time for my Meredith College show.
One of the proofs was up for grabs on the webinar and was purchased by participant and fellow artist Adrienne Garnett of Raleigh. This was an archival pigment print on Watercolor Fine Art paper.
Thank you Adrienne for tuning into the
important message of this piece!
#4. Print Giveaway of “The Red & The White.”
5/2020- Beautify Your Home Office Giveaway! (this COVID adaptation was a lot less scary than the live showcase)!
With all the time many of us had been spending cooped up in our home offices, I decided to try a Print Giveaway to help folks add some personal customization for all those digital meetings and what not…
The owner of the original winning ticket didn’t respond, so the next runner up was Margaux from Vermont.
Thankyou, Margaux, for entering the draw for this piece!
…In a follow up letter I offered tee-shirts with a similar design, and none other than Adrienne Garnett from Raleigh purchased one!
She sent me a picture of her sporting the “oxblood” color option (my favorite as well).
this piece enough to wear it on your person!
#3. Weems Gallery Video Interview.
9/2020- Meredith College Weems Gallery Interview with Special Segment on the Significance of the “Mum’s The Word” Collage.
Interview question: “What Is The Most Emotionally Significant Piece of Art You Have Made?”
Interview Answer: “Mum’s The Word: Indian Slavery”, a paper collage that I completed in time for the Meredith show, 25 years after its inception.
This video snippet is one of seven from an hour long conversation. It’s about as “tell all” as it gets out of any interviews I’ve ever done!
To find out why “Mum’s The Word” is my most emotionally significant piece
…Watch The Replay Here:
…more segments, plus the entire hour-long interview, are forthcoming in upcoming newsletters!
Read more about the development of this piece HERE
Thank you to Art Professor, Lisa Pearce, for
unknowingly encouraging me to finish this piece!
…and to Gallery Director, Molly Hull, for her
dedication, curiosity and wide open ears!
12/2020- Inclusion in upcoming book “Earthworks Rising: Mound Building in Native Art, Literature & Performance” by Chadwick Allen.
#2. Six Works to be Published in Groundbreaking Book About Indian Burial Mounds.
Chadwick Allen is Professor of American Indian Studies, Co-Director of the Center for American Indian & Indigenous Studies and Associate Vice Provost at the University of Washington. His work centers around studies of contemporary Native American and global Indigenous literatures, other expressive arts, and activism.
Chapter 4 of his Earthworks Rising book is entitled “Wombed Hollows, Sacred Trees.” It revolves around my earthwork themed art and is inspired by my photo collage titled Ancestral Plane. The focus is on burial mounds in particular, and six of my works will be presented “in conversation” with the poetry of Allison Hedge Coke from her book Blood Run, which testifies to the need to protect the remarkable ruins and sacred remains of the Indigenous North American city of Blood Run.
In a 2019 lecture, Allen, drawing from this new manuscript, investigates how Native writers and artists engage ancient earthworks in contemporary works.
Watch Chadwick Allen’s YouTube Replay:
A previous essay by Chadwick Allen, titled Re-scripting Indigenous America- Earthworks in Native Art, Literature, Community included a discussion about my works Ancestral Plane and Slumber, both from my “Spiritual Ground” photo collage series. Excerpts from this essay were included in a prologue for my own book Earth Consciousness & Cultural Revelations.
Gigantic thank you, Chadwick Allen, for
your laser beam insights into my work!
…read more on Chadwick Allen and indigenous
mounds on The Univ. of Washington Site! HERE
…and now for #1!
#1. Meredith College 70 Piece Exhibit & Multi-Media Lecture/Performance.
9/2020- “Spiritual Awakening – Native Roots & Culture” Exhibition & Mercer-Kesler Lecture: “Visions, Prophecy & Native American Cultural Reawakening.”
This Zoom Webinar/Lecture/Live Music Concert was the Ultimate COVID adaptation!
It was a serious technological challenge that we feel could possibly serve as a template for others on how to piece together and pull off such a hybrid performance!
It had many moving parts…and I remember thinking “now that we’ve done it, I’m actually ready to execute the plan!”
Watch The Replay of This Grand Experiment Here:
The actual exhibition took place at the Gaddy Hamrick Weems Gallery in September/October, 2020.
My lecture, which included some of the artwork on view at Weems Gallery, touched upon how various life experiences (spiritual and other) influenced the development of my work.
I was accompanied by the indigenous band Charly & The Sunshine. Lead singer Charly Lowery is an award winning singer/song writer from Pembroke, NC with roots in the Union Chapel community.
As part of this lecture I shared the completed wooden base for my 13th and last “Ancestral Spaceship” assemblage, “The Eagle & The Condor”, which I brought on stage.
…read more about the “Spiritual Awakening – Native Roots and Culture” exhibition HERE
…read more about the development of “The Eagle & The Condor” HERE