This Friday, May 4th, at 7pm, I'll be speaking briefly on my artistic process at Soho House West Hollywood.
(Info and address below).
This event celebrates the release of a limited edition publication called HER MAGAZINE (http://www.thelaboratorymagazine.com) in which my artwork is featured along with the other 4 artists who will also be speaking at the Soho House. Since this is a "members only event", please forward this information to anyone who is a member. Unfortunately, this event is closed to the general public.
Other exciting news...
I'm currently showing artwork in my first New York exhibit. It's a group show at the Caribbean Cultural Center of the African Diaspora. It's curated by Shantrelle P. Lewis and it's called H(A)UNTED (click here for more info). The show responds to the death of Florida teen, Trayvon Martin.
I am also showing a work in "From Here to There" at the Cecil Ferguson Gallery of the Watts Labor Community Action Committee. This show is curated by Willie Middlebrook and features art by both Watts youth and established adult artists. (click here for more info).
Finally, an insightful article, "Uncomfortable Paint: A Look At Zeal Harris": was written in the newly created online magazine Inglewoodland (click here to read the article).
The Laboratory invites you to a salon
May 4th. SOHO HOUSE - Los Angeles 7.00 pm
We are delighted to announce the first in our season of salons.
We celebrate Five female artists, Korin Faught, Zeal Harris, Yassi Mazandi, Heather Mc Millen
and Robyn Breen Shinn, who in turn will spotlight a single piece of their work and open their diaries to those with a curious mind.
Come and join us at Soho House,
9200 W Sunset Blvd, # 817, West Hollywood, CA 90069.
This is a “Members only event”, so please RSVP to Soho House directly.
BAILA Black Artists in Los Angeles meeting. April 30th at California African American Museum. Organized by Lili Bernard.
Director Charmaine Jefferson speaking at this meeting. Mark Bradford and Franklin Sirmans present also. Other attendees included: Me (Zeal Harris), Duane Paul, Meg Linton, Toni Scott, Tiffani Bowers, Donna Angers, Raksha Parekh, Mar Hollingsworth, Keith Mikell, Steven J. Brooks, Ngene Mwuara, Stan Bruce, Mark Broyard, Charla Puryear and others.
I will update this post later on with additional photos & videos, a list of names, and topics discussed.
Such an amazing film. It must be the first time ive felt a film really do a novel justice. One of Halle Berrys best roles. I think in her top four next to Boomerang, Why do fools fall in Love, and the crackhead in Jungle Fever.
I love Zora Neale Hurston. Shes my idol. Zora would definitely be happy with this adaptation. What a love story! Love of self coming of age.
Also, the research for the period scenes was tight. I think ill buy this film so i can reference the furniture, costumes, etc for future period paintings of mine.
The soundtrack is amazing too.
After watching the movie, I was hungry for some special features. Unfortunately, there weren't any on my netflix rental. So I googled and came up with this:
Hanging with artist Dominique Moody tonight for hours. Had tea and listened to trains of moving stories about her life and art. Went to visit after checking a yourh art show at Watts cultural center. I contributed a work to the show that being organized by artist Willie Middlebrook who is recovering from a stroke he had about 3 weeks ago.
Will write more another time. Its late and im trying to text this post on my iphone with a sprained wrist.
A few weeks ago, Teka-Lark contacted me and requested an interview. We'd met briefly at a group art show at Liz's Loft that I was in a couple of years ago.
Mostly Teka and I chatted conversationally. She used a tiny digital audio recorder and visited with me for a couple of hours at home (where I also work on my art).
Inglewoodland is a new online magazine dedicated to the the "theoretical" rather than merely geographical notion of "Inglewood" -- an idea somewhat analagous to the historical notion of New York's "Harlem". I applaude Tekas dedication to this new magazine.What passion!
I didn't get a chance to edit the article as Teka firmly pointed out that the magazine is wrtten by "just one person" (herself). And if I had any problems with it, I could mention them when the article was published! I have more than a handful of favorite soundbytes that she wrote. Most notably...."Zeal’s work is a restrained and dignified middle finger.” I am also very flattered by the line, “She knows who she is in art. There are a lot of people who know who they are, but their art seems lost.” I laughed out loud and uncontrollably on these points. I also very much appreciate how Teka contextualized me as "Southern". Many people miss this strong identity layer of mine.
Most ultimately, I really appreciate how Teka-Lark really "got me". I really felt that she deeply felt and understood where I was coming from with my art. She always had the "right" emotional reactions to my work. Whether it was laughing, thinking deeply, or being disgusted -- she was very sensitive to my work and it resonated with her in the gut as well as in the head. That's what I strive for. I could ask for no greater reaction to my art. I applaude Teka's passion and dedication and I'm greatly obliged.
This book has some riveting, edgy, comical, feminist-type images created by women. The author's language woud be useful in helping me to articulate what it is in life narrative themed graphic nevels that I find so compelling.When I am interested in a graphic novel (so far) it tends to be a life narrative theme. Since my art is primarly based on life narratives, this should be no wonder!
I looked at the images and skimmed the chapters on 5 female artists. I plan to revisit this book when I have a bit more time and/or urgency. I'm posting this so that I can remember to look this book up later to read it.
It's about a woman who hires a taxi driver to drive her through wartorn Lebanon to find her sister and her son. Much of the film was like driving through post-katrina ninth ward. And just like after Katrina, there is life and hope after tragedy. The film offered very important female civilian point of view. Israel disobeyed a cease-fire and had launched bombs and missiles that killed 1200 civilians in 2006. Hezbollah countered with fire as well.
I watched this film because my next painting is going to be several scenes that happen in Lebanon. I'm gathering visual information for this work.
I have several works that will be on exhibit at the grand opening of an artspace on La Brea at Melrose. The opening is this Saturday. Works are available for purchase or rental. Hope you'll come and check it out!
Zeal Harris - "Breeda's Story" - 16" x 40" mixed media on wood
(Below is cut and pasted text that was originally emailed by the gallery).
607 nth la brea, la, ca 90036 one block south of melrose
Dear All, Wallspace has been open for over a month but now it is time to celebrate with an official opening night reception on Saturday March 3rd 7-10pm at 607 North La Brea (one block South of Melrose). In conjunction with the day-long Miracle Mile Art Walk, wallspace invites you to come view wonderful work by Los Angeles-based artists, both emerging and established. Hung in a salon stye, we include over 300 pieces by 50 artists and photographers. DJ Tesslove spinning and refreshments from 7-10pm.
wallspace gallery
We are located one block South of Melrose on the West side of the street, next to the restaurants Tar Pit and Cube. Street and Valet parking available.
Lately I've been reading some graphic novels. I'm am intrigued by this format and drawn to artsy graphic novels that lean towards life narratives as opposed to action hero oriented comic-strippy graphic novels. I"ve been checking these out of the library at Otis College where I work.
Here's some links to graphic novel/art books and their writer/illustrators:
Today was a good day. I went to a meeting of BAILA - Black Artists in Los Angeles. This is a newly forming group organized by artist, Lili Bernard. This is the second meeting that has been held. The first meeting was on December 19th. Today's guests were Franklin Sirmans (LACMA’s Chief Curator of Contemporary Art) and Brooke Davis Anderson (LACMA’s Deputy Director for Curatorial Planning).
(Artist & Organizer of BAILA meetings, Lili Bernard (center, holding camera).
To see short videos documenting the meetings, do a search in youtube for "BAILA Black Artists in Los Angeles"
Video of BAILA artists socializing before the beginning of the first meeting:
There were at least 25 local artists in attendance. However, the actual RSVP list was much longer. The meetings have offered a powerful platform for networking and for addressing the needs of fine art artists in los angeles who have diverse backgrounds, needs, markets, philosophies, and practices. The meeting lasted about an hour and a half. Because there were so many people present, after each person briefly introduced themselves, there was only enough time for few significant questions to be answered by Brooke and Franklin. Questions that I remember were about the following topics:
Does LACMA have a registry for African American Artists?
What kinds of education outreach and programs does LACMA have that target African Americans?
How does a museum determine what is "museum quality" and what is the criteria or characteristics of art that's selected?
Would LACMA consider putting a satellite location in Leimert Park?
How does one go about getting a curator to come and do a studio visit?
How does a museum decide what they will get rid of that is part it's its permanent collection?
What is LACMA doing to attract more diverse artgoers? (We found out the local residents can get into LACMA for free after 5pm on certain days).
Why did LACMA recently choose to exihibit certain controversial works about that could be deemed as offensive or aggravating to African Americans? (The argument was made that since some black people do not see them represented frequently in such settings, it can be jarring to see these images in a "white institution" where they may have little or no context for seeing a diversity of more "positive" or diverse images of blacks (and particularly black MEN as opposed to black women. It should be noted that most of the participants in today's meeting were black males).
The following is a list of people who were invited and/or RSVP'd. In actuality, about a third of the list were present.
As of today, February 27th, 2012, I've decided to focus my intenet socializing on this blog. Why? Well, Myspace is pretty much dead except for listening to music. Facebook is now killing me with the new ugly and confusing timeline. Twitter just doesn't let me post long enough sentences and I despise the concept of "following". Tumbler is OK but my main complaint is that I haven't figured out how to search for things that I've previously posted. (Maybe I'll figure it out soon. This is also a big problem for me on Twitter). So because of all of these main factors, I've decided to focus my energies on my blog.
I haven't focused on posting on my blog for 2 main reasons. Firstly, when I blog, I feel as if I'm talking to outerspace instead of interacting with friends. Secondly, I've wanted to keep my art-themed blog fairly clean and "steamlined", and therefore limited to important art related ideas. I've done this to try and package a part of myself as a focused artist. I've gone to great efforts to separate the kinds of things in which I'm interested about which I post. For example: I've been posting personal stuff on Facebook, dance stuff on Facebook, images of artwork on all the sites, cooking stuff on my cooking blog, events & happenings on Twitter. Of course there's been overlapping, and all of this has been rather cumbersome. Most of ALL I hate that one has to "sign up" for each social site and have a space in order to comment and participate. With that said, this bring me back around to my [this] blog. I am going to experiment for a while with posting more on my blog and letting the machine do the simultaneous auto-posting for me.
With a pledge of $15 to support a community gardening/arts project in Chicago, you can receive 4 Soul Food Themed cards that are created from images of my artwork.
Feresteh Toosi is an artist, community activist, and professor in Chicago. She's also a really nice person. I first met her at a UCLA conference on Women, Art, and Feminism. We bonded over the fact that we're both from the Hampton Roads area. She's from Virginia Beach and I'm from Phoebus.
She mentioned this project to me quite a while ago and is now moving forward to bring it into fruition. I hope that we will collaborate more in the future. We both love greens. In her parents language (farci) I think the words for greens is sahbzy. Kuku Sahbzy and Gormeh Sahbzy are two persian "greens" dishes I like. I'm KooKoo for any kind of greens and KooKoo for really good Kuku Sahbzy.
Reconfiguring Race in American Comics, Animation and Graphic Novels
A colloquium concerning issues of diversity, commerce, artistic control, stereotypes, discrimination, aesthetics and pressing debates over the role and responsibility of artists and the comic art and narratives they create.
Panel A: Questions of Racial Authenticity in Comics and Graphic Novels: 9:30-10:45am
Panel B: Radical Racial Discourse and Imagery in Comics and Graphic Novels:11:00-12:15pm
Panel C: Racial & Gender Intersectionality in Comics and Graphic Novels: 12:15-1:30pm
Panel D: Film and Television Adaptations of Comics/Graphic Novels: 2-3:30pm
Participants:
LeSean Thomas, Character Designer & Co-Director of "The Boondocks"
Lalo Alcaraz, Creator of the nationally syndicated Latino daily strip, "La Cucaracha"
Eric Battle, freelance artist, DC and Marvel Comics
Nnedi Okorafor, award-winning science fiction and fantasy novelist
Brandon M. Easton, screenwriter on Warner Bros. new ThunderCats TV series
Stanford Carpenter, Assistant Professor, Visual and Critical Studies-SAIC
Qiana Whitted, Associate Professor, African-American Studies-Univ. of South Carolina
John Jennings, Associate Professor, Visual Studies-SUNY Buffalo
Feb. 23rd, 2012
Ahmanson Auditorium/University Hall 1000
Liz Faulkner
Administrae Assistant
African American Studies, American Cultures,
Asian Pacific American Studies, Chicana/o Studies,
I work at Otis College of Art & Design and a student turned me on to this video which is the funniest art video I've ever seen:
Hennesy Youngman - How to Make AN Art
After visiting his youtube channel and became a subscriber to it, I decided to try and find more info about him.I posted a comment something like this on his page:
"Thank you sooooo much for exisiting. This is the funniest video about art that I've ever seen. I appreciate you and please keep being seriously funny. Grad Art school would have been so much easier if I knew about you then. Those people were always saying things that were strange and offensive. Using the most brilliant forms of humor, you really turn contemporary art theory back out and bring out the best of it's absurdity. Someone should nominate you for a MacArthur Genius Award. I know for sure (because I took his class) that you are much smarter, much funnier, and much more attractive than critic Dave Hickey who won a couple of years ago."
I came across this interview of Hennesy Youngman in Art in America Magazine:
