beauty in art.

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of art? (I’ll give you like 5 seconds to think about it)
TIMES UP!
For me, art is in everything around us. I don’t think anyone can really be the judge of what you in yourself consider to be art. I say this because art is a form of expression. It’s literally your own perspective. Art is beauty and beauty is art.

Anyways, let me get right into it. I had the opportunity to visit a solo exhibition of Rush Artist in Residence by Pamela Council called “Tenderheaded”. Just the title alone had me in deep thought and sparked some type of interest in me. What she describes this as is this, “To be a tender headed girl means having such a sensitivity to the experience of having one’s hair done, especially in protective styles, as to be stigmatized for it. Tenderheaded girls are the ones for whom the pain of beauty can be overwhelming.”

To be quite honest, every black girl can relate to this seeing that we had to go through the pain of getting our hair combed, detangled, washed, flat ironed, braided etc. as a child and always getting the “beauty is pain” speech from our moms! Oh the joy right? Wrong. Having all the feels right now because thinking back just brings back so much memories of having hairstyles done that was just not who I am now lol.

Back to the artist…

I met Pamela and she seemed so cool and down to earth at the exhibition. “Free-spirited” I’d call her. Through her sculptures (and all her works) each one carried its own cultural history and you could see that she put her heart and soul into it.The work..

So creative

So deep

SO sensual

So different

Ladies, this was my favorite.

All about PAM.

Besides this artist, I also met two other dope artists..Artist #2– Jide Ojo of Afro Fine Arts

This guy is super talented. You see that “backdrop” behind him…yeah it’s actually his art piece. On that art piece is pictures of other artists. In person it is so much more beautiful and detailed! Here’s another picture of it.Long story short, he is amazingly talented and I encourage you guys to check out his work. Click here for more info! 

More pieces..

Artist #3- Vernon Williams
You have to look closely, but he’s featured on the wall with his wife. (About to pics to the left) | I had a conversation with this welcoming artist who was giving me some insight as to his journey as an artist. He let me know that he has had a lot of successes and although he took some breaks along the way he would not want to do anything else. Art is his passion and even though I just met him I could honestly tell he loves it a lot. I asked him how he survived as a full-time artist and he explained that when you love something you just make it work for you! You are in control. How perfect is that answer!
To check out his work, click here.