Identity

When you express yourself or create art, do you think the end result says something about your identity? How do you choose to identify yourself? You might think about your heritage, religion, family, or even the things you like to do. Do you like to play baseball or bake cupcakes? - that is part of your identity!

In the time of slavery, African American slaves were often unable to create art because they were so overworked and abused, and also because they had no access to supplies. When slaves were freed, much of the art they created was highly influenced by the traditions and symbolism of their homeland. From this time period, we see art that combines materials and American symbols with West African methods and symbols - a truly "African" and "American" art.

One such artist was Harriet Powers. She was born into slavery in Athens, Georgia. After she was freed, she began to create quilts. These quilts were not the kind you place on a bed - they were more like fabric canvasses. In her quilts, she would create several sections, each section telling a different story. One of the two remaining works by Harriet Powers is her Pictorial Quilt from 1895.

In this quilt, Powers has religious scenes, but she also has other sections with scenes from important events in her life. One is of a meteor shower (left picture), and here she shows the stars falling from the sky. In another, she shows the story of a pig who supposedly ran 500 miles, from Georgia to Virginia (right picture).

Harriet Powers chose different scenes that had to do with her own heritage, religion, and the interesting events that she felt were part of her history and her identity. She used applique, which is a sewing process where one sews objects and shapes on top of the fabric, instead of sewing all the tiny pieces of fabric together. This is a process that was very popular in the West African groups of the Yoruba and the Fon, and so Harriet Powers was combining her African heritage with her American experience.

Next time you create a work of art, poetry, or writing about yourself, think about all the events, people, and experiences that have helped you to become the person you are today. They are all a part of your identity!

Found Art: Beautiful Junk?

Art is a creative process. When some people feel that they have a talent for art, they might take a class, or go to art school. However, everyone is inspired in different ways. The following artists have felt compelled to take the objects around them, often considered ordinary “junk,” and have created something new and beautiful out of them, often in their own backyards.

The Heidelberg Project is an outdoor art project in Detroit, Michigan. Started by Tyree Guyton and his grandfather, the group accepts art or additions to its houses from anyone who wishes to create. They have taken a series of houses in a lower-income, predominantly African-American community, and decorated them in various ways. Their goal is for the Heidelberg project to be an indoor and outdoor museum, where anyone who wants to create art can feel comfortable in sharing with their community.

The Animal House

The "Dotty-Wotty" House

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Grandma Prisbrey's Bottle Village is a folk art environment in Simi Valley, CA. From 1956-1972, Tressa ("Grandma") Prisbrey created building, monuments, and mosaics out of bottles, glass and other objects she had retrieved from recycle centers and landfills. She said "I enjoyed it. I never thought of it as work. I was just having a good time." Isn't that what art should be about?

In 1994, many of the buildings were damaged by an earthquake, but the entire area still remains today, however damaged, as a testament to her memory and creativity.

This kind of art is often known as "found art" or "assemblage," because the artists take found objects and assemble them in different ways to create something entirely new. What do you think of these works? Are you ever inspired by the seemingly random objects you see around you? Don't be afraid to create!

Youth Studio Mad Hatter Party

HEY! YOU! I LIKE YOUR HAT!!!

MAD HATTER PARTY at the Youth Studio!

The party will be held in the Lower Level Studio of BCA's Firehouse on Friday, April 9th from 5-7pm.

We'll have an AWESOME photo booth with cool backgrounds and props...totally bring funky hats, sunglasses, cat ears, your favorite magical cape, AND your friends!

At the (best) hatter party (ever), you can:

Design yor own killer mesh trucker hat

Create your own lace and feather pillbox hat

Three corner newsprint hat

Crowns

Anything!

Then take a bunch of silly photos with your friends in our righteous photo booth!

We'll have great food, tea, of course, music, a slideshows of our epic stop animations, and much more....

CURIOUS??? YOU MUST BE MAD!? SAVE THIS VERY IMPORTANT DATE!

(it's ok to be late! ha ha!)

Upstairs in the Firehouse Gallery will be the Reception for the upcoming exhibit: Pilgrimmage, by Sally Linder. You can check this out too, open to all!

An Ode to Nice Days

Yes, it is true that this morning I marched through an early morning cold full of fog and finger tingling goodness, but just last week I saw crocus and dandelions in full bloom, and, even more exciting, we spent four out of five days making art outside on the Firehouse Plaza.  We filled up our shopping cart, named Gold Lemay, with glitter and beads and pipe cleaners and shrinky dinks and markers and drawing paper and dragged out art tables and chairs and platters of cheese and bagels and fruit to take in the glorious sun and make art in the company of wind and trees.  Ashley taught me how to make a visor out of bristol board and string and the sun taught be how to relax and unwind.  It was a good week, but it's nice to be back in the Youth Studio, with its warm orange walls and complete lack of sunlight.  It creates a small, cozy, focused environment where you can forget the world, make art, and lose track of time.  - Melissa

Graffiti: Then and Now

Today, we see graffiti everywhere - from scribbles on bathroom stalls to giant painted murals on buildings. The need to immediately express oneself is nothing new, and in fact is something that has connected humans throughout history.

One of the first known artworks is also a work of graffiti. The Hall of the Bulls in Lascaux, France is the inside of a cave, covered with paintings from 15,000 BCE of human figures chasing and hunting bulls and deer. This may not seem like our modern graffiti - but these pre-historic peoples felt a need to depict their hunts - perhaps it was a form of tagging, to boast of their success at hunting, or a way to show future people about their skills and history.

Another example of ancient graffiti are the "Talking Statues of Rome." The first talking statue was Pasquino, an ancient statue dug up and erected near Rome's Piazza Navona in the 1500's. The Cardinal held a celebration for the discovery of the statue, and wrapped it in a toga. Soon, however, people would anonymously post letters or writings of anger or dissatisfaction with the government, religious leaders, or the way life in Rome was going. Pasquino, although a lifeless statue, became a voice for the people of Rome.

Soon, other statues started being used for the same purpose throughout the city, such as Il Babuino. Il Babuino was cleaned of all its graffiti a few years ago, but it used to be a place where anyone could go to voice their feelings, positive or negative. These are pictures from before and after the cleaning:

Burlington, along with cities and towns across the world, contains graffiti. This is a video created by my friend and senior at St. Michael's, Andy Kuzmin, about graffiti in Burlington. See anything you recognize?

Photos by Craig Ledoux

Sometimes, graffiti is a picture, other times it is the tag of a certain artist, and still other times it is a scribbled message or phrase; regardless, it was something that person felt had to be painted or written, to show or speak to others. In this way, we are very similar to even the cave dwellers of thousands of years ago.

Michael Jackson is My Inspiration

Every time Kevin comes in we get to have a Michael Jackson dance party. He dances just like him! but the rest of us are still learning. This is what Kevin has to say about Michael Jackson:

He really cared about the earth and people and that's why I like listening to his songs.  I really care about the earth, too.
He was a good singer and he didn't deserve to die. I have liked him for a very long time. My little sister likes him, too. She's 6.

I asked Kevin how he learned how to dance like Michael Jackson. He said:

I watched way too many of his movies. At camp I started practicing his moves and then I got better at it. And I really want to follow in his footsteps when I get older.

Kevin has been practicing his Michael Jackson moves for about a year and a half now and it shows. Recently, he has begun creating wonderful Michael Jackson inspired artwork. And he's working on a special video.

Barry McGee: Graffiti AND Gallery Artist

Barry McGee is a contemporary painter and graffiti artist, who also often goes by the tag or name "Twist." He grew up in California tagging and doing graffiti, and eventually went to San Francisco to study art in college. Since graduating, he has become a successful artist, with shows in galleries and museums across America. Although McGee could easily go on, working only as a professional artist, he says:

"Whenever I do stuff indoors, I always feel like I have to do 110% more stuff outdoors to keep my street credibility. It's probably the audience that I'm most worried about, like the graffiti kids who are really doing stuff. And I'm always weird about how I sit in the eye of like, a 12 or a 13 year-old kid, like how do they think of me." He wants to know if those same kids think "Oh, that guy - he sold out."



This is a clip from a documentary about McGee and other artists called art:21. To watch the full episode, go to http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/mcgee/

These are some of McGee's works:

McGee is an example of someone who has found a way to combine their street art with life as a professional artist. Do you think he has the best of both worlds? Or do you, like McGee, worry that he's "sold out"?