Exercise for session #2: 10 ideas derived from playing with materials and also life outside the studio.
- Divine F.R.O. (a series about my hair, or black hair, two levels of specificity there *wink*)
Painting the hair was one of my favorite parts of the Big Bang Baby series. I went "natural" in the DR when curly hair was not even featured on TV or acceptable professional presentation. Despite the delicacy and care my hair requires as it is very prone to breakage, it has been met with microaggressions, unsolicited opinions, and physical violations, from strangers pulling it to see if it was “real,” to people attempting to control how I should look in order to keep my job. My hair has become a way to assert myself. Last year one particular interaction felt violent, a weaving artist (a stranger) who reached his hands out and told me he would like to weave with it. I felt like an object. As I continue to struggle with breakage, I have started collecting my hair every time I wash it, since Fall 2025.
- Magnifying glass
- Acrylic Mirrors
- Coal
- Slag
- Clinker
- GRIEF
- LIFE in manufacturing ---- coal, slag, and clinker.
- KITCHEN
- COAL
- CLINKER
- SALT
Session #1 (Jan 26th) Summary
In my first consulting session with Nato, we focused on the scope and specificity of my work. He thinks my strengths are in composition and color use. He observed that the Big Bang Baby is too broad. Key direction moving forward is to be specific: specific in subject matter, references, approach, or material.
Nato asked which artists I feel aligned with. In discussing Mickalene Thomas, we talked about how her work often centers very specific women, frequently drawn from her family or personal life, the figures are very flat, the surrounding is abstract, collaged, ornamental, and jewel-like. The specificity of who these women are grounds the work and gives clarity and power to the abstraction around them.
With Firelei Baez the specificity lies strongly in topic. Colonialism is a topic interesting to others, even as the visual language remains expressive and layered.
With Frida Kahlo, he talked about tension. Example the pieces that look loving but dark at the same time.
Klimt is old but similarly, the figure becomes an entry point that allows the surrounding abstraction and material excess to unfold. I LIKE EXCESS.
Nato talked about contemporary art’s self-awareness. He noted that much contemporary work is highly conscious of being “contemporary” and of being observed as such. In contrast, he described my work as very sincere (less performative or ironic). I don't know if this is a strength or a negative.
He also shared that many artists who later become widely recognized often “make it big” because of one very specific thing they did, even if their practice later becomes more abstract or expansive.
Next Steps
Nato asked which artists I feel aligned with. In discussing Mickalene Thomas, we talked about how her work often centers very specific women, frequently drawn from her family or personal life, the figures are very flat, the surrounding is abstract, collaged, ornamental, and jewel-like. The specificity of who these women are grounds the work and gives clarity and power to the abstraction around them.
With Firelei Baez the specificity lies strongly in topic. Colonialism is a topic interesting to others, even as the visual language remains expressive and layered.
With Frida Kahlo, he talked about tension. Example the pieces that look loving but dark at the same time.
Klimt is old but similarly, the figure becomes an entry point that allows the surrounding abstraction and material excess to unfold. I LIKE EXCESS.
Nato talked about contemporary art’s self-awareness. He noted that much contemporary work is highly conscious of being “contemporary” and of being observed as such. In contrast, he described my work as very sincere (less performative or ironic). I don't know if this is a strength or a negative.
He also shared that many artists who later become widely recognized often “make it big” because of one very specific thing they did, even if their practice later becomes more abstract or expansive.
Next Steps
- Do exercises with new materials and play around with other things outside of the studio
- Generate 10 possible directions, disrupt studio habit and go outside
- Explore specificity in topic