Sole Sisters

Sole Sisters: Shoe Confessional
Dallas Museum of Art
Jan. 20 and Feb. 11-12, 2012

This Friday, January 20, 2012, the Shoe Confessional will debut at the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA). Filmmaker Cynthia Salzman Mondell, Media Projects Inc., will be collecting women’s stories about their shoes for her film Sole Sisters. The Shoe Confessional will be part of the DMA’s Late Nights. Additional Shoe Confessional dates at the DMA will be February 11 and 12, 2012.

Mrs. Salzman Mondell took a few minutes to answer our questions about the Shoe Confessional.

What should someone expect when they get to the DMA? Is there actually a Shoe Confessional?

We built a full size confessional equipped with two cameras and a monitor so people could see their shoes. We have some questions for women (and men, but mostly women) but they can tell any shoe story they want to divulge in the privacy of the confessional.

We are really, really excited about the confessional. It was designed by Jen Malden. The building was led by Arnuflo Chavez. We had a lot of community help from artists and designers, who donated their time and materials. The confessional is a real community project.

You mentioned two cameras with one focused on the person’s shoes. Are you encouraging people to wear the shoes they will be confessing?

Yes, they can. We will have questions about a person’s favorite shoes but we want to go a little deeper.

Every woman has shoes in her closet that she does not wear, but she will never get rid of them because those shoes hold something very intimate and special for that woman. Shoes are like memories. We want to find out what stories those shoes hold.

Where at the DMA will the Shoe Confessional be located?

The confessional will be near the contemporary exhibits, which is the south end of the building. You will not be able to miss the confessional. There will be a huge sign with a really big stiletto heel with Sole Sisters on it. There will be a team of volunteers at the DMA to direct people.

Are you expecting a lot of people?

Oh, I hope so.

What will be the end result of the shoe confessions?

We hope some of it will be in the film. We are working with David Friedman from Wave Maker Audio to make sure the sound is going to be good. So we can possibly use the audio in the film. If not, we might be able to use the stories in some other way.

What kind of stories are you expecting?

We have gotten a lot of different stories about all kinds of shoes.

One story that really touched me was about a woman at the Senior Source. The woman talked to me about a special pair of peach colored shoes. I asked her why she keeps those shoes by her bedside. She said she wore those shoes every Thursday night when her husband would take her dancing. She said he passed away a year ago, but she keeps the shoes to remind her of him, and of the time she was the happiest.

Shoes evoke a lot of emotion and a lot of memories. It’s an accessory that has a very strong identity for women.

Every shoe has a story. Every woman has both.

Related Posts & Links

Watch for the debut of the Shoe Confessional at the Dallas Museum of Art – December 20, 2011

Medial Projects, Inc.

Sole Sister

Where the End Starts by KAWS, 2011 (photo courtesy KAWS Studio)

KAWS was born Brian Donnelly and grew up in New Jersey, where he began his art career as a graffiti artist – defacing billboards and ads with his characteristic X marks.  He’s a BFA graduate of the School of Visual Arts in NYC and currently lives in Brooklyn.

I’m increasingly interested in street artists who move so fluidly between graffiti, illustration, fine art, and product design.  KAWS was obviously influenced by cartoon characters – probably grew up drawing them like most boys who are artists – but has taken iconic characters like Mickey Mouse and SpongeBob to another level with his unique signature twists.

He also is one of a growing group of contemporary artists whose work is available for purchase in a variety of media, including fine art, highly collectable vinyl toys (ala KidRobot), snowboards, sneakers and clothing. KAWS is omnimedia.

How does his work show in a gallery?  I drove over to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth to see.

KAWS gallery work doesn’t have the immediacy or fresh expressiveness of graffiti or street art.  The works in focus:KAWS – two large fiberglass sculptures and a handful of paintings – are genuine pop art pieces in an updated but familiar sense.  His paintings would be at home in a room with Warhol or Lichtenstein or Indiana but they aren’t an homage to anyone – his style is uniquely his own.

The two sculptures in the show are hearty, substantial pieces.  They’re at least 8 feet tall, made of fiberglass, and posted as covered with “rubberized paint.”  I resisted the urge to touch when the guard staff wasn’t looking.

Accomplice dominates a small room that also features two paintings.  All three pieces are black against the white walls and light-colored flooring.  It’s pretty impactful.  I don’t immediately recognize what cartoon character this figure is based upon – it has rabbit ears but also the big, sort of lobular ears that KAWS adds on many of his figures.  KAWS often gives his figures a new mouth too – a sort of fluffy overbite, if you will.

Accomplice also sports a bolo tie.  His shoes, gloves, and eyes feature KAWS signature “X” – not as defacement but as an additional KAWS design element.

KAWS “black” paintings are technically tight and well executed.  He uses matte black, glossy black, and grays that are almost-black in a way I’ve never seen before.  The tone-on-tone color quality is playful in a completely unexpected way.  In the KAWS palette, gray is a beautiful color with many shades and tones – never muddy or dull.

Companion (ORIGINALFAKE) by KAWS, 2011 (photo courtesy KAWS Studio)

These paintings, On Time and Thirsty, are both diptychs, although it takes you a minute to notice this.  They are divided lengthwise into a 2/3 section and a 1/3 section but hung so tightly together they appear to be one canvas.  While the canvases relate to one another, they might also be interchangeable with other paintings.  It’s an interesting detail.

How many of us wanted the “Visible Man” toy at some point in our childhoods?  Well, it seems a young KAWS did, too – here he’s created another 8 foot fiberglass/rubberized paint sculpture – this time a chubby Mickey Mouse who has gotten the KAWS treatment, titled Comparison (OriginalFake).  Mickey’s outer shell is half-missing to allow us to see his brain, eyeball, lung, heart, stomach, intestines, and arm and leg musculature all in pretty much anatomic correctness on one side of him.  Mickey is finished in shades of gray, white, and black.

All of the paintings in the show take pieces and parts of the KAWS reference characters and reconstruct them in new ways.   There is an installation of 21 small black tondo paintings, Black Spots, each with a piece of a cartoon face – a tongue there, a couple of teeth here, an eye with the KAWS “X” here.

Finally, the centerpiece of the show – visible as you walk toward the show’s doorway – is Where the End Starts.  This is the most color piece in the show and stands out handsomely among the black and gray other pieces.  The bright colors in this painting buzz and vibrate against each other in a way that complements the chaos of the objects in the scene.  There are pieces of characters here – a rubbery hand, a couple teeth, a snout.  But the majority of the foreground subjects are crashing two-by-fours.  It reminds me of cartoon fight sequences with random objects exploding out of a furious cloud.  It’s a moment in time.

In the world of contemporary art, a small show that makes you want to learn more about the artist is a success in my book.  focus:KAWSdid just that.

Where the End Starts by KAWS, 2011 (photo courtesy KAWS Studio)

Fall Cherry Tree by Autumn Whiltshire

By guest writer Autumn Whiltshire

Claiming to be “the new night out,” Lets Art Party offers a new take on an old theme. The interactive art studio, operated by Leacy and Buster of the well-known Dave & Buster’s, combines art instruction with a BYOB setting, and purports to be “the ultimate painting party.” Yet for this attendee, the Plano location’s December 1, 2011, two-hour, Fall Cherry Tree class was heavy on art, but light on party.

Upon arrival, my husband and I were relieved to see the night’s picture outlined on our canvases. Wineglasses, aprons, brushes and paint were provided and seats were pre-assigned— all nice touches.

The room was large and sectioned off into two classes by a heavy curtain. A large monitor hung above the instruction easel allowing students to watch the instructor’s strokes. The class was categorized as easy and overall it was, requiring minimum color blending and unspecific brush strokes to achieve the desired effects.  The instructor was confident and firm, but maybe too much so.

She explained the mixing of the colors and denoted the required motion of the strokes, but often forgot to mention the necessary color or brush.  She was instructive, but not very personable. Though, she did tell us a story about an individual who didn’t want to listen to her instructions for creating a country road and instead painted broken white dashes down the middle of his. Whether we should laugh or feel his shame remains a mystery. Her firm demeanor hinted that she didn’t appreciate his creative flare, nor would she appreciate the same from any of us.

Nevertheless, I trudged forward, lost in my own style and my husband compliantly followed directions.

The assistant instructor made her rounds commenting here and there. When she came to our paintings, she commented “that we know who the artist is in this family.”

My husband and I looked at each other, puzzled. Even now we aren’t sure which of us she was complimenting.

We both left with our own works of art that we are proud of. And yes, we had fun. Though to consider Lets Art Party, the “new night out” may be a stretch. The concept has potential, but the implementation could use some more, shall we say—creativity.

About Autumn Whiltshire

Autumn graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas with a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. She currently works as a Research Analyst for a non-profit organization in Dallas. Autumn writes poetry, short stories and is currently working on her first novel. You can visit Autumn online at www.autumnwhiltshire.com.

Fall Cherry Tree by Ed LaskeyFall Cherry Tree by Autumn Whiltshire

Pioneer Town at the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum is under construction. (photo by Victoria Roman)

Pioneer Town is an exhibit in the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum (PPHM) in Canyon, Texas. It stands as a replica of what pioneer life was like from 1890-1910. The exhibit was built into the museum over thirty years ago and has been in need for some tender love and care. Pioneer Town will look as good as new, or as good as expected for the 19th century, in spring 2012.

Pioneer Town is one of the most popular exhibits at the PPHM. It allows guests to walk through and experience what life was like during this time period. Pioneer Town is a very hands-on exhibit.

For the past few years most of the exhibit has been blocked off due to a health hazard. Asbestos was in the flooring. The museum has not been able to experience the town as a whole for a while. Today, the problem has been taken care of as the entire town has had new flooring and wood paneling installed for all the shops around the block.

New Pioneer Town

The old Pioneer Town was very restricted with closed doors that did not allow access to the shops and houses.

The new Pioneer Town is much different. Everything is going to be fully interactive with open doors and windows allowing for students, children and families to walk through and enjoy the full pioneer experience. The town will include a saloon, doctor’s office, newspaper office, harness shop, a Victorian hotel and a stable.

The PPHM staff are all very excited for the grand opening of this exhibit in just a few months as they’re already talking about it in their Christmas Special this weekend.

“We’re all excited that it’s going to be so accessible; people are going to be able to go inside so we can give them an immersed education and experience as they go back in time,” stated Becky Livingston, PPHM Special Projects Coordinator.

Ms. Livingston’s tour through the construction zone painted such a vivid picture full of old wooden wagons, candy stripped barber shops, and that friendly Texas smile that gives the Panhandle so much to look forward to this coming spring.

Pioneer Town at the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum is under construction. (photo by Victoria Roman)

Pioneer Town at the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum is under construction. (photo by Victoria Roman)

Pioneer Town at the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum is under construction. (photo by Victoria Roman)

Stephen King at the Majestic Theatre (photo by James Roman)

Stephen King made a rare stop in Dallas to promote his new book, 11.22.63: A Novel, and to show his appreciation to The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza for their assistance. The event, A Conversation with Stephen King, included a press conference, a special reception and a conversation with Lee Cullum, host of CEO on KERA.

Stephen King is an author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy. He has written nearly 50 novels and sold over 350 million books. Many of his novels and short stories have been made into films such as Carrie (1976), The Shining (1980), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), and The Green Mile (1999).

King walked into the press conference and immediately started.

“I’ve got this book, 11.22.63, and the people from The Sixth Floor Museum at the Dallas [School] Book Depository helped me a lot,” said King.  “I wanted to come down and do something to help them, if I could. So here I am. That’s all I know.”

Members of the press laughed.

King had the idea for 11.22.63 in 1971 while he was still teaching. King remembers the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination eight years later which was just as fresh as September 11th is today. He also remembered people at the time started talking about what might have happened if Kennedy was never assassinated and the series of events that allowed the assassination to happen. This was the spark for another King novel.

At the time King realized the idea for 11.22.63, he did not have the time or the resources to write a novel that would require an immense amount of research. After all, Google would not be invented for another 25 years. King could tell this novel was going to be a very large project.

King shelved the idea because it was too soon in 1971 and also because Jacqueline Kennedy was still alive and so were her two young children.

11.22.63 is a story about Jake Epping, a high school English teacher. He is befriended by Al, who runs the local diner. Al introduces Jake to the time portal in the pantry of his diner that leads back to 1958. Al, who is ailing, wants Jake to use the portal to save President Kennedy. That would involve changing the future. Trouble is the future doesn’t change so easily.

During the course of writing 11.22.63, King visited Dallas and got to know The Sixth Floor Museum better than most. King also visited other Oswald sites around Dallas like the Neely Street house in Oak Cliff, Ruth Paine’s house in Irving and General Walker’s house on Turtle Creek Blvd.

“We went to 214 Neely Street where Lee and Marina lived and where she took the pictures of him with the guns and The Daily Worker. Seeing that and seeing the back yard where they were posed you get a real feeling of this really happened. These were real people who lived in Dallas,” said King.

King reflected upon hearing the news that President Kennedy was shot.

“I had just turned 17 two months before. I was a junior in high school. Here in Dallas it’s an hour earlier than it is on the east coast. So nobody announced anything in our school. The guy who drove us home said ‘Somebody shot the President of the United States and he’s probably going to die.’ And it came on the radio that he had died. Then the driver said, ‘They’ll catch whoever did it and then somebody will kill the son-of-a-bitch.’ And that was pretty much what happened,” recalls King.

“When I got home my mother was in tears. She kept saying, ‘That beautiful man. That beautiful man.’ I was shocked at that because we were Republicans.”

And when asked about conspiracy theorists King said that he does not have any bones to pick with them but he’s sure they’ll have a bone to pick with him.

King is a believer in Occam’s razor, nine times out of ten the simplest explanation is the truth. He believes that Oswald purchased the guns, was photographed with the guns, and used the guns.

A Conversation with Stephen King was a delightful affair and hopefully a fund raising success for The Sixth Floor Museum. King won over the audience with his wit and insights to his world. Much like his novels, he left the audience wanting more.

Stephen King at the Majestic Theatre (photo by James Roman)

Picasso and Braque exhibition at the Kimbell Art Museum (photo by Will Lopez)

Picasso and Braque: The Cubist Experiment, 1910-1912
Kimbell Art Museum
Through Sunday, August 21, 2011

The Kimball Art Museum is exhibiting Picasso and Braque: The Cubist Experiment, 1910-1912. This avant-garde exhibit features the works by master painters Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Georges Braque (1882-1963). This is a fun exhibit and a great opportunity to view art by the two most influential artists of the twentieth century.

Picasso and Braque are the creators of Cubism (1907-1919), a form of painting where the objects are broken into pieces, analyzed, and re-assembled to create an abstract form. Cubism was used in all forms of art at the time including painting, sculpture, music and literature.

The exhibit begins with the etchings and dry points and then transitions to paintings. The etchings were more social in nature with jovial overtones. The majority of the etchings were of life’s necessities: friends, beer, cigarettes and women.

I really enjoyed the paintings. They were richer and more complex with greater use of shades and layers. I found the paintings to be more thought provoking and stimulate the imagination. I typically have a few favorites but this time I couldn’t decide. I enjoyed the entire exhibit.

Picasso and Braque provides insightful facts regarding each piece of art which helps better appreciate the meaning of these historical pieces. I knew these men collaborated during these years but I didn’t realize they were good friends. So, this collaboration wasn’t merely based on experimenting with a new art style but a shared belief in evolving as artists and following their instincts. I was able to deduce Picasso and Braque’s level of friendship from the summary information as the Kimbell mentions their favorite bars and drinks.

I viewed each piece twice. The first pass I didn’t read the associated summary. I wanted to enjoy the works without knowing the background details, so I could construct my own interpretation of what the artist was trying to convey. The second pass I read the corresponding summary regarding the art then view the piece. The result, every time, I was able to see something I missed in the abstraction on the first pass.

I recommend catching Picasso and Braque: The Cubist Experiment, 1910-1912 at the Kimbell Art Museum before this great opportunity passes. The exhibit closes Sunday, August 21, 2011.

The Hack by Cuyler Etheredge

Fictional 2
Bath House Cultural Center
Through August 6, 2011

Fictional 2, the current gallery show at the Bath House Cultural Center at White Rock Lake in Dallas, runs through August 6, 2011. The exhibit coincides with – and takes its life from – the Thirteenth Annual Festival of Independent Theatres (FIT) running this month in the Center’s black-box theater.

The City of Dallas’ Office of Cultural Affairs runs the Bath House – a bohemian bunker of culture on the beach at White Rock Lake – along with sister Cultural Centers: Latina, South Dallas, and Oak Cliff.  Some of the best places in town to see great local art.

Here’s the gallery show premise:  artists were given eight plot blurbs (and nothing more) from the upcoming Festival plays as inspiration for their work.  The blurbs were:

1. A hack writer; fascination with squirrels; a cleaning lady.
2. Dancing memories of an aging dancer; coming to terms; cycles of life.
3. Aging lonely drag queen; descending into madness; on the verge of a breakdown.
4. Albanian chef seeks sexy Bulgarian waitress; a serenade of love through food; singing oysters.
5. Plane crash; the perfect life lost; light the way to salvation.
6. Explosion of the myth of the perfect suburban life; 1950s; communicating with outer space.
7. Two aging Southern belles in a seedy bar; a fortune-teller parrot; avian-induced epiphany.
8. Coming of age; youthful indiscretions; the power of mentorship.

Intrigued?  I know, me too.  Go to the Bath House to see the plays and enjoy the visual art show afterward.

If you’ve never been to a Bath House gallery show, you probably won’t expect to see the variety of work they hang.  From hobby artists to full-blown professionals, the Bath House is a community place for local artists to get seen.  Fictional 2 celebrates of the work of 40 local artists with an almost subliminal background of soft light jazz for your viewing pleasure.

Talk about a show that runs the gamut of media and surface.  Ohmigosh, in this show alone, I counted the following used to make art:

Albanian Chef Seeks Sexy Bulgarian Waitress by Matt Bagley

As an added bonus feature, that room at the end of the gallery hall is being used as the green room / dressing room for the actors, so my Saturday afternoon viewing of the show was enhanced by actors walking up and down the hallway, some in garish stage makeup and odd costumes.  As one show ended, the excited banter of actors high on performing leaked out of the room as they changed clothes and jabbered about the show.  It was awesome!

In a show this diverse, everyone is bound to find a few favorites.  I really loved about half the entries but I chose just three to picture to convince you it’s a must-see show.

Albanian Chef Seeks Sexy Bulgarian Waitress is a vision of uniqueness that I look for and love in a gallery show.  Artist Matt Bagley has made paper by hand and embedded (stretched?) it on a bamboo and raffia-woven, um, thing for the winner of the most interesting surface on which to work.  On top of this, he’s painted using reds and a pretty dark blue-grey purple, applied a touched-up photograph of a chef, and a really cool foreground digital image of a girl manipulated in a checker-board red and green pattern.  There are singing clams and a Harry Potter–like Griffandor coat of arms here too.  I love the use of texture and the overall shape of the piece and the shadow it casts.

Another work I liked that took a stab at this blurb was Richard Howdy’s Oysters Under Water with his pretty palette of blues and magentas and purples and his fluid ink lines.

The Hack by Cuyler Etheredge

Cuyler Etheredge’s painting The Hack takes a piece of one of the blurbs to illustrate.  The color draws you to the painting first and a photograph doesn’t do it justice.  It’s a bright orange shirt on the guy in the forefront, a primary-red McDonalds awing, and the blue jeans, jacket and cap of the three front characters that first grab your attention.  But this painting is an open-ended story.

What is the guy in orange doing with his messenger bag over his shoulder?  Why is the woman facing the other way and what is she smiling at?  (And how mad would she be that the artist painted her butt?)  My original thought was the guy with the blue coat and baseball cap must be the hack – he’s carrying a folded newspaper and got a little black book or PDA he’s referring to.  But now I’m not sure – you decide.  How ‘bout a play based on this painting for next year?

Another artist who used this blurb more literally by including the squirrels and the cleaning lady in a great black and white collage was Melissa Wertz in Two Hours of Untidy Writing. This piece is a smile-producer with squirrels and a net trashcan complete with balled up paper and cartoon people all applied to the surface.  The interior walls have striped wallpaper made of scotch tape with the word SQUIRRELS repeated on the tape.  Genius!

The drag queen blurb, as you might expect, drew some really great entries.  Who doesn’t love the idea of an “aging lonely drag queen; descending into madness; on the verge of a breakdown?”  Don’t miss Stacy Smith’s entry, Agin’ Lonely Drag Queen or Guinn Powell’s Spiraling Downward for stellar examples of the drag queen theme.

WWSD – What Would Scarlet Do? by Sharon Neel Bagley

Other work I really liked was Jane Cornish Smiths gorgeous entry Just a Phase, Juan Hernandez’ Golly, Christa Diepenbrock’s Leo and I in an Earthquake, Jeanne Sturdevant’s Eternal Dance, and Debbie Buie’s Lessons.

My favorite piece in the whole show is this photograph, WWSD – What Would Scarlet Do? by Sharon Neel Bagley.  In the spirit of the theater genesis of the show, looks to me like Sharon got her props and costumes and actors together, traipsed down to Exposition Avenue or some other location of a “seedy bar,” and shot a memorable photograph – two Southern belles, blue eye shadow, leopard print, cute bartender in a wife-beater, Lone Star beer, fortune-telling parrot, tarot cards (inhale!) – ALL under an avian induced epiphany.  A simple girl with a dream.

Theater, art, music and escaping the 110-degree temperature outside is a very successful afternoon in my book.  Thank you, Bath House!

Mère du Senegal by Lois Mailou Jones, 1985 (courtesy of the Loïs Mailou Jones Pierre-Noël Trust)

Lois Mailou Jones: A Life in Vibrant Color
The Women’s Museum
Through July 23, 2011

Lois Mailou Jones: A Life in Vibrant Color is in it’s final month hanging at The Women’s Museum in Fair Park. The show comes down July 23, so hurry to see it.

This exhibition was developed by the Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, North Carolina, in collaboration with the Lois Mailou Jones Pierre-Noel Trust and toured by International Arts & Artists.

A retrospective exhibit that illustrates over 70 years of an artist’s life is an honor to experience. There are some sacred self-discovery moments depicted in paint here you won’t want to miss. Included in the show is one of her last known paintings, executed when she was 91 years old.

Jones is an artist that chronicled her life by sharing it with paintings. This show is autobiographical, but it is also archetypal. If you’re like me and you love a show that has many layers, you’ll really like this one. The show is at once, all of these things: beautiful art, the story of a woman in a man’s world, and the story of a black woman finding self-acceptance and self-expression using her art.

I’ll describe the show in four periods – early work, portraits, landscapes and streetscapes and mature period.

This show is lovingly curated and beautifully hung by The Women’s Museum. Pick up one of the Family Guides at the desk and/or purchase the catalogue in the gift shop – it’s a great way to relive the show later.

The Women’s Museum both celebrates and educates about the roles women have played in shaping our culture and society and they do it quite well. There is enough inspiration and pride in this building to fill one twice the size. If you never have before, take the time when you visit the show to experience the Museum too – it’s really a celebratory place.

The Early Period

Lois Mailou Jones was born in 1905 in Boston and spent summers on Martha’s Vineyard with her grandmother, who was a housekeeper and nanny. She must have displayed artistic talent early as she graduated from the High School of Practical Arts and won scholarships to attend evening and Saturday classes at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

At the Museum, her training was very traditional as evidenced by a few pieces that begin the exhibition. Artists’ formal training often begins by copying other artist’s work, particularly sculpture. The show has two charcoal drawings of Rodin sculptures – both technically outstanding, but carefully and somewhat tentatively modeled. A slightly bolder figure study is also included from her student days.

Design for Cretonne Drapery Fabric by Lois Mailou Jones, 1932 (courtesy of the Loïs Mailou Jones Pierre-Noël Trust)

Several years later, Lois worked as a textile designer for cretonne draperies – you’ll recognize these designs as your grandmother’s curtains if she was shopping in the 1930s and 1940s. The paintings in the show are delightfully retro and colorful – they certainly would be marketable again now in that weird way that “everything old turns new again.”

Before we walk by with just a smiling glance, there is something very important to the life story of Lois Mailou Jones in these tempera paintings.

Stand a couple inches from the painting and look for a reworked section, a stray brush stroke, or evidence of overpainting. There is none. These paintings are flawlessly rendered with some of the highest technical skill I’ve ever seen. The control of the brushstrokes is absolutely amazing. Those of you who have worked with tempera paint know how difficult it is to get flat color, clean lines, and opacity. These examples are the work of a very accomplished technician – in addition to being absolutely stunning design.

According to the narrative stop cards throughout the show, young Lois desired to continue to grow and develop as a “fine artist “ – one who signed her work as opposed to an anonymous designer. She found the world of higher education both as student and teacher; she inhabits this world throughout her life. Jones spent almost fifty years as a Howard University professor as well as multiple guest teaching stints in France and Haiti over her long career.

The next period in her life is one of a great career “growth spurt.” Lois takes the opportunity to travel to France – the paragon of fine art and art education at the time – to study and produce work at various academies.

La Mère, Paris by Lois Mailou Jones, 1938 (courtesy of the Loïs Mailou Jones Pierre-Noël Trust)

La Mere, Paris was painted during one of these trips. Here, Jones paints a charming rendition of the mother/child painting, a very soft and undefined picture of a woman with her hair bobbed and her very pink and blue child. It’s a beautiful painting in browns and blues, but really tells us nothing about Lois Mailou Jones other than that she’s an accomplished artist.

The Portrait Period

Her portraits from this period, however, are some of the best work in the show. Dans un Café à Paris (Leigh Whipper), 1939 is a painting Jones called one of her favorites and it’s easy to see why. Leigh Whipper was a famous black Broadway stage and film star about 30 years Jones’ senior. She painted him in a Paris café as he enjoyed hamburgers and a beer. It’s really great portrait of a man in that place in life when he’s content to linger at a café. Lois paints black skin tones so beautifully – she is true to what she sees in the complex colors that makes up a complexion. A purple shadow here, an ochre midtone, perhaps a golden highlight. What a gift she has for portraiture. (And the hamburgers will make you hungry – guaranteed.)

While some elements of this work are Cezanne-like, I see American Regionalism (Grant Wood, John Stuart Curry, Thomas Hart Benton) here too. It interests me that Jones drew from so many varied influences in her long and prolific career.

I have to stop for a moment to tell you that every piece in the show has a different frame. Some are clearly antique frames. The effect of this unusual exhibit presentation is that you feel as if these paintings are hanging on Jones’ walls at home and that suddenly you’re walking through her D.C. home while she describes the decades of her life to you. It’s a very intimate, very personal experience.

Spend lots of time savoring these portraits from Jones’ mid-career. There’s a wonderful small self-portrait where she portrays herself with African sculptures behind her on a credenza. Painted in 1940, her work is beginning to read as the work of an African American woman artist – another layer of richness. However, there is, even at 35 years of age, a certain reluctance to reveal too much or be too bold.

Remembering that she is a woman in a man’s field and a black woman in a white-dominated world probably explains her tentativeness. She’s worlds away here from anonymous drapery design, but she’s got some more living and painting to do before it feels like she’s really come into her own.

One of my favorite portraits from this period is Dr. Rene d’Avignon, 1947 – a small thickly textured (a la Cezanne) portrait of a young man with a jaunty chartreuse sweater and purple tie under his gray suit. She defines the good doctor’s face with brushstrokes angled this way and that, thickly layering the oil paint so we clearly visualize the structure of his face. It’s a dandy.

The best portraits in the show – all from this time period where her work becomes more personal – showcase yellow as a prominent color. There’s an absolutely gorgeous Eusebia Cosme, 1944 – an exuberant yellow painting of a friend that has such a joyful Carmen Miranda vibe to it. It’s loosely painted with thick oils in texture and very girly and fun.

Lillian Evanti, 1940 is a delicious Impressionistic portrait of another friend, a beautiful brunette opera singer. Against golden yellow drapes (which could have been designed by Jones herself!), the diva has a yellow fan, yellow flowers and a lace mantilla in her hair, a yellow dress, and red jacket. The textures! The colors! Bravo!

Pay attention to the autumn colored tree-shapes in the background. Here’s another example of American Regionalism style in Jones work. The same style shapes are often found in Grant Wood’s landscapes of the period.

Jennie, 1943 depicts one of her students scaling fish in Jones’ kitchen before or after a painting session. Jennie is dressed in yellow, the fish are pink and grey and there are lemons and yellow flowers to pick up and distribute yellow throughout. It appears to be simply a snapshot, but these colors and spatial relationships don’t happen by accident. The artist set up a still life using her friend and student and then captured it for us.

Finally from this period, I adore the double portrait Two Women, circa 1950. Jones paints these two beautiful sisters (or best friends?) in a tight headshot, straight-on and close together. It’s a loosely rendered painting, but these stylish ladies with their good hair and red lipstick aim to be remembered. The colors in their complexions and outfits (one of them yellow!) sing.

The Landscape / Streetscape Period

Along with her portrait interest, Lois also painted landscapes and streetscapes; there are a fair number of these in the show too. Most of these paintings were done in France, Haiti, or Africa while Jones was traveling or teaching.

There are two really interesting rooftop paintings from France. Paris Rooftops Montmarte, 1965 and 1966 – some of her first paintings done in acrylic rather than oil – have a “Cary Grant cat-burglar movie” authenticity. 1965 is a starry night scene in beautiful deep blues and grays punctuated by yellow moonlight and skylights to warm the picture. Never tied to a particular style, it has heavy black outlines while 1966, a sunny daytime scene, does not.

The Women’s Museum has hung these two side by side, and you probably wouldn’t guess the same artist had painted them a year apart. Jones paints in a wide variety of styles – and over a period of decades. It’s a skill she uses to her advantage – carefully matching style to subject.

Let me tell you for a minute about Jones’ Haiti paintings. Lois Mailou Jones married Louis Vergniaud Pierre-Noel, a Haitian graphic artist in 1953. For the next two decades, she painted streetscapes and Haitian subjects often. Her spirit soars in these paintings – I think Haiti must have really set her free because these paintings are joyful, colorful, and full of people. I have a feeling she thought of Haitians as “her people.”

One of my favorites from among these is Marche, Haiti 1963. Here she paints a dozen or so folks presumably walking down the street carrying baskets, boxes, baked goods – on their daily routines. She’s shifted the perspective, though, tilted the picture off center, and boxed the scene in with a couple of bold window shapes. The effect is a confident primary-colored painting. The people in the picture are all painted one complexion – almost a silhouette effect, but she’s sketched in some facial features in white. The kinship she feels with the people in her Haiti paintings is palpable.

In many of her later landscapes and streetscapes, Jones uses a technique more often seen in illustrators work. It’s very effective and stylish – she overpaints a very fine and graceful set of straight black lines over the shapes in the picture and she extends the line slightly beyond the shape she’s outlining. It’s almost an architectural drawing technique – very unusual and unique to her and quite pleasing to the eye. I’m astounded by her steady hand and the fluidity of the line.

The Mature Period

Finally, Jones is in a personal place beginning in the 1960s where she can fully explore and celebrate being a black woman artist. She travels to Africa and returns often to her decorative painting technical skills to paint large flat areas of paint – but this time, she’s painting Adrinka icons and symbols of her African heritage. Again you’ll be startled by her steady hand even into her eighties.

Mère du Senegal by Lois Mailou Jones, 1985 (courtesy of the Loïs Mailou Jones Pierre-Noël Trust)

The large bold declarative painting Dahomey, 1971 is a glorious example of this period. Orange and red color blocks behind bold black figures with bright pops of complimentary colors are depicted in this one. Others have mask images, cloth patterns, applied gold leaf, beads glued on, or tissue paper applied to them. Jones has thrown away the rule book now and is fully comfortable to paint what she feels.

Among these paintings is the one that The Mint Museum of Art chose for the Family Guide cover: Mere du Senegal, 1985. This isn’t my favorite painting from this period, but I love the symmetry it creates with La Mere, Paris – painted 50 years earlier. In her later years, Jones is painting her ancestry, her roots. This painting is as tender a “mother and child” as any artist from time immemorial has painted, but it’s an Afrocentric take on the milieu. So fresh, so bold, and so informative for her viewers who haven’t had the opportunity to see Africa ourselves. Look at the decorative elements in the back and then the triptych of color she’s used – akimbo – to back the figures. It’s a pretty great piece.

There are seventy paintings in this show. It’s a tour de force – as was she. Lois Mailou Jones achieved numerous solo shows at galleries like the Corcoran in D.C.; is represented in collections like The National Portrait Gallery and the Metropolitan Museum of Art; has been the subject of a number of books and a documentary movie; earned tons of awards, including the Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Visual Arts from President Jimmy Carter; is the subject of Lois Mailou Jones Day in Washington D.C. – July 29; and received two honorary doctorates – one from Massachusetts College of Art and the other from Howard University.

It’s a pleasure and an honor to have made her acquaintance through this awesome show. Don’t miss it!

The Outsider by Alejandro Diaz Alaya (image courtesy of Kirk Hopper Fine Arts)

Just Between Us: New Works by Alejandro Diaz Ayala
Kirk Hopper Fine Art
June 4 through July 9, 2011

Just Between Us: New Works by Alejandro Diaz Ayala is the current show at Deep Ellum’s Kirk Hopper Fine Art gallery.

Alejandro Diaz is a Dallas visual artist in his mid-twenties who has produced 11 pieces for the show. All but one of them are paintings – oils and acrylics with other sketching media incorporated.

Every boy who aspires to be an artist draws familiar cartoon and comic book characters as a part of his technique development. Alejandro is clearly no exception – his otherwise realistic traditionally rendered portraits are embellished with fragments of Popeye, Porky Pig, Olive Oyl, Mickey Mouse and Pinocchio – an arm here, ears there, perhaps a whole face here. Looney Tunes, Walt Disney, and Max Fleischer Studios would be ecstatic to find that their seventy-year old cartoon images are still captivating and influencing young artists.

While many of us move onto other imagery in our paintings as we get older, Alejandro successfully explores a potentially awkward inter-relationship between very tightly rendered traditional portraiture, comic and cartoon imagery, underpainting, over-drawing, and abstract expressionism. That he is still exploring, refining, and maturing a personal technique is obvious (and expected), but that he is in control of the process is evident too.

Cristina by Alejandro Diaz Alaya

In addition to all of the above, Diaz adds another rich layer here and there – traditional Latin cultural imagery with a particular predilection to “día de los muertos” skulls. Dallas is certainly the beneficiary of so many artists who proudly weave elements of a very rich heritage into their art.

Diaz demonstrates a really fine realistic portrait technique. In Cristina, a delightfully rendered portrait of a young woman showing us some personality and moxy in her expression is embellished with an overlay of a skull, a Porky Pig head, Popeye’s forearm, parts of three semi-circles and what appears to be red crayon drawings. Diaz shows us that if he draws those three semi-circle lines just right, we immediately see Mickey Mouse’s head. A bulging forearm with an anchor tattoo? Popeye of course. Is the portrait defaced with these images? Or are they an integral part of the portrait? Diaz leaves this up to the viewer to decide.

In his artist statement, he writes, “… I fight with my paintings, layering paint, scrapping ideas, editing, and re-working each element until it is just right.” Anyone who has painted knows that the most precipitous time in the entire creation process is to know when the painting is finished. Painters like Diaz, who are bold enough to leave blank canvas and incomplete images in their finished work, already have mastered one of the hardest disciplines in art – that is, stopping when they know the work is finished.

The Outsider by Alejandro Diaz Alaya (image courtesy of Kirk Hopper Fine Arts)

In another portrait piece I really like, Diaz paints a sensitive portrait of a young man. Particularly notice the subject’s posture, his naked chest and shoulders, and his mouth. This is a tenderly painted portrait of a real person. What Diaz has painted over the top of the man’s head is another of his sort of signature elements – you’ll find this motif on several of the paintings. This spontaneous, colorful flow of party colors – blobs and loops of yellows, blues, pinks – becomes a way for the subject to both show us his thoughts – and to hide behind them. Without seeing his eyes, we’re not sure we’d recognize him and this is the way it’s got to be right now.

Other portraits in the show use a similar technique. In Communion, a young boy in his Sunday suit, palms together in prayer, his face left in an unfinished underpainting, nonetheless allows some of these quickly laid-in brightly colored thoughts to ooze down his forehead as well. And in Maximilliano, a knight in shining armor’s thoughts are actually exploding out of the top of his head in a confetti blaze with – oops – Popeye’s head popping out as well.

Diaz has a signature color that appears in many of his works – an unlikely Pepto-Bismol pink color. Often it’s a background, laid in quickly with thick wet brushstrokes after the portrait is complete. He also uses a glossy neutral gray in this way. This technique makes the figure “pop” and is another example of knowing when an element is finished before you overwork it.

Thumper by Alejandro Diaz Alaya (image courtesy of Kirk Hopper Fine Arts)

The biggest and most stunning piece in the show grabs you when you walk into the gallery and doesn’t let go until you’ve fully examined it. Thumper is a diptych ten feet wide by 6 feet tall. Here we are witnessing a sexual tryst over linear time. On the right, a loosely but realistically rendered sensuous nude woman who has repositioned herself here and there – each movement caught over time by Diaz. She wears the bright party-colored thoughts as sunglasses and thus successfully hides her identity from us, although her nude body reveals much. On the left side of the painting, her paramour’s lower body is left in gesso and underdrawing – all except for his huge orange/pink tinted erection, which Diaz depicts twice due to the couple’s position changes. Cartoon explosion-clouds are painted black on black under the woman, perhaps indicating the fury of their passion. There’s a faint but ominous-looking animus image leering at the female above her partner, but she either doesn’t notice or isn’t bothered by its presence. Thumper is the strongest and most “unposed” painting in the show.

The American Beast by Michael Christopher Matson and Kevin Obregon

The Kirk Hopper Fine Art gallery is a really nice gallery – it’s bright with natural sunlight, high ceilings and clean concrete floors. The gallery staff is friendly and welcoming. Go through the gallery and you’ll find a door to an enclosed outdoor courtyard gallery space. Make sure to check it out.

The outdoor gallery currently houses a massive metal sculpture, The American Beast by Michael Christopher Matson and Kevin Obregon. When this piece is positioned in a more public place (as it certainly will be), cars will be crashing as drivers come upon it – it is that imposing. It looks for all the world like something from our collective ancient consciousness or a piece of the Stargate Destiny. It’s a stunning, huge, domineering, powerful work.

It’s a joy to have discovered Alejandro Diaz Alaya early in his career. Figurative painters are a special breed. We shall all enjoy watching his interesting and unique voice evolve and mature.

Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Robert Jackson at The Sixth Floor Museum in 2010 (photo by Mr. Holga)

Today, The Dallas Morning News reported on Mr. Holga’s JFK project. The project, titled Death By Holga: 11.22.63,  is a journey to photograph people, places and things related to the Kennedy assassination in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

See Dallas Artist Photographs Graves of Figures in JFK Assassination.

The News stated that Mr. Holga, our walkabout photographer and reporter, was mainly looking for graves of the individuals involved. The article minorly mentioned photographing live people. To date Mr. Holga has photographed Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Robert Jackson, a quick snap shot of Dallas Police Detective James Leavelle and Secret Service Agents Jerry Blaine and Clint Hill.

“I am currently working with the City of Dallas and Det. Leavelle to do a photo shoot of him in the basement of the old Dallas Police Headquarters,” said Mr. Holga. “I am very excited to have this opportunity to photograph Det. Leavelle.”

Mr. Holga does realize that most of the people and places involved with the Kennedy assassination will be deceased or gone. The majority of those involved were already in their 40s and 50s when the incident occurred. And places have changed too. Mr. Holga has discovered the presidential suite at the Texas Hotel in Fort Worth has changed so much that it no longer exists.

“I’m working as fast as I can to get on film whatever I can for this project,” said Mr. Holga.

Mr. Holga doesn’t want his JFK project to be a collection of grave photos. He also wants this to be a book about connecting the past to the current.

“People don’t realize what connection they have to the Kennedy presidency. Thousands of people travel I35E, a.k.a. Stemmons Freeway, and have no idea that businessman John Stemmons, who donated the land for the road, was waiting to meet Kennedy at the Dallas Trade Mart,” noted Mr. Holga.

Wish List

Mr. Holga has a big list of names and several of them are still alive and well. He agrees that some of the names on his list may be unattainable, but that doesn’t stop him from trying.

Mr. Holga would love to photograph

• Caroline Kennedy
• Former President Bill Clinton
• Former President George W. Bush
• Astronaut John Glenn
• Current CBS News Anchor (Scott Pelley)
• Roger Staubach

And many more.

Parkland Baby

Of all the people Mr. Holga would like to photo, one unnamed person stands out. Mr. Holga would like to photography anybody born on Nov. 22, 1963, especially at Parkland Hospital in Dallas (see Were you born at Parkland Hospital in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963?). If you fit this bill, then please send Mr. Holga a message.

Death By Holga: 11.22.63

The book has a long way to go till completion. Fortunately, the 50th anniversary is 29 months away. Plenty of time for Mr. Holga to get all his photos, find a publisher and make a book.

Be sure to follow Mr. Holga on his journey through his site (www.mrholga.com), Facebook (facebook.com/DeathByHolga) or Twitter (twitter.com/MrHolga). Cheers.

Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Robert Jackson at The Sixth Floor Museum in 2010 (photo by Mr. Holga)