Workshop prep: Here comes the "Sun"

Guess what I’m going to be doing, once the fog lifts? Sealing a massive amount of wood panels — about 80 of them — for a class I’m going to teach next week.

I’ve partnered with the Bellevue Big Picture School to create a collage project based on the book “Copper Sun,” which some of their eighth-graders have been studying. The historical novel centers a young West African girl swept up into the North American slave trade. Intense, but I’m told the students are diving into the story of a girl who’s almost exactly their age when she’s kidnapped and sold.

So this weekend I’ll be elbow-deep in matte medium and paper, as well as the other materials I’m going to bring to class. Cross your fingers that the sunny weather holds… I need these panels to dry fast!

New art: "Was It Something I Said?"

Hey, I'm back! And I brought some new artwork with me.

This collage put me through the emotional wringer, even though the concept came fairly quickly. Remember the inspiration for this collage? 

Looking at this picture is like trying to watch three TV screens at once. Remembering that moment, I'm pretty sure my mom was just chilly and impatient to get back into the warm car. But now I also see uncertainty in her face.

She grew up surrounded by other African Americans in the (segregated) South. You could tell because when she said the letter R, it had two syllables.

I grew up in a southern California neighborhood that had only three other black families. All of them lived on the other side of the street -- the side without a view of the city. (I later learned this was a discriminatory realtor trick my mom recognized, and she insisted on the view.)

When I moved to Seattle, my accent didn't set me apart, but I did feel an isolation similar to hers. It's called "the Seattle Freeze," and I couldn't find a way into a social circle until another California transplant made it her mission to bring me in from the cold.

My friend reassured me I wasn't coming on too strong when trying to meet new people. It was just... Seattle.  That's why I titled this piece "Was It Something I Said?"

This collage is for those who've faced a frosty group and struggled to find a place for themselves.