How refreshing to hear those that have come before you, echoing your own sentiments. A living testimony and example that the artists way, life, longing and talent is of no detriment.
To all you creatives and non-creatives (non-creatives being a debatable term) out there..a video that reminded me to keep on pushing; perhaps it will do the same for you.
#namaste
“One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.” -OSCAR WILDE
thank gawd he got around to being famous before he dipped from this world..how else would he have inspired the likes of my and my highschool buddies?
this is awesome for so many reasons! care to share why you chose to cover the left eye and not the right?
Sup? and welcome.
I’d like to explain a few things because apparently I don’t communicate clearly. This, in fact, is the main reason why ARTacrobat’s blog exists. So heeeere we go!
If you polled all my friends and Facebook friends, they’ll tell you that I’m a mess! Initially, its hurtful but like the word nigger (gasp!) I turn it on its head and make it cool (ie: niggah) Sooo, spank you very much! I speak the way I think–in a stream of consciousness. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stream_of_consciousness_(narrative_mode) Psychologist William James would be proud; I bet Mark Zuckerburg would be too. I mean, think about it–Facebook is the Queen of communicating in this manner. Read your timeline at any given moment and pandora’s box opens up, mirroring or telling on the minds of your friends.
Somehow though, when you speak this way in person (or online for that matter) the origin of the impetus (causing you to speak/ like/ comment/post) gets lost. You can’t just post something and not explain it! right? whatever. i don’t know. i dont think so. welll maybe. not.what would Freud say? what would my mom say? what would Jesus do? wait, is Jesus a man or a woman? definitely a woman. or maybe Jesus is a dude but God is a woman? duuude looks like a laaaday. yeah definitely a woman. speaking of women, she has a nice rack. rack–why do we call it rack? imma google it….and so on and so on and so. on.
It leads me to why I believe I’m a visual artist. I communicate much more proficiently via pictures or images. Back in the dizzayy (read: day) pictures/images/symbols were for the illiterate. Who had time to friggn read when you had kids to raise, wars to fight and potatoes to grow? ( Leave that to the elite clergy) ‘Just show me a damn picture!’ they say. I’m glad you demanded…
This is a sketch I did about a year or so ago for a friend in Harlem. She was working on a project in which she would initiate a resurgence of black LGBT historical pride–a New Harlem Renaissance. To this day, it remains in my sketch book. [Which is on display at the LGBT Center of Raleigh–> http://bit.ly/SpfU5J ]
Gladys Bentley is and was the first documented African-American drag-king of the infamous ClamHouse in 1920’s Harlem. Her biography an inspiring message to us all. (google her) Anyhow, while this piece is not for sale, it has been posted and shared because its my job to illustrate for the illiterate. By illiterate, i mean having little or no education on the subject matter. I sketched this because a friend was in need of a way to educate the masses quickly (remember how we have babies to feed, wars to fight and potatoes to grow?) and because she doesn’t think she can draw.
I think that’s all for now, my think tank levels are drying up. Time to draw/paint/sketch/sculpt some ‘mo because writing isn’t my foreplay, i mean forte..Y n da eff you see kay do you think imma visual artist? From my brain to your eyeballs with love, namaste.
–ARTacrobat
i wonder what a female dildo would feel like?…
During my exhibit at the LGBT Center of Raleigh, entitled “THE DOUBLE GODDESS EFFECT”, I asked my dad which pieces were his favorite. Much to my shock…it was FEMALE DILDO. Its a charcoal and pencil drawing of a woman in the nude wearing a dildo. Upon closer inspection, he said ” ooooh snap! the dildo is a woman!” (I grinned) I asked him, “why do you like it so much, big daddy? (yes, i call him big daddy–more about that later) He beamed, “well the thinking involved that the artist had to have is mind-blowing! I mean, the fact that the woman is pleasuring a woman with another woman?!..I like this one for sure, definitely a favorite.”
We had transcended our usual roles; him the dad and I the daughter morphing into voyeur and artist. The feeling betrayed my usual coooool as a cucumber veneer; sooo I got a lil misty. Whatever. How satisfying that someone out there understands what it is you’re ‘saying’ without having to say it. (We’ve always been that way, my dad and I, speaking without words)
Conversely, I’m learning to find the opposite satisfying as well–hence this post. ‘Female Dildo’ is about a lot of things that swirl around my afro’ed head. Ergonomically, dildo’s don’t align well with the fragile lotus flower (vagina). Like the bikini and panty-hose/ stockings, a man must have invented the dildo (rumor has it an Egyptian man is to thank and blame)
While it makes sense to replicate the phallic shape of a real penis, it shoo don’t feel like it! A woman must be caressed, nudged and tickled into ecstasy; not poked, stabbed or rammed. (gentlemen and ladies for that matter, the jack rabbit move is NOT the move to make)
Who better to tell you than a woman, the intended recipient? I propose that ‘her’ shoulders would nudge the delicate lotus flower (vagina), her hair tickle its petals and her head the catalyst for the blessed ecstatic crescendo.
Another inspiration for ‘Female Dildo’ was my own personal tug of war between being a modern day feminist and a lady who still wants to bake cookies for her pretend future charter school granola-ish mommie group. The old adage ‘lady in the streets, freak in the sheets comes to mind.’ Using the term strong black woman is so lame to me; I will say however that like most of the human race, sometimes I’m soft and sometimes I’m strong. Sometimes I spit after smoking a cigar but always, always in the ladies room and inside a napkin. Aaaand sometimes, I like to put on a black leather strap-on and softly coax the lotus flower of another into climactic shock, with a ‘Female Dildo’.
Thankfully, this piece is already spoken for. The good news is that reproductions can me ordered via my fineartamerica portfolio here –> http://fineartamerica.com/featured/female-dildo-candace-pryor.html?newartwork=true
and as always,
namaste.
ARTacrobat: Working artist statement
I’m not just selling art…I’m offering a conscious shift in thought. The subjects I choose are people; specifically the disenfranchised, the last person picked in doge ball, the underdog. This desire is coupled with an urge to find the truth. In my personal life and throughout my work, I diligently force myself to tell the truth no matter the consequence. I don’t always succeed however I stress diligence. The easiest way for me to find that truth is to find its polar opposite and examine the contrast (ie: reverse engineering) Here is where my work gets interesting and at times, uncomfortable. I’m obsessed with exposing the lies we tell ourselves, the lies we tell our loved ones, the lies the government tells it’s public, how those lies shape our surroundings/culture and why it’s so difficult to do otherwise. It is my mantra to find the truth for myself, to tell the truth for those who are afraid and to display it for all to see through visual stimulation in order to inspire change, hope, integrity and harmony. To that end, I realize it will take more than my work but my goal is to be the conduit, the spark, the idiot savant.
Most recently, I’ve mashed together painting and collage because of its immediacy. It’s my opinion that I enjoy this way of working because of the social culture that I inherited; the “drive-through generation” (we expect results now and with little effort). These two reasons explain why I’m salivating for the coveted position of being donned Artspace’s next Regional Emerging Artist resident. When other artists let their hair down we admit to each other that we just need a space to work. I finally have the courage to say that working on my mother’s kitchen table and floor is no longer acceptable. How bizarre would it be for your doctor to examine you in his/her mother’s sofa? It is time I grow up because the direction my work is going includes medium-to-large scale installations and video; focusing on homelessness in Raleigh, NC. Mixed media will always have a special place in my heart but as I approach 30 years of life on this earth, I want to slow down and reflect on what is important and necessary to feel like a whole human. Installation and video are the mediums that will allow me to do so. Lastly, as a child, my grandfather walked me up and down Davie Street to take classes at Artspace. Somewhere there is a picture of me playing the piano that is still in the same place some 20 years later. As an adult, it would be an honor and my pleasure to “come back home.” May I please be your next Emerging Artist Resident? Promise not to let you down.
http://hyperallergic.com/56664/andrew-ohanesian-house-party-pierogi-boiler/
this right here?!
is what i’m talkn ’bout
just balls out and do that crazy, dumb, brilliant idea.
suck down that fear
put yo wings on
and fly dammit. fly.
namaste to this guy for rockn. for bein an example. indeed.
my balls have finally swollen large enough.
it is my aim. my mission and my duty.
i WILL. i ACCEPT.
forget who killed kenny.
ARTacrobat just killed the starving artist. namaste.
Artacrobat's Blog 