Art Night Out with artist Carlleena Person

Manny and I ventured out for our artsy date night and to our surprise not only was the art fantastic the artist was a sistah’

Bold, graphic, energetic and vivid with an urban twist is how I would describe Carlleena’s artwork. At first glance her work could be written off as simplistic but take a closer look and you can see the creative expression that creates interest in her work. You can see elements of the bold graffiti style lines that define her shapes and  her color palette of bright bold colors gives that childlike “whimsical” feeling she equates to her art.

Her exhibit was hosted at Escape hair and skin studio on 1440 South Tryon St. in uptown Charlotte. We were greeted at the door by a djembe drummer and a bass player who could be heard blocks away. The salon was not your typical salon. It was reminiscent of a gallery space which lent itself well to Carlleena’s art. There was also an assortment of refreshments (better than most offered at these sort’s of functions) and a cash bar. NICE!

The highlight of the event was her live art demo where she enlisted the help of  the exhibit goer’s to help paint one of her pieces. I got to paint the lips 😀 COOL!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After checking out Carlleena’s show we headed across the street to another exhibit hosted by the Charlotte Art League Gallery on 1517 Camden Rd.

The show was called “Primary Colors” works accentuating the use of red, yellow and blue the building blocks of color. This show was not as impressive as the previous in that the artwork although tied together by the use of primary colors I found there was no other unity. There were a few stand out pieces such as the portraits of Arthur Ashe and Angela Davis and my favorite being an abstract painting by artist Adrian Barrionuevo called “Sun and Shade”. We also met another creative artist named Wan Marsh who was a self-described wacky artist, that utilized a mostly green artistic approach. Her mixed media work incorporated salvaged frames, old books and papers, vintage wall paper and found objects. She was my kind of artist!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After our gallery crawl Manny and I decided to make a pit stop over to The Common Market this is a really cool spot to just chill, grab a drink or a deli sandwich and sit back and enjoy the artsy vibe. Thursday thru Sunday they have a DJ mixing it up on his iPod. Hopefully the next time we decide to hang there it will be just as cool! It really bought me back to my art school days at SCAD.

Had a blast with hubby. He is really a cool cat to hang with, look at some art and just chill. Hopefully in the near future we can  be able to support some of the artists by purchasing their work. Who knows we may end up owning a piece from the next great artist!

A Day at the Museums

Manny and I had a free day to hang out uptown Charlotte recently and we ended up visiting two museums that I had been wanting to explore.

Museum Exhibit: Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers

Our first stop was the Levine Museum of the New South on  the corner of College and 7th street. The museum had two main exhibits. Cotton Fields to Skyscrapers was the more interactive and interesting of the two. It features examples  the south’s evolution from slave states focused on the production of cotton by using slave labor to its rebirth into a leader in finance. We got to see a tenant farmers house , stroll down 1920’s main street, sit at a lunch counter and hear personal stories from african americans who participated in sit in’s, sit at a lunch counter, shop at an early Belk store…..It is always interesting  for me to imagine what life would have been like during those times.It definatly makes me appreciate the struggles my ancestors went through so that I could enjoy the privileges I have today.

Museum Exhibit: Courage

The Courage exhibit focused on the citizens of a small rural South Carolina community who decided to fight to end school segregation, all which led to the landmark 1954 Supreme Court decision of Brown vs Board of Education. The exhibit was less interesting as a viewer because it was very stark  and basically consisted of large posters with a lot of text. There wasn’t very much to do besides read. As an educator I don’t think children would enjoy this gallery experience as much as the other.

Our next stop was the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts+Culture located on 551 S. Tryon Street. The day was beautiful so we decided to walk across town to get there.

We viewed two exhibits here as well. The first was the John & Vivian Hewitt Collection of African-American Art.  The Gantt Center is the permanent home for the Hewitt Collection and features artworks by Charlotte-born Romare Bearden and other master artists such as Margaret Burroughs, Jonathan Green, Jacob Lawrence, Elizabeth Catlett, Ann Tanksley and Henry Ossawa Tanner. I personally love collage and mixed media art work so Romare is one of my favorites! It’s always amazing to see art that I’ve only seen in books or posters. To be up close and see the brush strokes, pencil marks and texture of the art is inspirational. It makes me want to get back to creating my own work.

Art work by: Jacob Lawrence

Artwork by Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons

The second exhibit features The Art of Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons titled What My Mother Told Me… As the brochure states, “With a distinguished 20-year career, Campos-Pons has created works that examine personal and national identity, cultural complexities and socioeconomic politics. Campos-Pons has explored her self-imposed exile from Cuba and her experiences as an Afro-Cuban woman living in America. Incorporating mixed-media installations, video and large-format Polaroid photographs.”Looking at her work made me think and wonder what she was trying to communicate to me the viewer? Although I didn’t quite understand what she was trying to say, I did appreciate her style and technique. Her large format was attention grabbing and let me know she had something BIG she wanted to express. I also like the use of photography to capture the realism of her subject matter. Art is truly personal and subjective which makes it unique to everyone. There is no Right or Wrong in art and that I can appreciate!

After a day spent at the museums we decided to dine al fresco at Fuel Pizza and split a veggie lovers pie. I couldn’t have asked for a better day spent with two things I love, my Hubby and Art!

de las dos aguas

Compos Pon

Here is the finished Rainforest Window Mural

I want to thank M for his help with the butterfly panel. He did a great job!

Day 3 Window Mural

Almost done with the window mural. I will most likely be done tomorrow. I learned alot in this process like how much to charge for this type

of job. I look forward to doing another in the near future. Here are some pics of  the panels I  finished today.