Monday, April 7, 2014

Out in the backwoods.


Rural living at one time, about 100 years ago was the place that most people lived. as the Industrial revolution kicked in there was a giant shift from rural to city.  For people of colour especially in the united states the end of the slave trade  and the begining of jim crow saw the "great migration" millions moving north from the south. i imagine in Canada the shift from rural to city happened because of the lack of ownership of land and the Canadian Jim Crow.  blah blah.. so the Artists black artist, me artist always working in urban centres. except for outsider artist like Thornton Dial. the Geez bends women. Or Bill Traylor.
 I have moved to this small town with next to no people of colour, as a matter of fact there was a bylaw that forbade non whites to  sleep in the town after sundown.(they no longer have that law) it's crazy up here there are very few rural areas with a community of people of colour.  Can i still be a black artist, and what does that mean?
looking at my work (above)  I wonder if it will be transformed by moving from a city like Montreal. to a backwater( as my mother called this place) will i lose my black search, as i think thats what my work was all about. it was a search not for a definative "Blackness" but an acceptance of that which resides in me.


Friday, April 4, 2014

Art as life


Clutter, Hoarding, keeping stuff. I'm in the art as reduction world. I have in a short period of time, I have moved all my stuff out of my apartment in Montreal and moved to Meaford to help my mother move out of her house and downsize. things i know; All those handy space saving devices on sale? they are really enablers for hoarders. every clutterer will buy these units to organize their junk, see that sliegh of hand? organize instead of get rid of. Hide, tuck away instead of giving away. its part of our ridiculous consumerist life , instead of cutting back buy more to organize the stuff. One industry that is growing is the storage industry.