WHOA!

alternative model modeling for Murpho's Rod's and Customs is Keke Cancino

(2013)

Colored Woman by Pasckie Pascua. acrylic. watercolor. pens. sharpies. pastels. oil. paper canvas.

spiked headdress post-apocalyptic, tribal look by Miss G. Designs.

Sculpture of a woman chiseling fat off ...

pin up girl by Gil Elvyren

Vintage book covers

Traveling

Carlton (Ritz-Carlton) hotel, the square where the Velvet Revolution started, and an open air gallery of Eastern European art, that includes a large silver pair of women’s legs.

 -josephkimes.wordpress.com



Carmela Peluso and Cosetta Chantal walking together in Italy (2015)

 

O, Black Woman !

My objectification of the Black female body

You are an object of useless wood
So how does one create what’s good?
Erotic minds are those who could ...
Create art from pieces of wood

For the object of you is the beauty of you
Like those who seek a heavenly view
That is the view of those who knew
That you are God’s creation true

To create a heaven in you IS to bless the object of you
The beautiful view that makes thinking askew
What else is man to do?
Who can object to you?

(c) Menelik Charles



sculpture of the Black female body
by Menelik Charles 

 

SONG TO THE BODIES OF KNOWLEDGE

April 5, 2013
Spanish seduction dress

You'd think it would be the logical option, but the notion of freedom is defeated and defended by people's fears of not being bound.  This paradox lives in so many contradicting the notion of freedom and the tenets of faith espoused by so many. Freedom and love are actions. Fear and illogical belief patterns are drawings made by spirits housed in bodies sung to by slave songs. The bodies of knowledge that support freedom are often not seen for what they really are because of the slave songs sung to the notion of being free! 

This being said Elders and the Wise Ones continually find ways to re-tell stories of power to the uninitiated, the fearful, and the dull, and ignorant people whose personal stories hold them bound and tethered. 

It is words such as yours, Elder Vicki Johnson, "Chose freedom, even if it's inconvenient  and makes other people uncomfortable. You always have the option to chose freedom for yourself..." that points one's steps towards freeing their mind, spirit, and soul. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4.16.13

sculptor Vinnie Bagwell
April 16, 2013

Captured from within

Immersion into an art form transforms the artist. I learned this studying what you create and what you allow the photographer to capture with his camera of you. - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 4.16.13

by Vinnie Bagwell
March 28, 2013

"REGARDING THE RACE:

Set before us...the need for endurance; the focus of our vision; keeping the rules; self-discipline; and the desire and determination to win. If we lack in any of these areas, we will become vulnerable to defeat and failure. Don't think about defeat, you cannot fail." - Vinnie Bagwell

Sculptor Jerry Harris

Dogon wood sculpture. 17th  century.

Ancesstor figure. The Dogon people are from West Africa and go back 6,000 years ago. We can see African compositional rhythms, as welll as  those forms barrowed by Picasso, Brancusi, and Henry Moore. Dogon Tradition says that they came from the sky in what we would now call a spaceship, and landed in the cradle of civilization, still awaiting their ship to return them to their true home in the clouds. They possessed advance astronomical knowledge.

Jerry, you a deep artist. I am looking at your work. It tells many stories and challenges and asserts several things at one time. You know the picture of you standing in front of one of your pieces positioned on a white block? That one. That one moves and alters itself into different forms, a woman, entrails, a swinging bird. Each form had a different sound to its voice...

That is what I saw. I am looking and appreciating your works. I don't like to rush looking at art of any kind. Yours requires a different concentration. If ever I get to San Francisco I'll make a point of finding a gallery with your work. The feeling of them alive has to be intriguing! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 
December 21, 2012 

ART
of Jerry Harris 


Greg, back to you. Thanks for your thoughts. I was just expressing myself, and, as always, consciously soliciting thoughts from the public. Writing, like my art, if you have not looked at it, is very subconscious. I really don't know how I get there, and it even takes time, even years for me to understand what the hell am I thinking. - Jerry Harris, 12.11.12   http://www.harrisculptor.com/ 

Wounded Warrior, 1999, destroyed in a flood in Philadelphia, Pa. Laminated Clay (Bondo), wood, and leather. 36" X 42"

Down the street. . .

Hep cat on the town!
1940's

Yeah, the styles worn in the 1940's said several things to different audiences. Back then Colored folk had to create, and define themselves in ways no longer relevant. The negotiations with manipulative forces constantly on the look out to rob Negroes of dignity, home, life, and status were continuous, varied, and colorful. The thing missing in this statue is color, but that doesn't matter. The artist captured the spirit of the times, the dance of their style, and the hipness of the couple glidin', profilin', and styling down the main strip!!! - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 5.20.13



Appreciation 4 Thickness

CLASSICAL BEAUTY

The Pietà by Michelangelo

The Pietà by Michelangelo (1498–1499) is housed in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. The statue was commissioned for the French cardinal Jean de Billheres, who was a representative in Rome. The sculpture, in Carrara marble, was made for the cardinal's funeral monument, but was moved to its current location, the first chapel on the right as one enters the basilica, in the 18th century.

Pietà detail: It is the only piece Michelangelo ever signed. This famous work of art depicts the body of Jesus on the lap of his mother Mary after the Crucifixion. Michelangelo's interpretation of the Pietà is unique to that time. It is an important work as it balances the Renaissance ideals of classical beauty with naturalism. The statue is one of the most highly finished works by Michelangelo... Art is the Soul's Food

Pietà detail
"... But as beautiful and deep a rendition of Hebrew history Michelangelo created I am too deeply embedded in truth; historical truth, and it is impossible to get over the fact she looks nothing like an African woman from any part of the continent who would be able to hide in Egypt when her son was born!" - Gregory E. Woods, Keeper of Stories 
9.10.12

Dogon Mother and Child

Sculptor Jerry Harris with "Dogon Mother and Child.

Sculptor Jerry Harris
http://www.harrisculptor.com/
standing in front of a piece made of carved wood & fiberglass
DOGON MOTHER & CHILD
sculptor77@hotmail.com 

sculptor Daniel Edwards' Michelle Obama’s Makeover for America

sculptor Daniel Edwards' portrayal of Michelle Obama

NEW YORK (September 17, 2008) – First Lady hopeful Michelle Obama receives an ‘Inaugural Ball’ makeover for providing a makeover to the face of the US. The sexy, bare-shouldered style-enhancement highlights Obama’s ethnicity to create a new fashion template for the 21st Century First Lady, and is the latest installment of sculptor Daniel Edwards’s “Inspire America” series, courtesy of Manhattan’s Leo Kesting Gallery.

“Michelle Obama’s Makeover for America” presents an accessorized mannequin bust of Obama that foregoes the conventional pearl necklace, and provides for her a ‘signature look’ to take to Washington. “The goal is to create a look for Michelle Obama that eliminates excessive comparisons to Jackie Kennedy,” said Edwards, who studied under the tutelage of legendary fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez, “like supermodel Tyra Banks’s photos in Harper’s Bazaar, or the puzzling comment from CBS’s Byron Pitts that recommended ‘less Jackee, more Jackie O.’”

A pearl-studded Afro pick, shaped like an eagle, demonstrates the makeover’s fashion mix of Black African and White House heritage to reinvigorate the traditional First Lady pearls. A tight, spiral-textured mane complements Michelle Obama’s likeness, with the pearl Afro pick placed modishly askew in a Nefertiti-esque hairstyle. Included are big hoop earrings shaped like O’s that seem to suggest, according to a gallery spokesman, “Look out Oprah, a new ‘Lady O’s’ in charge.”

Adorning the breasts of Michelle Obama’s bust are temporary tattoos, of which an American flag is depicted, to compensate for Barack’s pin-free lapels. Additional breast tattoo designs for Mrs. Obama, by Chicago tattoo artist Alex Higgins, will also be exhibited.

 “Michelle Obama inspires a fashion template change that many First Ladies of the 21st Century may follow, as we witness minorities in this country becoming the majority,” added the spokesman.

http://www.caplakesting.com/danedwards/mobama.htm

Michelle Obama's European style gowns & dress worn in England in 2011 !!!!