In Search of a Quiet Place

While moving artwork to a storage place this summer, I found a lithograph I created while an undergraduate art student at Howard University called "In Search of a Quiet Place". I remember working in the printmaking studio and the effort it took to grind the thick limestone down. Back then it was a very physical process. Nobody uses stones anymore, but litho plates. Surprisingly the print still looks fresh to me and the sentiment underlying its creation is still alive today, decades later.

Pictured here is the artwork being photographed by Black Artists of DC (BADC) Liberian American Photographer, Desepe DeVargas.

Creative Collaborations

The 20th anniversary of the Reading Connection, an organization dedicated to putting books in the hands of children in housing crisis, was celebrated last night at a Gala in Arlington, VA. Pictured above is a collaborative quilt created by myself, painter Marsha Gallo (pictured on left) and quilter Cleo Hurley. In February, Marsha and I led an arts workshop with Reading Connection children in SE D.C. as part of the non-profits' Imagination Blooms project. Using bright beads, sequins, ribbon, yarn and shapes cut from felt, the children cut and pasted lively collaged images of themselves on a fabric background. No two portraits were alike and represented the uniqueness of each child.

I Was There... One In A Million

I braved the cold and wind yesterday to witness the Inauguration of President Barack Obama and witness history. Along with three friends, I rode the train from Virginia to arrive on the mall at 6 a.m. in Washington as the sun was rising. The energy was so elevated. We were greeted by volunteers smiling broadly and welcoming us to the Inauguration. We didn't have tickets, so we stood among a million others from all over the nation. I must admit, it was quite a challenge to stay warm. It was especially challenging trying to keep my toes and fingers warm inspite of extra layers of socks and gloves. At the end of the day (we didn't make it back home til 5 p.m. and must have walked more than 5 miles) and after Obama's speech and the prayers and songs and poetry, I felt it was so worthwhile and such an exhilirating experience. The photo above was taken as throngs of people lined up to enter L'Enfant Plaza to take the train home.

Children's Librarians in Miami

I addressed a group of Children's Librarians at their annual meeting at the Miami-Dade Public Library System main branch where my exhibit "Color All Around" was being shown. I talked about my process creating the mixed media collages for my books and how I entered the highly competitive children's book market through the back door.

Drawing With Glue

Yesterday, storyteller Ellouise Schoettler and I, led middle school students in a new printmaking project as part of our More Than Words program with Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Silver Spring. Using simply Elmers glue and cardboard, I demonstrated how we could draw lines and create imaginative imagery. Ellouise encouraged the students to experiment with lines on the back of a cardboard. They then turned it over and began to draw using the glue on the black board. We left the images to dry overnight and will print the plate onto paper on Thursday using a variety of papers.

FROM BRUSH TO PEN Writing Gallery Competition at Danville Museum

I traveled to the Danville Museum of Fine Art and History, in Danville, VA, on October 26 for an artist’s reception, and book signing for Color All Around, my exhibit featuring 42 works of art from children’s books I have illustrated over the years.

I also came for the award ceremony that day for the museum’s 5th annual Writing Gallery Competition. This year, the artwork in my national touring show was the impetus for the writing competition and the education staff’s school focus tours in which over 300 school age children participated. The writing competition drew 153 entries including 90 poems and 63 short stories.

That beautiful fall afternoon in Danville, I stood at the podium with the museum’s education coordinator Patsi Compton, as award after award was announced during the ceremony. Children came with their parents and relatives and many shyly walked up to the stage when their names were called. Monetary awards were given to first prizewinners from elementary school to adult competitors. Others winners received a bag of books and certificates. At the end, first prizewinners read their entries that ranged from an engaging short story from a high school student to whimsical poems read by young elementary school students.

Making Cards from Painted Papers

Being a collage artist, I never like to throw away any papers, no matter how small – and especially those that I have painted or decorated with salt or plastic wrap or marbelized. So this year I decided for the first time in many, many years to make holiday cards with papers I had left over. I had great fun. I cut out bulb shapes, and added foil to form the tops of the ornaments and then cut out strips of paper to hang them from. I used paper clips to suspend them from the lines. Of course I pasted everything down with glue. I didn't make as many card as I desired, but hopefully I can make more as the days progress.

I was inspired actually by my teen-aged daughter who had been decorating the house for the holidays and creating hand made gifts to give away this year. Every night she seems to have at least one project to work on. Gifts from the hands and heart are the best gifts of all.

Simply Printmaking

I love printmaking. There's nothing like the joy of creating an image on a plate and the wonder of peeling paper from plate and savoring the results. It takes me back to my years as a printmaking student at Howard University. I love the fact that you can create prints without a press and with everyday tools. It makes it very accessible.

I taught a very simple technique to 15 middle grade students in Silver Spring using a styrofoam plate recently as part of Pyramid Atlantic Art Center's More Than Words program. The only tool needed was a sharp pencil. We experimented with different colored inks. I brought in some handmade Japanese papers too. Printing on these delicate translucent sheets embedded with a variety of fibers was a special treat. Afterwards we talked about the prints made and the students shared what they learned about papers, inks and printing.

Much of the imagery the students created stemmed from a tale told by storyteller Ellouise Schoettler called Old Joe The Carpenter, a powerful story about bridging differences.

China Town Treasures

I remember taking my daughter and niece to Chinatown in New York one spring. We drove to New Jersey from Northern Virginia and then took a train to Chinatown. We spent hours walking city block after city block admiring the colorful purses, shirts, watches and other moderately priced wares displayed on packed stands on the sidewalks. The girls then only 12 and 13 years old, had their own money – saved for this very day. They couldn’t wait to spend every dime. At the conclusion of the day each had 4 to 5 large black plastic bags filled with their goodies. We had walked no less than 5 hours up and down the streets of Chinatown that day, til our feet ached. The girls were thoroughly satisfied as we rode the train back to Jersey that evening and fell asleep clutching their bags in their hands.

Though Yangsook Choi’s book Gai See: What You See in Chinatown setting is a marketplace in China, it reminded me of our trip that spring to New York. Gai See, a Cantonese word meaning “street market” recalls a young boys trip there each season with his family, and all the remarkable objects and treasures he finds. There are wonderful treats found that begin on a warm breezy springtime morning. Other pleasures are discovered including those to celebrate New Years. Gai See by award-winning author Roseanne Thong and celebrated illustrator Yangsook Choi offers a delightful tour of Chinatown and a peek at Chinese culture.

Adjoa Burrowes

Posted in March, 2008

The Legacy of the Lock

I remember Lorenzo Pace when I was a high school student in Chicago. Lorenzo was teaching at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago. I would sometimes see him at the Southside Community Art Center where Black artists would converge for National Conference of Artists (NCA) meetings. NCA had chapters in most major cities and was the oldest Black arts organization in the U.S. Lorenzo was always very encouraging of my art and served as a mentor to me as a young high school and college student.

Many years later when he told me he wrote a children’s book, I was delighted. In Julani and the Lock which he also illustrated, he masterfully takes the tough subject of slavery and makes it understandable to a young child. Using bold colors, simple language and child-like imagery, he based his book on his great, great grandfather, Steve Pace’s story of being captured in Africa, locked in a box and transported to America to be a slave. Amazingly, he managed to keep the lock from the box and pass it on to his children, grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Lorenzo Pace was presented the lock after his father’s funeral. The same lock that shackled his great, great grandfather Steve Pace, was now his to pass on. I love the way that the legacy is passed on through art – both visual and literary.

An internationally accomplished artist, Lorenzo Pace was commissioned in 1993 to create a 60 foot high outdoor monument “Triumph of the Human Spirit” in New York City’s Foley Square, that paid tribute to the African slaves that were buried there. Lorenzo Pace duplicated the lock that Steve Pace passed down to his descendants and buried it in the base of the 300-ton granite sculpture.

Adjoa Burrowes

Posted in February, 2008

Christmas Memories Growing Up in Chicago

Now that the holidays have come and gone, my memory of how things used to be when I was a kid still remain. I grew up in Chicago with my three brothers and sister. My parents were both from Georgia. I remember the live Christmas tree and how it filled the room with the strong scent of pine that I crave every Christmas. I remember decorating the tree with big multicolored bulbs and being careful to string the lights just right. One Christmas I got a small electric shock when I plugged in the lights and it made a small hole in my pajama shirt. It scared me, but Daddy reassured me with a hug that everything would be alright.

I remember how Daddy would take us down to 12th street in Chicago, to this outdoor market to buy fruit, nuts and sweets. We would buy different kinds of nuts in the shell like walnuts and pecans and those big dark, hard nuts, which I can’t remember the names of now—and how we struggled to crack them open to reveal the sweet meat inside when we got home. Sometimes my Aunt Ruby would send us pecans in shoe boxes from Georgia. When momma got them we would shell them and she would make the best pecan pie you ever tasted.

I remember Daddy buying peanut brittle and a special brittle made with coconut and those giant peppermint sticks that we would crack and eat greedily. Daddy would always buy lots of fruits like tangerines and sweet red apples. We would make a big platter on the table with the nuts and fruit. While driving home Daddy would take a detour and we would drive through neighborhood after neighborhood looking at the light decorations in front of peoples homes. Daddy always had a station wagon with a back seat that would face outside. My brothers and sisters and I would always fight to get the back seat to assure a perfect view of the twinkling lights. Daddy would always call back to me, “Are you still there”? he asked smiling, because I was always so quiet.

When we finally got home we would rush under the tree to shake whatever present had our names on it, and try to guess what was inside. As a joke sometimes we would wrap up something someone already owned, and present it to that person on Christmas day as if it were new. Momma and Daddy didn’t like us to do that, but we got such a kick out of it. I always seemed to get exactly what I asked for. Back then we got simply one gift each. One year all I wanted were white go go boots. Another year I longed for a new pair of ice skates so I could skate near the park off Lake Shore Drive.

I remember shopping for a gift for Mama and Daddy and going to Sears downtown off State Street. I loved taking the escalator up and down and the funny music that piped through the store. My big sister Cynthia always took us to Marshall Fields and Carson Pirie Scott to look at the elaborate Christmas decorations in the store fronts. There was always an animated Santa in the window and toy trains and gingerbread houses. It was all so enchanting.

Posted in January, 2008

A Graphic Connection

Few knew that the late, renown American painter, Lois Mailou Jones (1905-1995) illustrated several children’s books during her prolific career as an artist — not even me. I was a student of hers at Howard University where she taught for 47 years. I remember her as a no-nonsense design teacher who meticulously critiqued assignments and encouraged all of us to push the boundaries of our designs more and more.

I stumbled across her illustration connection while browsing the catalog for the exhibit, Through Sister’s Eyes: Children’s Books Illustrated by African American Artists, held Nov. 4, 1991—April 24, 1992 at the National Museum of Woman In The Arts, Library and Research Center in Washington, D.C.

The exhibition consisted of original illustrations from Lois Jones, Carole Byard, Pat Cummings, Cheryl Hanna, Delores Johnson and Faith Ringgold. Five other artists including Camille Billops lent their books for the exhibit.

One of Lois Jones’ ink on graphite illustrations for The Picture-Poetry Book appeared on page two of the catalog. Another illustration that looked like a wood or linoleum block print appeared on the back page and was from Eloise Culver’s Great American Negroes in Verse, 1723-1965, depicting the African American freedom fighter Harriet Tubman.

All of Jones’ illustrations in the exhibit were from eight children’s books published by Washington, D.C.’s Associated Publishers. Most if not all of the books featured in the exhibit are out of print and can only be found in the Library of Congress and other selected libraries.

In the catalog’s acknowledgments, Krystyna Wasserman, co-curator of the exhibit, thanked NMWA Founder and President Wilhelmina Cole Holladay for discovering Lois Mailou Jones children’s illustrations while visiting the artist’s studio one day.

Lois Jones was one of the premier African American artists of the 20th century. Her work, spanning three continents, is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art and the National Portrait Gallery, to name a few. I feel fortunate to have discovered another aspect of the creative life of an amazingly prolific artist. My teacher.

Posted in November, 2007