My painting: "Decolonize Boriken to Standing Rock" part 1

in #art7 years ago (edited)

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This time last year, I was Blessed to have been part of a wonderful "happening" of sorts. A combination of an art show, music venue, poetry space, and social gathering all wrapped into one, of which, spanned a little over a month. It was called Tiny Room For Elephants (TRFE).

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photo credit: Tiny Room For Elephants, Donte Neal

In the Beginning...

It all started with a phone call in early Fall of 2016 from a fellow artist by the name of Donte Neal (aka MARS), and he had invited me to participate in this project which would incorporate various disciplines of the Arts into a continuous series of happenings over a one month period. Of course, I enthusiastically said 'Yes', I was so excited to participate in such a wonderful concept!

My Concept...

As one of the participating visual artists, I was given the task to paint, in my style, basically anything I wanted on a surface that would scale about about 12 feet by 11 feet. This would be one of the largest solo painting that I had to work on-- and I felt like I was up for the challenge! Most of my work is representational and socio-political, I deal with issues that plague my community and issues of other people who are disenfranchised. So after some meditation on the subject matter I wanted to tackle, I came up with the concept... how colonization continues to affect communities today.

Going to Work...

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Detail 1 of the underpainting, acrylic on wood


Upon arrival to the old warehouse which housed the happening, I noticed the relaxed atmosphere with other visual artists, musicians, and poets all working alongside one another. I then reached into my bag and pulled out the materials and started mapping out the painting with a monochrome palette, black & white.

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Detail 2 of the underpainting, acrylic on wood

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Detail 3 of the underpainting, acrylic on wood

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A broader shot, end of day one of painting, acrylic on wood

Thus ends the first part of this article, please stay tuned for My painting: Decolonize Boriken to Standing Rock part 2

All images words and images are my own for the exception of the TRFE flyer, which is credited. For more information from the artist Donte Neal, please visit his website: http://donteneal.com


If you like this post please feel free to visit my other art post and upvote & resteem- Thank you!

https://steemit.com/art/@nichi/my-painting-revelation



Join the @thealliance today- a wonderful and supportive Steemit community!

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Thanks for attending Thursday’s Pimp Your Post Thursday @nichi. I have written a post to share your featured post from last night. Just stopping back to let you know that you can see your [name in lights](https://steemit.com/pypt/@shadowspub/pimp-your-post-thursday-report-from-october-26th) right here. (Just kidding about the lights :)

Wow @shadowspub Thank you so much! What fun - I cannot wait until this week's chat!

be looking forward to seeing you @nichi

Really amazing post and I love the painting 😉can't wait to see the final result.
Must be a real challenge to paint that big 😆
Loved it. Cheers

Thank you so much @saffisara ! It was a real challenge but I LOVE Challenges!! lol This experience had made such an impression and actually help shift the focus of my work for the time being :)

You are so welcome sweetie 😊 I can belive that it did. Great challenge and really keeps you on your toes... Lol
Have lots of fun and I will love to se the next post and see how it goes.

Beautiful. Upvoted.

Thank you @yadamaniart! Following you!

Awesome

Thank you @enginewitty :D

Fantastic work! I love the painting, and how wonderful to be such an integral part of something so grand promoting the arts!

Thank you so much! Following you! :D

WOW that is really awesome so talented

Thank you so much @tattoodjay --Following you! :D

Detail 3 of the underpainting - Beautiful!

Thank you very much :D Following!

This is absolutely amazing. I cannot wait for the finishing post of this. You are so creative, just wow.

@topkpop Thank you- that means a lot!
:D