Share Your World – May 7, 2018

On May 7, 2018May 7, 2018 By dancingpalmtreesIn Action Painting, Prose, Poetry & Painting, Share Your World – May 7, 2018, SYW, Uncategorized3 Comments

https://ceenphotography.com/2018/05/07/share-your-world-may-7-2018/

Share Your World – May 7, 2018

May 7, 2018 Cee Neuner

If you were given $22 million tax free dollars (any currency), what is the first thing you would do? (This is just a dream question, remember anything can happen in SYW.)

QUIT MY JOB!!

Finally get a place of my own. A small one story house (No stairs) with a front and back yards. And at least 3 Full Bathrooms! In My Dream House I would have my Own Large roomy art/writing studio. My art studio would be big enough for me to have my own personal Art Show! I would also adopt more cats and dogs.

Stephen and I plus a care giver/helper would take a month long vacation to the Caribbean! In fact I would move out of New York during the winter months to Florida, Hawaii or California as my body cannot handle Cold freezing NY winters.

Also I’d have my own personal Limo Drivers since I cannot drive and if I were to move to a more rural location with no transportation that would be the only way for me to get around.

In what do you find the simplest of joys?

Spending time with my brother Stephen and being outdoors during warm weather in Nature.

What would be your ideal birthday present, and why?

Since I was born in February when it is freezing cold in New York if somebody would give me a month long or even two weeks in Hawaii that would be a Blessing! Folks My 60th Birthday is coming up February 2019 so Feel Free to purchase a round trip ticket for me! Thanks in Advance!!

Do you use paper money? If so is your money organized sequentially according to denomination?

Yes. I live in a poor working class neighborhood where many of the stores don’t take cards, credit or debit. Even the Metro Card machines where you purchase your Metro Card to ride the bus/subway sometimes don’t take cards. Cash rules. Therefore I always have paper money but not organized.

Are You comfortable doing nothing? For long stretches of time?

This is my retirement Theme Song because by the time I’m 60 which is next year I will be retired!! I believe the song answers the question. Doing nothing will be my new way of life!! I’ve been working since 1976 so it’s about time to do nothing or anything I want to do!

What is your greatest strength?

Toughness and endurance.

What did you appreciate or what made you smile this past week? Feel free to use a quote, a photo, a story, or even a combination.

The Cherry Blossoms

My Latest Most Recent Painting. It does not yet have a name. I’m open to suggestions. Please give me your thoughts on what I should call this painting!

I was trying to get it more like the experienced artist in the below video but mine did not come out like his. However I enjoyed painting outside in our backyard in this balmy 71 degree warm weather! Fun!

Painter Barkley L. Hendricks Dies at 72

On April 24, 2017April 24, 2017 By dancingpalmtreesIn Uncategorized2 Comments

https://hyperallergic.com/373045/painter-barkley-l-hendricks-dies-at-72/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Painter%20Barkley%20L%20Hendricks%20Dies%20at%2072&utm_content=Painter%20Barkley%20L%20Hendricks%20Dies%20at%2072+CID_1b93ad54592e7bfbde802ea51e77e67a&utm_source=HyperallergicNewsletter&utm_term=Painter%20Barkley%20L%20Hendricks%20Dies%20at%2072

Jacob Lawrence

On February 10, 2017February 10, 2017 By dancingpalmtreesIn Artist, Harlem, Harlem Renaissance, The African Americans Many Rivers to Cross Episode 4- Making a way Out of no way 1897 1940, Uncategorized

Jacob Lawrence

http://www.jacobandgwenlawrence.org/

http://www.biography.com/people/jacob-lawrence-9375562

Jacob Lawrence Biography

Academic, Painter (1917–2000)

Jacob Lawrence was an American painter, and the most widely acclaimed African-American artist of the 20th century. He is best known for his Migration Series.

Synopsis

Born in New Jersey but raised in New York City’s Harlem, Jacob Lawrence was the most widely acclaimed African-American artist of the 20th century. Known for producing narrative collections like the Migration Series and War Series, he brought the African-American experience to life using blacks and browns juxtaposed with vivid colors. He also taught, and spent 15 years as a professor at the University of Washington.

Early Life and Career

Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on September 7, 1917, Jacob Lawrence moved with his parents to Easton, Pennsylvania, at the age of 2. When his parents separated in 1924, his mother deposited him and his two younger siblings in foster care in Philadelphia, and went to work in New York City. When he was 13, Lawrence joined his mother in Harlem.

Lawrence was introduced to art shortly after his arrival, when his mother enrolled him in Utopia Children’s Center, which had an after-school art program. He dropped out of school at 16 but took classes at the Harlem Art Workshop with Charles Alston and frequently visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In 1937, Lawrence won a scholarship to the American Artists School in New York. When he graduated in 1939, he received funding from the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project. He had already developed his own style of modernism, and began creating narrative series, painting 30 or more paintings on one subject. He completed his best-known series, Migration of the Negro or simply The Migration Series, in 1941. The series was exhibited at Edith Halpert’s Downtown Gallery in 1942, making Lawrence the first African-American to join the gallery.

World War II and After

At the outbreak of World War II, Lawrence was drafted into the United States Coast Guard. After being briefly stationed in Florida and Massachusetts, he was assigned to be the Coast Guard artist aboard a troopship, documenting the experience of war around the world. He produced 48 paintings during this time, all of which have been lost.

When his tour of duty ended, Lawrence received a Guggenheim Fellowship and painted his War Series. He was also invited by Josef Albers to teach the summer session at Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Albers reportedly hired a private train car to transport Lawrence and his wife to the college so they wouldn’t be forced to transfer to the “colored” car when the train crossed the Mason-Dixon Line.

Back in New York after his stint in the south, Lawrence continued to paint. He grew depressed, however, and in 1949, he checked himself into Hillside Hospital in Queens, where he stayed for 11 months. He painted as an inpatient, and the work created during this time differs significantly from his other work, with subdued colors and people who appear resigned or in agony.

After leaving Hillside, Lawrence turned his attention to the theater. In 1951, he painted works based on memories of performances at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. He also began teaching again, first at Pratt Institute and later the New School for Social Research and the Art Students League.

Teaching and Commissions

In 1971, Lawrence accepted a tenured position as a professor at University of Washington in Seattle, where he taught until he retired in 1986. In addition to teaching, he spent much of the rest of his life painting commissions, producing limited-edition prints to help fund nonprofits like the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Children’s Defense Fund and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. He also painted murals for the Harold Washington Center in Chicago, the University of Washington and Howard University, as well as a 72-foot mural for New York City’s Times Square subway station.

Lawrence painted until a few weeks before he died, on June 9, 2000.

Personal Life

Lawrence married Gwendolyn Knight, a sculptor and painter, in 1941. She actively supported his work, providing both assistance and criticism, and helped him compose captions for many of his series.