Salon 27 // Davonte "Davo" Bradley and Holly Gordon
Video Description
Holly Gordon is a working innovative, fine art, documentary photographer and curator. Collaborating with artist Ward Hooper led to recently published book Parallel Perspectives: The Brush/Lens Collaboration she coined her creative break-through photo-liminalism.
She engages in important social issues and as a master printer she has worked for non-profit to support major exhibitions including shows at Denise Bibro Fine Art, Harlem Gallery of Hunter College and Museum of the City of New York.
Website: http://www.hollygordonphotographer.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/holly.gordon/
“There are a few main things that inspire my art. The pain and trauma of my past, curiosity in the present, and hope for the future. There’s just as much fun in my work as there is some amount of melancholy. And I think there’s beauty in that. I’ve been creating art all of my life and have been creating digitally for about half of that time. I never attended a traditional art school and I honestly never saw myself becoming a full-time artist. It wasn’t until the pandemic struck and rocked the world that I decided that I needed to stop wasting time and pursue what had been in my heart all this time.” – Davonte Bradley
Website: https://www.davobradleyart.net/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davobradleyart/
Synopsis
Click a time code to jump to that point in the video, or an artist’s name to learn more about them.
Salon 27 (September 28, 2021) features Holly Gordon and moderator Davonte Bradley, who presents his own work. Gordon describes how an article about the painter Albert Pinkham Ryder led her into art▶ 2:55, talks about using camera filters to "recreate the visible"▶ 21:32 and her connection with Arthur Dove, considered by some historians the first American abstract expressionist▶ 30:59, and shows work that draws on her youth making art on black backgrounds▶ 1:00:12. Bradley shows a piece with a web of lines and shapes▶ 1:10:07 and a palette of gold and earth tones with blues referring to the Afrofuturist movement▶ 1:28:38. The salon ends with questions about the modalities he might expand on▶ 1:49:28.
This summary was written with AI assistance from the recording’s transcript and reviewed by the archive’s editor. The timestamps link to the moments discussed. Please check details against the video.
Participants (2)
- ▶ 2:55 Holly Gordon Bay Shore, NY USA
- ▶ 1:54:45 Davonte Bradley Richmond, Virginia USA
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Cite this session
Techspressionist Salon 27, “Davonte "Davo" Bradley and Holly Gordon,” recorded September 28, 2021. Techspressionism Video Archive. [DOI pending Zenodo deposit]
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Unattributed
Hello, hello, and welcome to our Techspressionism virtual salon here on September 28th, 2021. I do not actually recall what number this is, but it's like almost 30. I think it's like 28 or so, 29? It's 27. 27, okay. Close, close, close. But anyway, today is going to be a very interesting day because I'm actually presenting today, which is something I haven't done in seven months. And that presentation was like maybe five minutes. So there's a lot that has happened, a lot that has changed, a lot that I've worked on just since joining the movement, which I'll get into. But joining me as a presenter is Holly Gordon, who is one of... A very enthusiastic member of the Techspressionism movement, who has been very eager to spread the word about what we're doing and what the community is about, and glad to be presenting with her as well.
Unattributed
Glad to be presenting with her as well. Also. Also. There we go. And yeah, so if you are here for the first time, or this is your first salon, our general format is going to be... We have our presenters. Which includes me this time around. Usually have two presenters, give a presentation for about 30 minutes each. After each presentation, there's going to be a 15-minute or so Q&A session, which sometimes things run over, it happens. But we generally aim for about 45 minutes per presenter between the presentation and the Q&A session.
Unattributed
And then after that, it's kind of just a general discussion where we either circle back to a presentation or... Just general conversation, really. But before we get started, I would like to say that during the presentations, please do have your mics muted. You may actually ask questions in the chat. I will get to them. I will actually see your questions in the chat. And afterwards, you can also raise your hand if you actually want to speak. Your questions instead. But please hold your actual auditory comments till after the presentations.
Unattributed
But yeah, that being said, again, glad to see all of you here. I think we can go ahead and get started if that's cool with everyone. And I think Holly, would you like to go first? You're good? I'm good. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right.
Holly Gordon
Thank you. Thank you so much. You know, years ago, I've been using technology since into the 1990s. And years ago, I noticed an article in the newspaper about a Pinkham Rider exhibit. And I was so taken by this statement that he had made about seeing an inchworm dangling in the air with no platform. And I was so taken by this statement. And for 20 some years, I have been dangling. And now we're all dangling together. And that's what makes a movement.
Holly Gordon
And the other thing that has stricken me and that has stayed with me for all of these years is a statement that Alfred Stieglitz made in 1934. I read it. I read it for the second time. And that's when it really impacted when I was in Giverny for my second visit. And he said in 1934, he said this. There are two kinds of photographers. There are the straight shooters and there are the manipulators. And whichever photographer you are, I say go for it for all it's worth. And break the rules if you have to. Just do it. And I didn't realize at the time that I really was straddling both roads. So my slide talk will, presentation will give you a little idea of this evolution that I have been on since the late 1990s.
Unattributed
Yeah. You should actually have the ability to share your screen on your end.
Holly Gordon
Oh, okay.
Unattributed
There we go.
Holly Gordon
All right. Here we go. I'm going to take you on the ride of a lifetime.
Unattributed
Oh, one thing to note with sharing presentations, is that the audio is kind of low from the from the presentation itself.
Holly Gordon
The way I used to paint in layers, people like labels, but this is too new. It is creativity and transition with no accurate vocabulary. It is liminal. And because the camera. My medium, I call my work photo-liminalism. Kind of like the initial response that impressionist artists received when the establishment first saw their paintings, my art is innovative and moving photography beyond that which we know.
Holly Gordon
Okay, so I know it's a bit of a hyperbole. But I like to say that I was born with a camera, and it was a very painful labor for my mother. But the camera has always been an integral part of me, at least from the age of five. And maybe when I was a baby in the crib and I smelled the chemicals when my dad was processing film that he took, that he developed.
Holly Gordon
Maybe it just as well. I don't know. But I've always been pushing boundaries. And in 1990, these were two self-portraits that I created. I pushed 1,600 film to 3,200 to create my Kodak smile and running as fast as I can. And I'm still doing it. So I've done everything with my camera, shooting documentary in nature. But it is... It has always been with a very intimate and personal focus.
Holly Gordon
And it was a surprise to me to find out that the Galapagos organization wanted my work for their annual report in 2002. And then Kodak made me a professional partner in the early 2000s. I'd been to Antarctica in 1999 to 2000. Because I wanted to be... In unusual location when the calendar switched into the new millennium.
Holly Gordon
And it was extraordinary. It was the penguins that originally drove me to Antarctica. Well, really sailed me to Antarctica. But it was the color and light of the ice scape that actually blew me away. And everything that I shot was with film. I only had 40 films. Rolls. And most of them were chromes. And they had to be turned into internegatives. And my master printer who was processing everything for me, he had everything printed on Kodak metallic, and was so taken by how they looked that he brought them up to Kodak. And Kodak made me a professional partner on the spot. And here I'm thinking, I have got it made. And now look what's happened to Kodak. But just to give you an idea, back to Stieglitz, and his whole viewpoint of being a straight shooter or a manipulator. On the trip in the Falklands, I photographed this street scene, because I was so taken by the textures of the buildings.
Holly Gordon
And when I! I returned home. I used Photoshop. This is probably my first direct technological creation. I wanted that image to be more than what it was. So I got rid of things that I felt was superfluous. And then I added my color and my texture to emphasize the Okay, so now, okay, so here, in this image, I used Photoshop to create layers. And a few salons ago, somebody had mentioned, Oh, we haven't talked about layers. And when I heard that, I thought, Oh, boy, I am going to talk about layers. I'm out of my mind. I took several photographs of this particular image. Only I selectively chose my focus to blur out because I like to make color kind of smushed together. I deal with the elements of art rather than the nouns of what it is that I'm shooting. So I wasn't photographing flowers and shrubbery and so forth.
Holly Gordon
I was photographing color and shape and light and pattern. And I wound up taking the digital files that I had and I layered them to create this image. So that is an early use of technology. And here's another one. This was a very interesting learning. Because I started to build a black box out of foam core in which to place this arrangement.
Holly Gordon
And then I thought to myself, I don't need to do that. I can make it all black and white in Photoshop. So I did. Cameras can be very technological. They are truly technological. And I think that's one of the tools that we can choose to use and control and not have the algorithms of the devices control us and the image that it's going to create. I'm a control freak. So I've always controlled my camera to capture and create what it was that I wanted what I was looking at to evoke.
Holly Gordon
So I wind up going to probably I'd call it my spiritual center, my spiritual core, Giverny. And here I am on the bridge in Monet's garden. You can't see the tears dripping down because I was just so taken by being there my very first time. And I've been there four times, spending a week each visit in the actual village. And I'm going into the garden at 7 o'clock in the morning with the gardeners to have it all to myself to just revel in it. I wasn't happy with how the wisteria looked. It was so pale.
Holly Gordon
But just wait. Okay. So on this first visit, it was all rainy and windy. And the garden was a mess. It was just a disaster. So I set. My camera on my tripod for long exposures. And I took several images. And then when I got back home to my computer, to my digital dark room, I was able to layer and layer and create this image. I also discovered when I was first photographing with a digital camera. That the file sizes. Were very, very small. And because of that. They looked thin. Whereas digital files from film were thick and rich. So I started to duplicate my file layers and just embed them into each other to make my file be more substantial. To make my image file be more substantial.
Holly Gordon
I'm a bit afraid of time. A poet too and I write a lot and a lot of my writing has come out of what I do with my photography, what I do with my art and it has helped me to be able to understand and articulate what it is that so much is intuitive and I'm not going to do it in French because my accent is absolutely deplorable.
Holly Gordon
I search for color and light I think in French without knowing the words. My camera speaks for me and my heart is full. On my second stay in Giverny I was most taken by Monet's woodblock collection. Now this is weird and there are a lot of things about me I'm going to tell you that are weird. Years earlier I had been to Maui with a friend who had property there. We spent several weeks and so he knew all the places to take me and the place that I loved the most was in the Keeney Peninsula where the water just surged up against the lava rock and I felt like I was in a place where I was not alone. I felt like I was in a place where I was not alone. I felt like I was in a place where I was not alone. I felt embodied by Jackson Pollock. I mean I was so caught up in the kinetic spray and surge of the surf that I was using my remote and changing my shutter speed to get sharp drips and then gossamer of flows.
Holly Gordon
I was just in rapture. And when I came back from my trip to Maui I was just in rapture. I was creating this PowerPoint to share with you, I rediscovered that Jackson Pollock was among the artists who lauded Claude Monet as being the precursor of abstract art. What a coincidence to, after all these years, to finally be connected with you and discover our relationship with Jackson Pollock. So when I returned from this visit in 2006 or 2007, whenever it was, I shared all of these images with a collector of my work. And he was very nonplussed. He said, Holly, these are like tourists. These are snapshots.
Holly Gordon
And I appreciate my support system, because I could really spiral into the stratosphere. And he subdued me a bit, and I took all of my images and I tucked them away in my hard drive until I had the opportunity to experiment with Nick's software. All of it. And all I wanted to work with was their silver effects.
Holly Gordon
And I created this image from this one. Well, let me tell you, when I did this, I didn't know how it happened. But it absolutely knocked me on my butt. And it took me a while to catch my breath. And digest the exploration and the experimentation that I had begun. And after a few days, I went into another of, oh, I had over 100 files that I had taken from the Keeney Peninsula. And I created this.
Holly Gordon
And then I went on to create this. And I'm absolutely, I'm beyond amazed. I'm beyond ecstatic that I've been using the Techspressionism hashtag in Instagram. And it got picked up. And it's going to be part of the fall virtual exhibit. And, you know, the crazy thing is, one of my sons said to me, mom, don't worry about Instagram. You know, that's for people who are younger than you are. You know, just deal with Facebook and whatever it is you're doing. And I thought, you know, it's, I don't like to be put into a box and have to just follow the dictates of society. In fact, one time I had said to my class when they were coming in with all of these binders and clothing with Jackson Pollock style drip designs on their blinders and their folders. I said, I bet you think you've got new stuff in your book bags.
Holly Gordon
I said, this is the best. This stuff is 50 years old. If you really want to study revolutionaries, you should just study artists. So all of these were pieces that I created over a period of time. And I knew I had something. I was doing a solo show and I even posted the photo, the original photographs from which I created my water music series. But I didn't know what I was doing. But I printed up 10 or 12 of my prints and I sent them to Nick software. And the next thing I know, I get a phone call from Kevin LaRue who was with Nick. Nick is no longer Nick. I think it's DXO or something.
Holly Gordon
They sent me. He said, we're going to put you in our creative pool and we are going to send you all of our software. And we will teach you. We will do whatever tutorials you need to get you to learn how to use our software. And I said, thank you very much. But I don't do manuals. I don't follow other people's directions. I need to figure these things out for myself. So I put together the first time I sent them a whole series of work that I created using assorted Nick software. After traveling the world for decades, I am exploring new territories. I am exploring new territories in cyberspace.
Holly Gordon
Nick filters are my trusty compass. And I am recreating the visible. And a new age of discovery has just begun. In 2008 or 2007, I was interviewed by Karen Lipson of the New York Times. This piece was selected as best color in a juried exhibition. And she says to me, oh, this has to be digital. And I said, uh-uh. I did this with film. I set my ISO lower because I wanted the color to be saturated. And I knew because I was shooting at high noon that I was going to get a very pointillistic effect from the harsh contrast.
Holly Gordon
Now, during the same time that I had photographed this, I also photographed this image. Because I've always liked the way reflections smudge and smush color. But once I had all of the Nick software, I was able to create this image from it. And this I created eight or ten years after I took the original photograph.
Holly Gordon
Okay. Here we are back in Monet's garden. And I'm going to show you a picture of this. And I was not happy with the wisteria. So I changed it. Because I wanted it to evoke this emotional power that I felt. I was so complete. I was just in love with being in Giverny and inhaling their air and knowing that I was walking and being in the presence of where the impressionists were years before.
Holly Gordon
So it was really powerful. It was really powerful to see how much they changed my world. The arbors and the trellises bugged me to pieces. I couldn't stand the intrusion of those green shapes in this lush garden. So I experimented and explored with Photoshop and with Nick software to create this. And when I finished it, I really think it has an Asian tapestry embroidery influence.
Holly Gordon
Here, too, I created this from someone who was painting in the garden. Now, in 2008, I was coming back from Photo Fest in Houston. The topic of that Photo Fest was China, and a consultant thought that I should bring my China work down for the people there to see. And on the way back from Newark Airport, I photographed this through the windshield as my consultant was driving.
Holly Gordon
And there was just something about it that I wanted to turn into something. Something else. And it took many years for me to create this. It's called Night Lights. And it was like nothing I had ever done before. So I tucked it away because I didn't know who to share it with. Until someone suggested to me that I meet this North Port painter, Ward Hooper. She was a freelance writer. And she wrote about... She wrote about Ward and his paintings. And she wrote about my work a number of times. And she thought that we shared something in common. So I met him. And he started taking me to places that had inspired him many years before. I'm going to show you some original photographs that I took. And then I will show you some of the other photographs that I took. What I created from them. And I can't tell you exactly how.
Holly Gordon
Except I start with an original photograph. And in Photoshop, I will remove anything that I don't want. And if I need to import something from another image, I will do so. And then I start to create layers. And using Nick's software and Topaz's software. Because I did the same thing with my own. Somebody had introduced me to Topaz software. And I downloaded a trial version.
Holly Gordon
Well, the thing is when you download a trial version, you can't save anything. But I outsmarted the technology. I took screenshots of what I was creating. Saved them as TIFF files. And then I went into Photoshop. And I created a new image. And I continued to create. So I created this from this image. Then Ward took me to this location.
Holly Gordon
And I created this. We were working together for several months. And he kept saying, where are we going to go? What are we going to do with this? And I said, I don't know, Ward. But I'm really enjoying the process. So let's keep doing what we're doing. But he had taught at the Art League of Long Island. And suggested that I do a PowerPoint proposal.
Holly Gordon
And that we see if we could get an exhibition at the Art League. So as we're putting it in, we did. Yes, we did. We got that. We got the debut exhibit in 2015. We met in 2014. We have this exhibit in 2015. So as we're putting together the exhibit, he's saying to me, do you have any sailboats? Well, years earlier, I had been traveling in Nova Scotia. And I stopped to photograph this because I was so taken by the color, by the repetition. By the pattern.
Holly Gordon
And it just was being stored on my hard drive. And I extracted it. And it was, this was hard work. It took me weeks and weeks. And every evening he would call me and say, are you making any progress? Are you making any progress? And finally I created this. That is called Prepping for the Race. Early in the 2000s, I was doing photography for the American! The environment. I've always had this feeling that Mother Nature has no voice. And I want my work to speak for her. And when I photographed this on the north fork of Long Island, I saw the fuel tanks as a dystopian army coming to invade our beautiful land. And when I saw all of the birds flying overhead, it made me think of Vincent Van Gogh and his crows over the farm field.
Holly Gordon
I played around with this image file for many, many years. And ultimately, I created this. And what I wound up doing was importing Van Gogh's crows over the wheat field into my image because I wanted to evoke this panic, this impending doom and desperation to preserve and protect our environment. And this piece has just been selected for an exhibition.
Holly Gordon
Here. Here, too, stacked against us. I wanted the smokestacks, which are these strong verticals, to, whoops, to oppose the solitary fishermen. War took me to Cold Spring Harbor Pond. And at this time, I was sharing all of this work with another colleague who said, oh, my God, Holly, what you have done. Warder doing, you've got to see if it fits into the art history on Long Island in some way. And as soon as he said that to me, I thought, you know, oh my God, this is a V8 moment. I should have had a V8. Why not? Arthur Dove and Helen Tour. They were two artists who sailed into Cold Spring Harbor in 1924.
Holly Gordon
And some historians believe and ascribe Arthur Dove as being the first American abstract expressionist artist. So as a result of connecting to Arthur Dove and Helen Tour, Ward says to me one day, I don't know anything about Arthur Dove and Helen Tour, but I could take you to their cottage. So he did. And in a matter of minutes, he directed me to the cottage. And as a result of that, we are now connected to the Heckscher Museum of Art and the Dove Block Gallery in Geneva, New York, where Arthur Dove came from. And he said, well, I don't know anything about Arthur Dove and Helen Tour, but I could take you to their cottage. So there are all of these like intangible, invisible threads that connect us. And sometimes it just takes a long time to discover how connected we are. I would spend Januaries in Sanibel.
Holly Gordon
And of course, I would work on photographing the reflection, the sunsets in the evening. And in 2010, I created this digital photo collage that I called Yellow Sun. Now, once I realized that Ward and I were connected to Arthur Dove and Helen Tour, I started to look for, search for their other artwork that they did that I wasn't familiar with. And when I came up with the idea, I was like, oh, my God, this is so cool. And I was like, oh, my God, this is so cool. And I was like, oh, my God, this is so cool. And I was like, oh, my God, this is so cool. And then upon Arthur Dove's Red Sun, I thought, oh, my God, we didn't even know. But here we are together. And here's the open house invite for the Dove Block Gallery. And during all of this collaboration with Ward, I solidified my digital, my technological photography photoliminalism.
Holly Gordon
And our book came out in 2020, in October 8th, 2020. And we became finalists in the art category. And this past year, this was in the Great American Painting. I've done a whole series of between reality and illusion. And I don't know what made me decide to go back to an early Giverny image file that I had that I never did anything with. But I created this.
Holly Gordon
And in Cuba, I don't normally photograph people. But she was smiling at me as I was walking somewhere very quickly. And I wanted to get her between the bars. And when I got home, I knew that I wanted to bring out all of her wrinkles so that she would be similar to the wrinkles and the wear and tear of her.
Holly Gordon
And this is not me because I was a baby at the beginning of this presentation. I didn't age this much even though it was quite a journey. And I thank you very much.
Unattributed
Well, thank you very much, Holly, for your presentation. So I'll give her a round of applause. Quietly, of course, because you know most of us are muted. All right. All right. Well, thank you very much, Holly. Seeing the progression of your work and just how you came to the movement, essentially. Great journey. Great story.
Unattributed
Does anyone have any questions for Holly that they want to ask or comments or, you know, praise? Because I repeat that a lot. We give praise freely around here. Great work. Fantastic. Very interesting. Beautiful creations. Nice. Nice.
Holly Gordon
Well, you know, I have a comment. All right. But it relates to you. Oh. You know, in my water music series, I shed Mother Nature's clothing to reveal her bones, her muscles, her muscles. Her tendons. It was her raw energy. And very often, I mean, I'm entranced by color. But color has a way of taking us away from the nitty-gritty. And when I was going through your generational and was looking at all of the raw power that came from your image, I realized that it was not just the color. It was the color of your images. I'm just kind of thinking ahead.
Holly Gordon
And excuse me if you think I'm overstepping. But I really think that your images and my water music have a certain kind of parallelity. And maybe at some point, we might even collaborate together, creating black and white and also creating color.
Unattributed
I mean, I can see that happening. I'm always open to collaboration. So, yeah, for sure. I think that would be a very interesting experience for me because I actually don't have that much collaboration experience under my belt to begin with. So, this will be another endeavor in that.
Holly Gordon
Well, years ago, Linda Moran, who was a singer, she was a singer. She was the director of Islip Arts and managing the Islip Art Museum. She knew what Ward and I were doing with our collaboration. And she had invited me to become the curator for the museum's open call in 2019 that was called the Art of Collaboration.
Holly Gordon
And it was exciting and it was spooky because when you open something up so wide, you don't know what kind of results you're going to get. And the responses from the artists who participated and those who were selected and the media, there are mediums of expression. I mean, musicians were working with painters and there were all kinds of intermixing. But they were so excited by the idea of not creating solitarily, but by putting creative heads together to see what might come out. And it just is a very, it's dynamic.
Unattributed
I'd imagine so, because just the things that have come out of the text question and collaboration efforts, those have been amazing. Just the how unique some of those works are. It's amazing to me. And I don't want to toot my own horn with that. But I don't know, just for someone that has the background that I do and helping to organize and bring these people together, bring these artists together, that's been an experience all its own too. Because I have not, I haven't actually been in the art industry or the art world or however you want to say, like the greater expanse.
Unattributed
I haven't really been a part of that or I enmeshed in it. So to have that experience with these other artists and to, you know, get them to or help them produce these works, that's amazing to me. So I'm just, I don't know, I'm excited and happy to be here. Happy to be able to work with all of you too.
Holly Gordon
Thank you. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this. You know, it's just wonderful to be part of a process and to go with the wave of it. Not to be destination oriented. Because when you are focusing on the end result, you miss so many nuances.
Unattributed
Yeah. And nuances are very important. That's one of the things that... I don't know. I talk about this with my wife quite a few times, but I think the, just the world at large sometimes just lacks nuance sometimes. Like they, they want to see things in stark black and stark white and just putting things in boxes. Like this is this, this is that, there's no intermixing, there's, there's no bridge in the middle between these things. It's like, it's, we want, or people want so badly for there to be absolutes, but you can't ignore the fact that the world isn't necessarily in absolutes. There's a lot of gray area and varying shades of gray areas because dark grays, lighter grays, and some grays are almost white, some grays that are almost black. And you can't really ignore those. You kind of have to try to understand them for what they are.
Holly Gordon
Well, people, people like to know that something is, is solid. That is something, as you said, is something is absolute. I've always embraced change and discovery. I find it exciting. It doesn't scare me because it's just opening up new ideas, new possibilities. And that's, that's, I think what it's. All about being an artist and being innovative. There are so many people who are, who, who replicate, you know, they do the same thing over and over again, or it's been done before. And it's like, not, not that we're all going to be innovators because.
Holly Gordon
George Leonard wrote for Esquire magazine ages ago. A book called Mastery. And he said, learn artists need to learn to love the plateau. Because we are going to be on it. Much more frequently than we're going to make these steps to rise up. And nobody gets up in the morning and says, aha, today I'm going to discover something. You know, it just happens. And the more we allow it to occur.
Unattributed
Right. I can, I can definitely get on board with that. All right. Well, before, before we move on. Just want to give Holly another round of applause. One more time. And thank you for your time. Thank you for your presentation. There is quite a few. There's quite a bit of praise in the chat so far. And I'm pretty sure people in their minds. Are saying. I'm not sure if you're going to be able to hear it. But I'm sure people in your minds are also praising you. Just haven't vocalized it, but.
Holly Gordon
It's just, you know what? It's just wonderful to be able to share it with a group of people. Who can understand and embrace it. It's I'm not always this. Vocal. Because. They're not going to, they're not going to get it.
Colin Goldberg
Right.
Holly Gordon
So it's good to know that you do. Well, thank you. Thank you.
Colin Goldberg
Thank you. Thank you, Holly, for presenting today. I actually had a visit from our mutual friend. Bob meal and housing. And his wife, they were up in Vermont. He had an exhibition up here. So there were our first house. And he actually sold three paintings. My high school art teacher. Nice. Very dear to my heart.
Unattributed
Art. Art teachers. A lot of times they. I can remember the art teacher that I had in elementary school. And she made an impact on me all those years ago. So. I think our teachers are very special. Very important. All right. That's being said, I think we can go ahead and get on with me, I guess. So hold on. Let me go ahead and pull up my presentation.
Colin Goldberg
Sure. So Davos, since you're presenting. I'm going to give a little quick. Intro. You know, Davos was one of the first people that I actually connected with over the phone. When I was first getting this rolling. And just initially had rolled out, you know, the idea of using a hashtag. And there was like.
Colin Goldberg
A lot of people. I think it was like a one page site. Like, Hey, use the hashtag. You know, We're putting this group together, you know, And that was like the whole of it. And, and then I saw, you know, his work online. And he, I think, messaged me. Like I. You know, reached out to him when I saw the work and I thought, wow, this is like. What I think of when I think of Techspressionism is, you know, And he messaged me something like, you know, I really just feel like I've found.
Colin Goldberg
Like, you know, I'm not sure where I'm supposed to be. Where I'm supposed to be or something like that. Like something that I really connect with. I didn't know that other people were doing this type of work. With computers and Davos. Enthusiasm. Was one of the things that made me. You know, Decide like this is something worth developing and growing out. Because like, I really felt like. You know, that feeling. That sense of identification and that there was something. There was something to this that, you know, Could be really interesting, you know, and I think that. Yeah. So, and definitely like Davos has been. A very important part of, you know, The project in that it was his decision actually, or his suggestion to start recording and publishing these sessions, because prior to the. The eighth salon, I think we were just having these meetups.
Colin Goldberg
And. And I think that was just, okay, like, why don't we. We're going to do this. And then, you know, We're going to do this. And then, you know, And then, you know, And then sort of the idea of putting the YouTube channel together. Out of that. Ross jumped in with the interview format and, you know, It's developed organically, but I just want to. You know, Give Davos. A good shout out in terms of really helping. Well,
Unattributed
Thank you very much. And it's actually funny that you mentioned. You know, So we'll, we'll get to that point, but thank you very much, Colin, for your, for your kind words. And it does actually make me feel really special. I'm not going to lie. But. I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you. Like that's, that's the thing. And also I wouldn't be here if I hadn't decided to start putting my work out on Instagram. Because that was what ended up connecting us. So.
Unattributed
No, it's. It's a really good thing. And I, I really want to. I want to ride this way for as long as possible. Hopefully it never ends. I would, I'd be happy with that if it never ended, but I'm going to ride it for as long as I can and try to keep it going myself. Does that, can everyone see my, see the first slide? Okay, cool. All right.
Unattributed
So. Let's get started. My name is Davonte. A lot of you know me as Davo now. Bradley. I'm a writer. I'm an artist writer, poet, philosopher, gamer, streamer, activist, and a bunch of other things that might not be able to fit on this list, but that's kind of like the. The general. Like the big net. There's some other stuff, but I have a lot of interests. Always have always will.
Unattributed
Always learning. To church. So about me and my story, this, this presentation is actually going to cover pretty much everything that I've been doing in my life. Pretty much my. Portion of my life up into. You know, joining the movements and then what I've been doing the past year within the movement. Things I've been working on and up into. My book. Pretty much that I published or at least the first part of my collection of poems. But I grew up. Impoverished. I grew up in a single family. I mean, a single parent household of three.
Unattributed
And. I was a kid. And at the time, because I was a kid, didn't know my mom had mental health issues. How could I know? I like, I was a kid. Kids don't usually know these things, but you know, you can kind of pick. I was like something isn't quite right, but you can't put your finger on it. But. During that time, if you've read some of my poems, because these poems actually cover. Generational covers the first. Eight or nine years of my life. So you would actually probably knows a good chunk about my childhood from reading those poems.
Unattributed
Computers and video games. Those were my escapes. Those were the things I do. Those were, that was how I connected with my siblings actually. During that time. And also. Like just. Computers in general.
Unattributed
Were. One of my initial gateways into art, because. I started painting or started. Digital creations. With MS paint on windows 98. Several years ago. I was playing around with windows. MS paint. And creating a lot of geometric figures and shapes and playing around with colors with a lot of. Black backgrounds, which you will actually see pop up because that's how I got back into. Art, which I'll go over a little bit later, but. It was a lot of triangles and squares and like diamond shapes. And all of them were on a piece of paper. And I just had to get on the front of the box. And I just had to get on the back of the box. And I just had to get on the back of the box. And I just had to get on the back of the box. And I just had to get on the back of the box. And I just had to get on the back of the box.
Unattributed
And I just had to get on the back of the box. And I just had to get on the back of the box. And I just had to get on the back of the box. That experience that four years there definitely colored my like my perspective of the world for good and for bad like it's just I learned a lot there that's how I got into philosophy and thinking and you know being more introspective and all that good stuff and then fast forward forward between that time because I was 2014 when I graduated to 2020 where I became a full-time artist during the pandemic like I started creating art consistently and more regularly during the pandemic and I was like you know what I'm gonna do this I'm going to try to turn this into a career because that was something that I always cared about. Initially, I want to become like a character artist or concept artist, something dealing with video games.
Unattributed
That's where my mind was at the time with other kinds of art kind of being secondary to that. Like I was exploring that, playing around with it, but it wasn't my initial focus. And kind of just... That journey you can actually see in these next couple of slides where I was with where I started so these are sketches of mine from when I was in high school dated 2005 and 2009 so pretty much freshman year to the end of my freshman year so I'm going to show you a little bit of a picture of me I'm going to show you a little bit of a picture of me senior year in high school character art these were role-playing characters that I came up with that were based off of a video game that I loved called dot hack and yeah anatomy work could use some work I'd say looking back but you know that was video games and stuff was very much an inspiration for my work so I did a lot of character art fan art a lot of Pokémon there's actually one right behind me I got a sketch of charlotte and I did a lot of character art zard right behind me because it still happens more
Unattributed
Pokémon as I said but this was early college this is a little bit significant because this is also around the time in 2001 I mean 2011 sorry that's one and 2011 is when I actually bought my first wacom tablet my first drawing tablet because I had always always always want to create like actually be able to sketch drawing and I was like I want to be able to draw and I want to be able to draw and digital art not just working with you know my keyboard and mouse so I was like my first paycheck after working at the library I'm getting myself a tablet and that's what I did and I started experimenting with I started experimenting with you know how to use color because I was afraid of color because I hadn't actually used it because permanent marker and color pencil and all that stuff those were permanent and I had limited resources so I just had to figure out how to use color and I started playing around with colors and you know trying to refine that I did it inconsistently I guess but from the time that I was in college I was doing that very passively as I worked on my coursework and then towards the end I started to try and explore more painterly stuff like I wanted to not just do drawings but try to do digital paintings and I started to try and explore more painting and I started to try and explore more painting and it was hard to say to say it bluntly like it was hard because I had never done anything like that this is somebody that hadn't actually taken a 2d 3d or any other kind of art course up until this point so this was all stuff that I had learned through tutorials on deviant art or just various places on the internet.
Unattributed
And the piece on the left that is dated for August 9th of 2013, this is actually a piece that I did for my then girlfriend now wife. And it was very special because I took, I think it took me probably about 22 hours in total. On this piece and I was zooming in zooming out and I was trying to figure out how to shade things properly and do highlights and trying to figure out like if it was just a good composition because I wasn't sure because I didn't know what the heck that composition was really it's just like I knew that things looked good but I didn't know what the heck that composition was because I didn't know what the heck that composition was because I didn't know what the heck that composition was because I didn't know pretty and sometimes you can arrange things to look pretty so that's what I was kind of functioning off of during that time and it came out really well I was so proud of myself I was and Allison was very happy with the product she actually had on her phone screen like as her lock screen for like years like she still has it as her lock screen to this day and this is in 2013 when I made this for her so I was like man I'm gonna make this for her and I'm gonna make this for her when I made this for her so I was like man I'm gonna make this for her and I'm gonna make this for her art can really resonate with people sometimes but it wasn't I didn't have that kind of moment where I was like I should do more of this it was that because I took so much time on it and because this was so personal I didn't really want to like continue forward making art like that but I occasionally did make art for myself like the one on the right and just again exploring colors and trying to paint things.
Unattributed
And then fast forward six years because that's there was a hiatus with my art for a very long time. I struggled with like accepting that you know I may have been improving. I was struggling with like where my skill level was at. I didn't feel that it was at a good point. And I was getting frustrated because with like the character art and the concept art stuff I was not nearly at the level I wanted to be at. And it was frustrating because there was so much I had to learn. There was so much that you know I was beating myself up over the art that I was making every now and again. Like I would make something and be like you could do better than that. Except that was after spending like eight or nine hours on a piece and then not being happy with the result. And it was just it was hard. I was like man maybe I shouldn't do this anymore.
Unattributed
And just like just do it every now and again. It's like a hobby because it wasn't it wasn't working out. And there was this moment during the pandemic. I was unemployed unemployed at that point because I lost my job. I was working in retail at the time. I lost my job due to the pandemic. And I was at home and I was trying to figure out what the heck it was that I want to do with myself. What I want to do with the rest of my life because I couldn't I didn't want to go back to retail. That's not something I wanted to do.
Unattributed
And, you know, video games didn't like an option to for me. I knew I wanted to do something with art. But what I had no idea. It's like I it's not like I could be a painter because I couldn't afford materials. But I had my tablet and everything from all those years of off and on working on digital art. And there was a moment where I was struggling. And I was struggling with streaming, streaming video games, because I did that off and on over the years. And at the end of the or towards the end of the stream, I was like, well, maybe I should stream my art, or stream progression of working on art. And it was like the last five minutes, like I have this video still up on my on my gaming, Facebook page. The last five minutes, I was just playing around and the software that I use, I use software called Krita.
Unattributed
Now, but at the time, I was using something called paint tool side, I was just playing around with paint tool side, not really having an intention in mind, I was just making brushstrokes. And this happened, like literally, this happened, like this, this was not planned, this was not structured, this I end up just coming to be.
Unattributed
And I was happy with that. I was like, this actually looks amazing. And it took five minutes, like I'm happier with this thing that took five minutes that I had been with any of the other work taking hours and hours to work on. And it was done. Like I could walk away from this, it was done.
Unattributed
And I was like, that was that first moment, I was like, maybe, maybe this is what I should be trying to do. And so that was July. And so then I started experimenting. I created my first series. I use that very loosely, because it was, I didn't actually know what a series was at the time. Like, when I say that I had not, well, I had virtually no familiarity with how the art community worked, or how like the greater art world at large work, even art history, I was a complete novice, complete amateur, very, very low level experience, very low level knowledge. But I was told I was like, well, maybe you should start working or start thinking about working in the series. And I was like, okay, I guess, having some sort of cohesive theme going on, could help.
Unattributed
So I kind of tapped into my roots in my from my youth, where, you know, I was making artwork on black backgrounds, and just using like basic colors, very basic shapes. Except this time, I was using like, brushstrokes, like, because I was just trying to get a handle on some of the brushstrokes from the software I was using, which was paint tool side at the time, which is what I had been using for my other artwork. And this series is, it doesn't have the impact that I think it should now. But I actually came back to the series a couple of times over the months. But the series was pretty much about and also this is like not the entire one, there's like maybe four or five other works that are part of it. But they're all about my family. And you know, just different parts or different aspects of my family that I felt had a lot of impact on my life.
Unattributed
And so I kind of took that as a whole. And then I started looking at my mother's anger and her anger on my mother's anger and her anger on my mother's anger. But there was also an impact on why my family is the way that it is now. So my mother's anguish. She has she was diagnosed with severe depression. She probably had that for most of her life. From childhood on, and never been treated for never got seen for it. She didn't even acknowledge that she had until she was almost 50.
Unattributed
My father's anger. One of the only like heartfelt conversations I've had this man and I got him finally opened up to me. He told me that pretty much that for the longest time, he did not understand why he was so mad. He didn't know where his anger was coming from. He just knew that he had it and it frustrated him to no end. And he was darn near 60 when he finally got therapy for it.
Unattributed
But between my mom's depression and his anger issues that had repressed anger issues, recipe for disaster for a marriage, I bet. And not also the greatest environment for children. So my brother, after my dad left, end up becoming like the head of the household.
Unattributed
The man of the house. He had a learning disability. And ADHD. Not kind of position somebody like that should be in. And my sister, she, her mental health took a drastic turn. And once you run off to college, if in the poems that you'll read later, because these are actually 50 poems of 200, there are 150 more poems. I haven't actually done the illustrations for. But she changed very drastically later on right around time college. And she just took a decline. I'm not sure if it's schizophrenia or something else, but she is not well.
Unattributed
And it had a like that through a wedge. And our relationship. As siblings, my brother. All that good stuff. Anyway, that was that was the kind of premise behind that series. I revisit that every now and again. And then I started experimenting more with just all the tools that I had the software is using. So I started creating, you know, just all sorts of things. It's hard to say what the method to my madness was. But the kind of overarching feeling was that I just want to create. I don't care what it looks like. I don't I don't really care about like the brushes that I use. I want to make something that looks good to me and I can say that it's finished and it's done. And that's it. So it was very like therapeutic because I was also going through or help processing for the motion I was dealing with because pandemic also issues with my family.
Unattributed
So, got depression. I'm anxious and in 20. And that's what I'm doing. Comfortable it was still fun for me I think I got an inspiration for the one that left from actually going on Instagram and just looking up abstract art because I was like I think that's the kind of art that I'm doing like that makes sense I was like I wonder what other abstract art styles are there and so that's where Goldflesh came from and Yoru soon thereafter also developed in kind of the same thing where you know color fields and geometric shapes and all that good stuff and then period of time where again just playing I would say there was a point where I realized that what I really want to do was just have fun with the creation process and
Unattributed
I had probably never had so much fun creating art before up until this point where I was legitimately just playing with my with my brushes in the software that I was using and just having a go at just creating it was I remember I told Allison a couple of times I was like I'm having so much fun and she was like yeah keep doing that I was like all right I'm gonna keep doing that so play and the idea of play goes hand in hand with my work even to this even now and it kind of makes sense if you think about because video games involves a lot of work and I think that's a really good thing to do because video games involves a lot of work and I think that's a really good thing to do because a lot of playing too so that whole idea of play and playing and enjoyment very much intertwined with who I am and what I do and then you know just further exploration of other emotions the titling sometimes is a little interesting because sometimes I just didn't care about the title and I came up with something that you know was the first thing that came to my mind after seeing that it was done the one on the left kind of reminded me of like metal arbor a little bit or like metal plating something that was constrained or you know just safer the one on the right kind of reminded me like the edges of a sword or two swords together and thus the title swords I guess and then this one this one was a kind of pitiful moment utter chaos this one was a kind of pitiful moment utter chaos this was actually the first non-commissioned work I'd ever sold as an artist I posted this on Facebook just because I was during that time I was just rapidly sharing my work as I was working on it because I was having so much fun I was sharing it with people and you know a friend of mine he was like I need this as a print and I was like I don't know how to go about doing that but we'll figure something out and I end up figuring out you know different websites I could go to sell or create my work as a physical representation because I wasn't even thinking about that at the time and get this to this person that they can so they can put it on their wall and they love the piece still it's like it's on their wall it's next to some of the other pieces of artwork that I love and I was like all right I think I'm I think I'm on to something and then this other work tied down again goes back to feelings about my family because that was still very much heavy on me but all of this was in like the span of like two months so July and August all of these different styles and all these different things were happening all just a two-month time span and
Unattributed
Then this happened this was actually originally called very play because I was during the time that I was fast and loose with the titles I was creating and I was like I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do this and it later came to be known as aspire this is a pivotal piece of mine because this was kind of the moment where I was like this is where this is what I need to be making this is where I need to be like this is a style or something something close to this style is something where I want to do and I remember posting this and there was so much positive feedback on it and I was just like all right this is again solidifying that maybe this is the path I should be going on actually I still owe Colin your part of the trade so it's coming I haven't forgotten about you but Colin's actually going to be the owner of a signed copy of signed print metal print of this and it's probably going to be the only metal print of this that's going to be created but it's this piece is very important to me and it can't be done without Colin's support and I'm going to be very grateful to him for that this is the first time I really had the opportunity to do this and I'm going to be very grateful to him for this in the next few years and I'm going to be very grateful to him for this for this as an author and we're going to be doing this for the next few years and I'm going to be doing this for the next few years and I'm going to be doing this for the next few years and I'm going to be doing this for the next few years and I'm going to be doing this for the next few years and I'm going to be doing this for the next few years and I'm going to be doing this for the next few years and I'm going to be doing this for the next few years and I'm going to be doing this for the next few years and I'm going to be doing this for the next few years and I'm going to be doing this for the next few years and I go beyond that?
Unattributed
What's going to, what's going to, what, what it's going to look like? And it created this really interesting effect with all these lines and shapes and like this three dimensionality that was just, it felt right. I consider myself to be a very thoughtful person, but I can't really put into words just the feeling that creating this evoked, like, it just felt like it was supposed to be.
Unattributed
And so that kickstarted an exploration and utilizing or learning what else that tool, that brush could do. And I created probably 60, 70 or so drawings and paintings using that. Again, fast and loose with the titles because I was in a rapid production mode. Like I was pumping these out and I was like, oh, this is going to be a great idea. And I was like, for hours, for days at a time. So you have such play, Chris cycle, radiating, matey and butterfly.
Unattributed
And, and then the movement happened in September. This is actually the piece that Colin found that made him want to reach out to me.
Unattributed
And I, this is all he said, all he did. Was a hashtag Techspressionism. And with the little fire emoji. And I was just like, what does that mean? That was my first response. I was like, what is, what, what is that? And I looked into, I looked into the movement and I was like, oh, okay. That makes sense. Now I see that. And I sent him this response on the left here. So that's where I was getting back to you. I actually, I actually included that little exchange that correspondence and, you know, me thanking him it like informing me that his movement existed and, you know, feeling that I was seen and that was found and this New York artist found me and, you know, was seeing that said my work looked good. And that meant a lot to me as someone that, you know, I, I was not, I was not a professional artist at that point.
Unattributed
I hadn't gone to art school. Like none of this stuff that, you know, traditional, traditional background for artists have happened with me. And to be recognized in such a way, I was like, wow, I feel really, really validated here. And it was an amazing feeling. And I was like, and it was just another notch on the road of like, this is where I need to be. This is what, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. Nothing else had been clicking like this up till now, but everything is coming together. I feel as it should and when it should. So I was like, this, this is where I need to be. This is why I need to be doing.
Unattributed
So, and that was part of the expire series that, that work, that was called falling or falling hope. That was me exploring more use of color and lines and, you know, just all sorts of structures. But this is like the first kind of the first series after the family series I created. And then of course, because going to fall, because it was at the end of September, I was like, no, I'll make a, make a fall series.
Unattributed
I don't know what else to call it, but I'll just call it the fall series. This is a few of the works from that series. There's of course, there are other works in the aspire series as well. And there's other works in the fall series. So I'm just trying to give a snapshot of like what, what more or less the, the rest of the series kind of looks like.
Unattributed
And one of these, you might actually recognize from the Facebook group, the one on the top left, is it worth it? That's actually the banner for the movement on Facebook. I think it's the text fresh and this page is where it is.
Unattributed
But yeah, so that was during a time where, you know, I was playing around, I had discovered like color fields and I was like, Oh, experiment with that a little bit. And so I came up with it's chaotic, which I have, my first metal prints ever created was of that piece, which it looks a little birdy because my, my webcam is, I'm blurring out my background, but apparently that also includes art, but that got me on the path. I'm trying to put my work on HD aluminum, which another member of the movement gave me the idea for, because she was like, yeah, he see aluminum prints are amazing. Here's this website. I was like, Oh yeah, I'll explore that.
Unattributed
But yeah. So then next series was the blue sin series. This is just two from, from that series. But I think there's like seven or eight other works in the series, but I was trying to like dial in, on the feeling of calmness serenity, peacefulness, because that's what I was trying to find in myself.
Unattributed
So I also started at that time, exploring the use of watercolor or watercolor like brushes in my work. That's what produced the kind of wispy effects around some of these figures here. So that coupled with the Chrome ink pen and all that is what produced that effect. And then we have another interesting break.
Unattributed
This is the, the period of time where, you know, I was doing community stuff and collaboration because there was a point in my life. Cause you know, there was a lot going on after working on the blues and series, I had realized that there was a part of my life that was missing. Now I had joined the blue sin series, but I had joined the text version of the movement. That was a community still fairly new, but that was part of the community. But I was also thinking about like my actual like physical community because I'd never really had like a neighborhood or like even just thinking of myself as part of a neighborhood or a greater community outside of just my house. That was something that I never really felt before. And I was like, I think I probably should have something like that.
Unattributed
And the work on the left called community was actually created during a virtual paint night. That was put on by a nonprofit organization called art one 80. And I was doing this as people were, you know, painting in real time with like traditional stuff. And there was me over here creating this digitally. Like I actually had my, it was in a zoom meeting and I was making this in real time during that meeting. And there was, there was just a unique kind of energy that was in that room, even though it was virtual, even though that I knew it was like virtually no different than, you know, the meetings that I have here with you guys, it felt a little different.
Unattributed
Maybe it was the music. I don't know, but it felt different. And I've honestly not actually been able to create another work quite like this one since, even though I've tried, like I've actually actively tried to make works that looked similar or felt similar to community. I just haven't been able to do it.
Unattributed
It's just that unique. And I ended up entering it into a an auction for mental health awareness. So mental health of America was actually in an auction for that realization as a fundraiser. And then the piece on the right was my first, one of the first collaboration pieces that I did. This was done with Diana de Avila.
Unattributed
And that was, that was from the Techspressionist system collab one. And there's another piece there is cause we did pass back and forth a couple of times, but there's other pieces, but this was the first time that I had worked with another artist directly. So that's why that's included next to community because it was the first time that, you know, things to start to come together.
Unattributed
And then I started experimenting with words. And writing because I'm a writer and sometimes a poet more recently, more of a poet, but words, and I have actually a fascination with words and phrases. It comes with having a good memory when it comes to that kind of thing, but not necessarily a good way because not all the words are good. Like there's a lot of negative words that are floating around in my head that I can't forget that were said.
Unattributed
I'm, I'm not sure if I can remember the exact words, So. So. So. So. Kind of think of this in a way is like just thought graffiti. Like there was art that was created. And then there was words and stuff that was overlaid on top of that, that were just kind of the first things that came to mind as I was thinking about this work.
Unattributed
And this was titled what hurts. This is one of the first pieces of 2021, by the way. And then this is another piece. Titled what hurts. And then this is another piece that was titled, is it faulty? Which. Going back to, you know, my previous roots doing poetry. There was a poem that I wrote. I need to find it.
Unattributed
But it's actually, there's pieces of that poem interlaced in, in this work. The central figures kind of shaped like a heart because of what the poem was initially based off of. Was heartbreak. The poem was titled faulty blood pump. And I think that's, that's kind of where this came to be. And so that's kind of where this came to be. And I actually ended up creating my own fonts that I use from time to time now. So I can actually type in my own fonts when I need to.
Unattributed
And more of that. Actually, I think I did a live kind of explanation of these works anyway, on stream on Instagram live one day. But these are probably the ones that are most popular. But these are probably the ones that are most popular. This one's predominantly words. There's very little actual like drawing in these.
Unattributed
The one on the left. There's a little bit of drawing with the chromic pen and then. A lot of words in phrases all throughout. It would take me about 30 minutes to explain everything that's in these individually. But there is something on Instagram live. It might actually be on Instagram TV. Where you can go through it. And I actually walked through all the phrases. Is at least one of these. But some of the things I was talking about, just my ideas about or thoughts about art and my feeling as an artist, I think the one on the right, yeah, some of like the negative self-talk, it's like up here in the top left corner, it's like you're not good or you're not a good fit.
Unattributed
Are you even black? So also questions about my racial status because I actually did have an identity crisis at one point growing up. But some of these, which also if you read the collection of poems, you also get a feel for some of that stuff in there too, but a little bit more of that to explore later.
Unattributed
But a lot of it's just a lot of thoughts and a lot of feelings that I'm trying to get into. So yeah, just jumbled together. Then there was some work that I did for during Black History Month. These are based, these colors are significant that they're all based off of the Pan-African flag, which is red, black and green. And what all these colors correspond to are pretty much what that is actually saying. So the red of the Pan-African flag corresponds to the blood of the ancestors that died either on their way to America or wherever they were being headed to during the transatlantic slave trade.
Unattributed
The black references or is referenced to the fact that the diaspora, even though it's so wide and vast that it's still all connected. And that's why it's in the middle of the Pan-African flag. If you actually see it, it's a bar where red is on top, green is at the bottom and there's this black bar in the middle because that's the connector between the two. And the green on the bottom represents the natural resources, and just bounty of Africa itself, the ancestral continent.
Unattributed
So that's why it's entitled Bountiful Land. And these are two other pieces kind of in that same motif, that same color scheme, red, black and green. One left literally being called Pan-African and the one on the right is disconnected. Now that one is significant because back to the whole me having an identity crisis as a black, as a black person, because my status and just for a lot of factors, I'd never actually really felt connected at all, really to either the black community or like my ancestral origins.
Unattributed
This was all like, I felt so distant and away from all of that. And it's still a feeling that I fight with today. So like you have this shape or this form in the bottom left corner, that's kind of a representation of like, oh, I'm black. I'm like black culture and Africa and black community. And the top right, it's more or less like the body of me, my mind, my soul. And they're trying to connect, but they're just also being like potentially pulled apart.
Unattributed
But yeah, that's what that work is about. I actually wrote a blog about that not so long ago and I can share that later if anybody wants to, but I'm not much of a blogger. So I'll share it later. But yeah, it's a great book. And then after that, there was a period of time where I just did a kind of rapid, very rapid exploratory period again, because that's what I love to do with experimentation and just trying to make new things.
Unattributed
And it was probably about 20 or so entitled works that I did. Some are black and white, some feature color, but all of them are more or less trying to do something, different that I hadn't quite done before. Apparently I also forgot to include the titles for these, but the one on the left is out of my mind. I've remembered that specifically.
Davonte Bradley
A lot of color work.
Unattributed
And these, one on the left I actually animated, wanted to actually include that animation, but I could not get it to work. But there's a little gift that's associated with the one on the left that I was thinking about turning it into an NFT. And there's some other stuff that I'll highlight a bit later, but there are actually like some motifs or symbols that I actually include kind of frequently with my work.
Unattributed
And then we went to, this is later in 2021, and we went to Myrtle Beach. And I took some photographs there of the water and the beach and I made some like composite digital paintings slash photography stuff. My first time going to Myrtle Beach didn't actually travel a whole lot when I was younger. So this was a fun experiment because I'd always wanted to know do a little bit of photography work in first place and being able to mix that with what I was currently doing. It was a good time. It was fun.
Unattributed
This was not based off photograph I took but it was based off photograph of a weight. I love this one. I loved how it turned out. And it's actually almost like a collage too, because the bottom section here actually comes from some other paintings that I did. And I cut and pasted it into that, overlaid it, painted over it. And it created a very interesting effect, I'll say. Probably won't be able to do it again, maybe. I don't know. I didn't record the process, but I vaguely remember how I did it.
Unattributed
And then I got more into the idea of creating digital collages. And that's where these two came into space. The first one was actually, there's portions of this one on the left that actually came from Crash, C2, and Making Waves. Like if you look at this top right corner here, and down here, down here, top left, corner, and then you see this little piece of the wall that's actually from Crash, C2, and Making Waves. Those are all from those previous works.
Unattributed
And the one on the right and the groove was made in a similar way, but there was also, you know, paintings with that. So it's an amalgam of all sorts of things. And also around that time, I had discovered the Afrofuturist movement. And I was like, a lot of that is figurative. And I don't necessarily do figurative work at this time. But I did notice that there was a theme of certain colors being regularly used in the Afrofuturist movement. So I was like, I'll just take those and play with it and see what happens. So that was in the groove. And of the earth, which actually came before in the groove, I actually have them out of order. But yeah, this was like my initial Afrofuturist piece based off of that.
Unattributed
So there's a lot of gold, earthy tones, red, a lot of earth in the blues, the blues are representative of
Unattributed
The Afrofuturist movement. And I think that's where I got my deep eyes. And I think that's more of the design of the color. And I think that's really what I'm looking for. And I think that's one of the things that I'm kind of looking for. And I think that's my second question. So I'm going to let you all think for a second. So I'm going to let you all think for a second. So I'm going to let you all think for a second. And I'm going to let you all think for a second. And I'm going to let you all think for a second. And I'm going to let you all think for a second.
Unattributed
And I'm going to let you all think for a second. Started as collages it was just me trying to demonstrate to people just how common the eye of truth symbol that I came up with was featured in some of my works so I kind of cataloged it everywhere it appeared and these are I kind of got the idea for this based off of you know during my time when I was studying Basquiat and I was you know fascinated by Basquiat I resonated with his story his history and I was devouring like his life story on a regular basis and one of the things that he did was he came up with a symbol his that crown that he liked to use and this is I more or less the equivalent of Basquiat's crown it's my eye of truth and it always takes some form it might not be all the same angle might not even all be in the same style but it's almost always always always representative of the same idea of the work itself has an eye that's looking at the viewer as you're looking as the viewer is looking at the work itself.
Unattributed
So it's kind of like a two-way communication street where the work is examining you as you examine it. And I also took like the idea of like the eye of Horus, it also means protection, so it's watching you, protecting you, that kind of idea. And I really... Also kind of, it also kind of lines up with the idea of who I am as a person, because one of the things that kind of defines me is that I'm an observer. I'm not necessarily always an actor, but I observe constantly.
Unattributed
There's actually a poem in there about hypervigilance, because I'm constantly watching, constantly observing everything that is around me, like just trying to look for anything that might be significant to either my safety or, you know, maybe something I should just watch out for, just looking for patterns, that kind of thing. Always, always, always doing that.
Unattributed
I wish I could turn it off, but I can't, but it's, it's served me fairly well. I've recognized a lot of patterns with a lot of things over the years, like even when it comes to behavior, and I could like accurately predict certain things before it even happens, because patterns that I've observed, but yeah, this is just several of them, and I'm really, I'm realizing that my, my presentation is probably going for a bit longer than I intended, but here's, here's some more play stuff.
Unattributed
I was experimenting with some neon stuff, because I like neon color scheme, and was trying to figure out how to incorporate that into my own artwork, and this is also during the time where I was experimenting with NFT work. The one on the right was actually uploaded on HicketNuke, which is why it's titled NUNK, which I can't remember what that actually means in Latin.
Unattributed
And then some other, other stuff that I've worked on that's a little bit more figurative, or actually more like art historical, which I don't normally do a whole lot of work like this, but it's, it's nice to do every now and again. And this one, Lost Connections, kind of a continuation of kind of the things I was exploring back in Black History Month. So I've done a lot of work on this, and I've also done a lot of work on this, but I've also done a lot of work on this, and I've also done a lot of work on this, so back in February, where, you know, you have your reds, your blacks, your greens, but also features in actual, like, noticeable shape, that's the cowrie shell, and the cowrie shells are, they were for a long time used as currency, actually, for a very long time, and, but they also had, like, spiritual meanings associated with them as well.
Unattributed
And in African culture, a lot of African cultures, they were very significant. Actually, if you look at a lot of African art, you will see cowrie shells more often than not in a lot of it. And so, I was thinking about, again, you know, my lost connections to that, and was kind of bridging that gap, but I also discovered that the colors red and black, which I have an extremely high affinity for, are also representative, apparently, to connections and spirituality in some African culture. So I was like, huh, I guess I was channeling that without realizing it.
Unattributed
But that's where that, that's how that came about. And then there was a departure. That's me. That's me as a kid. That bright blonde-haired child with the blonde afro, that was me. These are pictures taken from the time that my family was more or less still whole. These are also the only photos, really, of me as a kid that currently exists now, because a lot of my childhood, like the lot, what my material childhood is, is gone.
Unattributed
It's either lost due to being in storage, and we lost our storage unit, or it was just thrown away accidentally, but I literally have no childhood photos, really, anymore, except for the ones that I saved and scanned as a kid when I was, like, because I put these online when I was, like, 10 years old, and they're in an old Photobucket account, and I pulled them from that Photobucket account for this. And I decided to make this, and interesting enough, my father, of all people, decided to buy a print of this.
Unattributed
I guess maybe he felt guilty, I don't know, but it was, it was weird. It was a weird thing, my dad purchasing this. Yeah. It wasn't even, I wasn't even necessarily just trying to sell it, either. It was just something that I was posting, but. Apparently, I have, I have a way of resonating with people. Anyway, AI collaboration stuff. This is me painting over Playform stuff. I've painted, bedded over 300 paintings and drawings of mine, and it puts, put out stuff that's, like, on the right, and on the left is things that I, like, painted over.
Unattributed
So there's that. And now we come to my book. Book of short poems, generational. Started, and I know, I know we're getting actually low on time, because we only have, like, 15 minutes left. So I apologize, because I got wrapped up in speaking. But this project is literally an endeavor of processing trauma and introversion, learning from my history, accepting things. It's, it's a lot. There's a lot within this. And this is just the first book of 50.
Unattributed
Not 50 books. I'm sorry. 50 poems. There are 200 short poems. The first book is 50. There's going to be three other books after this one. I'm still doing the art and everything for those but they'll be released periodically probably like once every three months or so. The next one's going to come out and on Black Friday is what I'm hoping to have that released.
Unattributed
But that combines this project combines being an artist book because I was fascinated with the idea of an artist book with an autobiographical nature. And also my love of poetry, which is something that I hadn't actually done in a very long time I used to write a lot. When I was younger mostly to help me process the what I was going through as a kid because I went through a lot. But I stopped writing. For whatever reason, I don't know why. But this is me again and kind of revisiting my roots, just like how I got started with abstract and specialism revisiting my roots and reconnecting with my younger self. And that's what this project kind of started with. And I will be honest, I cried several times while writing these and making these.
Unattributed
I guess I hadn't quite. Perfect. I guess I hadn't quite. Processed or even like some of the stuff I hadn't even actually talked about with people, period before writing it. Like some of these stories were even new to my wife who has known me for almost a decade now. And every single poem in this book, every poem of the 200 all of them have some relevant story related to my life.
Unattributed
Every single one all 200 of them correspond to a specific time or period in my life. And it's currently available as an ebook through Amazon. And it's on paperback, but that project in particular that all of this, everything to expressionism my, the pandemic, all this kind of led up to this project which is where I'm at now and.
Unattributed
Yeah, it's, it's been a journey it's been a very interesting journey. You all you got my. Essentially my artistic journey from childhood to now, as well as the development of my professional art journey from the start till now, because it wasn't that long ago. But, yeah, that's it. I've got nothing else we got 15 minutes left.
Unattributed
Thank you for your time. Are there any questions, concerns comments. I think I saw some questions earlier. In the chats. Let me stop sharing my screen so I can properly. Also yeah that link there will take you directly to the Amazon page, if you're watching this after the fact. It's a bit. All right.
Unattributed
Okay, we're good. I see I see. Thank you. Thank you so much. My wife is also applauding because she's also she's so supportive like that.
Davonte Bradley
Okay.
Unattributed
Yeah, that's me. That's my story. That's, that's why I'm here. I'm scrolling back up through the comments because I'm sure I missed some things.
Davonte Bradley
I don't know. Okay.
Unattributed
There's a lot of comments. Jeez. Okay. Oh, I had a live comment that really enjoyed really enjoyed your presentation. It was really awesome to see the development of your work. Really enjoyed it. And I, and I love your book I acquired a copy. Well thank you. And recommend it. So, excellent. Keep, keep doing what you're doing, and let it flourish and develop. Thank you.
Unattributed
Trying to. I know, I knew there was somebody that asked a question I'm trying to find it, and I think.
Davonte Bradley
Yeah.
Unattributed
Probably help if I wasn't skimming. All right, but there's there is a lot of praise at least. Yeah. I'm going to go ahead and read it. Oh, is the complete work you were developing digitally or involvement of hand drawing or art. If it's only digital what software are using specifically for pen and ink and blue watercolor effects. Oh, so my process is, I, I paint and draw digitally using a drawing tablet. This is a XP pen 15 is what I use these days, and I use a software called Krita, which is a free, mostly open source software I believe that receives regular updates, it's like Photoshop but less memory intensive and it feels a lot better to paint and draw in the Photoshop in my opinion. And that's from coming from Photoshop to using paint tool side to using Krita. As far as like the actual book, though, I use a couple different things I use Google Docs actually.
Unattributed
And software called Kindle create to help me format my work. I use that and create the book, at least the ebook anyway. And then Google Docs helped me create the PDF and everything like that. And, yeah. Oh, Michael you got something.
Davonte Bradley
Michael Pierre Price
So, really powerful work Bravo. Gotta say. So, I guess I have a couple, couple, couple, comments and, and for you also with kind of dovetailing into Holly's work as well, and expressionism but there's, there's an artist. Maybe you're aware of him or not I think he's Ethiopian I'm not sure. Abraham Elsa Elsa hot Elsa Lahi.
Michael Pierre Price
And a lot of your work. See, just to have some. Elements. And, your geometric works that you showed early on with the black backgrounds. They're very raw. They're very powerful to me. And the, the evolution that you've taken since then, where you have where your prominence are much more organic flowing lines. And, are powerful but in a very different way and I'm just kind of curious.
Michael Pierre Price
It feels like a really distinctively different expression mode. And I don't know if that was technology driven by some of the tools, or if there was something personal because to me. They're both strong vibes, but those early geometric ones. Feel very raw. Raw and very edgy and I know maybe because they're because there's very stark lines in there but there's something very internally different that's coming from you that
Unattributed
Might be due to the fact that when I was creating those I was very much trying to capture the feeling that I used to like as a kid working in ms paint working that way and making geometric shapes and ms paint and that kind of stuff that's what I was trying to get at during that time and like bring that into now and like if this if my childhood self had access to the technology and stuff like that now that's kind of what I envisioned the work that I was making would probably look like I
Michael Pierre Price
I think they're really powerful I was really excited to be part of really drawn to them which it I hadn't seen that those works before so it just like hit me like a brick because what I had seen of yours are your more recent works and they're still very powerful but in a very for me at least the way it hit me was just very different aesthetic and also kind of it felt like it was coming from a different place so maybe it was the time maybe it is a different place because it was you know bringing something from yep earlier yeah and I guess my other thing that kind of dovetails with Holly's work and yours and everybody else's my wife we were discussing on Sunday as my show was my exhibition was ending and she was commenting about Techspressionism to me and she said you know those are your peaks those are the people that understand you more so than some of the folks who know you locally here and it was a great observation and Holly kind of said the same thing earlier today is that we kind of get each other we're very different artists we're very different people in the modes of expression that in one way but there's something I think deep down in the world that we recognize in one another and for me that's been the power of this group
Unattributed
Absolutely yeah I would not be able to probably talk about my work in the same way with just like a casual observer than with you guys pretty much like it's a very different kind of thing yeah
Holly Gordon
I want to jump I want excuse me I want to I want to jump jump in it's like I have always been so taken by the impressionist movement by the brotherhood of all of those artists who came together and they interacted and they talked and they each had their own vision their own their own style but they were joined together and they supported each other and the critiques and criticisms that they had they worked together and that synergy made their creativity strong and that's what this group is doing and yes we are a 21st century movement and we're all over the world and we aren't all together in Paris or in New York or in Chicago or whatever and it is just so thrilling and exhilarating to be able to bounce off each other our ideas and our work it's fantastic
Unattributed
I completely agree painter Ahmed Mr okay I will definitely look these people up and that's another thing too I didn't actually mention that during the presentation but during that kind of rapid experimentation period of mine I was trying very hard not to necessarily reference anybody not on purpose at least because I was trying to find somebody who would be able to reference anybody for all those years prior I was constantly using references with what I was doing because I was making fan art or you know doing character gesture studies and stuff like that so I was constantly referencing something else and I was like you know I just want to reference me in myself so let's see what that comes up with and that's that drove a lot of what I did actually
Davonte Bradley
Unattributed
Oh I just realized we only have four minutes left oh okay so I guess I can take like or Holly can take like one quick question comment I got one for you though is that one
Colin Goldberg
Is that picture that you had the childhood pictures of yourself is that the only one that you've done that incorporates photography and digital drawing together? Or like any other you know is that a modality that you'd like to expand upon in the future or is that sort of like a one-off?
Unattributed
I don't know if I wanted to do more I would have liked I would like to do more like trying to like piece together from that time period that is essentially lost to me except in memories now and I just I don't think I have enough source material for it is the thing and I think I do have like some pictures from my childhood they're still online like me with like a cat that I used to have and one picture that I really want to have but I don't have it anymore and it's actually a it's actually a poem here that kind of captures what it was let me try to find it real quick where is it but it was about my siblings and I and geez where'd it go and oh yeah it was this one this one on well here yeah this one it was a picture with me my brother and my sister and we were all you know standing close together and you know looking like a family that's never going to happen again like I don't and I really wanted or was really hoping that you know someday that might come to pass but you know the only way I could replicate that feeling or that imagery again is through something like this so this is like the only reference that I have to that photo now that memory this poem.
Unattributed
And a couple of the poems in here are kind of like that because I don't have physical representations of a lot of that time anymore. All I have is my memories. And I don't know, for something like that, with those photos, I would rather have more actual photos if I can find them to do. And someone might have them somewhere in the family, but they probably don't talk to me anymore. They probably don't want to talk to me. But it could be something I try to hunt down and do later on if I get the chance. Because I know where some of these people live. I know they might, there's a chance that they have photos of myself when I was younger, or my siblings.
Unattributed
But we'll see. We'll see how it goes. But at this time, yeah, it's kind of just one-off. But for now. Also, I think we lost Colin. I think he DC'd. Whoops. I'm here. Oh, you dropped down or somebody else left.
Unattributed
Because you were in the first row, now you're in the third row. Either way. Yeah, we're right at 4pm now, Eastern Time. So I guess with that, that's it. That's about it. You can definitely stay or stick around after the recording is finished to chat if you want to continue chatting. But the formal part of our text questions with Salon has now concluded. So very much thank you for being here. And thank you for allowing me to take up so much of your time because I couldn't stop talking.
Unattributed
Thank you. Thank you for being a part of the movement. It's been a pleasure to have you all here. And thank you very much. And Tommy is showing off his upcoming show, I think tomorrow. Yep. Or no, two days, September 30. And, yeah. Thursday, hope to see everybody in the city. Yeah, everyone is in the city. Stop in, please. Yeah, everyone that's in New York, go hit up Tommy.
All right.
Colin Goldberg
Should be fun.
Unattributed
Thanks, Tommy. No problem.
Colin Goldberg
Tommy, if you haven't already, definitely share the details for the opening and everything in the Facebook page. Yeah,
Unattributed
I'll be there. And I'll be there. Absolutely. Well, I'm waiting for the official thing to come out today. They're putting the PR together kind of last minute, but I'll share everything.
Colin Goldberg
And you're going to be the next Salon presenting, I believe. Yep. From the gallery, hopefully.
Unattributed
Oh, nice. Awesome. Nice. That'll be your first, I think. All right. Well, thank you so much, everyone, for being here. And I hope to see you next time. I'll give you all a round of applause, I guess, because you've all given me a round of applause. So I guess it's kind of going back and forth. But thank you so much.