About: I am a lover of all things yarn, a crochet artist who creates wearable art inspired by the African Diaspora. I began my journey of crochet by sitting at the foot of my next door neighbor who created beautiful crocheted pieces with thread, I would watch her for hours. Crochet was my hobby while raising my two beautiful children Antoniya and David, then in 2010 DoubleTake Creations was born. My imagination and the love of African art influenced and guided my fingers and the passion grew. I was featured in the premier issues of Urban Style California and have participated in the Alameda Art Festival, Laurel Street World Fair, Festival at the Lake and Jack London Vendor Walk.
More info: You can contact me for special orders at doubletakecreations@rocketmail.com, on Instagram @doubletakecreations and Facebook at DoubleTake Creations.
Special events: A virtual satellite artist talk and exhibit is available on Youtube at: https://youtu.be/R5EEKDB1c2E
About:
JOHN B. BROUSSARD FINE ARTIST: DRAWINGS PAINTINGS SCULPTURE
John B. Broussard is a second generation native of Oakland California. He started drawing at age 7 after his family moved to a new neighborhood where he did not have any friends with which to play. Broussard describes Art as his “first love” because it provided an avenue through which he could occupy time and fill the void that would otherwise have been consumed playing with other children. One day his mother, the late Maybelle L. Broussard, was surprised to discover him drawing horses. After this discovery she exposed him to art making activities including a ceramics class at Mills College and a painting class at Mosswood Park. Largely self-taught, Broussard took two Special Art Classes at King Jr. High School and another art class at Bishop O’Dowd High School. More extensive exposure to studio art classes came many years later when he attended U.C. Berkeley as an Art major.
Excluding his time at U.C. Berkeley, Broussard’s most prolific art making activity occurred during his youth. There were protracted periods of time when he did very little art or none throughout his adult life. He had succumbed to the pressures of the work world which was generally not art related and very consuming. In 2018 Broussard retired from the field of education and then became immersed in doing art again. He is pleased to be able to participate in the Art of the African Diaspora this year as he continues art projects.
Frederick Douglass, Indigenous and The General (Harriet Tubman) sculptures are available for casting options (e.g. plaster, resin, and or bronze).
The General is the largest of the three busts measuring 24″h X 10.5″w X 12″d. (Note: A current photograph will become available after the mold is complete.)
For more information contact call: 510 778-1927 or email: brojoh123@comcast.net
About: I was born in Berkeley, CA. and raised in Oakland, CA. My uncle did art projects with me as a child and I was good with math. I was introduced to drafting, so I applied to U.C. Berkeley and graduated with a Masters Degree in Architecture. Now, I am a retiree from The Port of Oakland. While working at The Port of Oakland, it was suggested that I take some graphic design courses. That opened another door. Now I do some freelance work.
During my free time, I do ceramics and work with bamboo. I refer to my ceramics as “clay babies” and my bamboo art as “Ancestral Poles”. The ancestral poles can tell a story or be decorative. I am honored that my ceramics were published in Essence Magazine and San Francisco Business Times to name a few. And some of my work is in the private collections of Susan Taylor and Jill Scott.
We all feel something when we view art. It can range from feeling love, peace, racial issues, empowerment… Each piece has been inspired by someone or some event in my life. I try to translate that feeling, that experience into a visual for all to enjoy. My hope is that you feel it. This is my gift to you. From my spirit to yours.
About: “I go into a trance and create something beautiful”
I believe I was born to create, and for the past 15 years painting has been my passion.
Acrylic abstracts on canvas is my preference. I find my inspiration in nature, architecture, everyday objects and life itself. Sometimes there’s a specific image I want to create, other times I let the feeling take me wherever it wants to go. I love using bright colors, but also allow the piece itself to decide. Each piece has its own personality and energy.
I am honored to collaborate with some of the most talented artists in the Bay Area as part of the Art of the African Diaspora 2021.
More info: This link showcases my most recent work and gallery partnerships. You may contact me directly for promotional pricing specifically for the AOTAD exhibitions.
About: I create abstract figurative paintings using oil paints. I learned drawing and painting through classes at local community centers and online courses. While my work has been mostly portraiture and figurative, lately, I have been incorporating more abstraction. Currently, I am working on a series of figures (tentatively titled All Ways) to explore layers of emotion as a Black woman in predominantly white spaces. I have been comforted by poets and writers such as Audre Lorde and Lucille Clifton, and their words and love for Black women have inspired this series.
More info: This first image is part of my All Ways series. This series is a work in progress and explores themes like strength and vulnerability, loneliness and empowerment.
The second image is titled Daddy’s Jazz. I created this piece based on an image of John Coltrane as a commission. It is in a private collection.
About: Ashara Ekundayo is an independent curator, artist, creative industries entrepreneur and organizer working internationally across cultural, spiritual, civic, and social innovation spaces. Her intersectional worldview offers both an Afrofuturist and radical Black feminist framework to the public sector by centering the lives, traditions, and expertise of Black womxn of the African Diaspora.
As a social practice installation artist who designs site-specific commissioned altar pieces, documents justice uprisings, stewards public meditation ceremonies, and designs public printmaking sessions, Ashara’s works are intentionally collaborative, interdisciplinary, and intergenerational. Additionally, as an art buyer/advisor and gallerist, she has supported emerging and well-established artists and founded Omi Arts Project Space (2012-2017) inside her company Impact Hub Oakland, and the Ashara Ekundayo Gallery (2017-2019) which was celebrated as the only commercial gallery in the USA exclusively dedicated to the exhibition of work of Black womxn and femmes.
Currently, Ashara serves as Chief Creative Catalyst at the Bay Area Girls & Womxn of Color Collaborative and sits on the Advisory Board of the Oakland Public Conservatory of Music and the Regional Advisory Board for Arts Web Alameda County. Her newest creative projects include BLATANT – a multi-disciplinary, monthly forum presented in collaboration with the Museum of the African Diaspora as well as a published maga(zine) offered in conjunction with her platform Artist As First Responder which excavates, documents, and archives the stories of present-day and next generation cultural workers whose art practices heal communities and save lives. Ashara recently launched the Reflection Fund for Artist and is co-founder of Black [Space] Residency, a physical container for imagination, inquiry, activity and rest. Ashara.io
About: Brianna Mills is the founder and photographer of Visuals by Bri (VBB), a collection of her work, knowledge, and personal experiences. VBB strives to inspire and inform those who are embarking on their own career paths, while also providing tips, tricks, and a look into the beautiful difficulty of her solopreneurship journey. She intends to honestly capture and share as much of this world’s beauty as she can with others.
All images can be purchased on my website Shop page. Schedule a canvas consultation for a custom print/canvas order by emailing me at brianna@visualsbybri.com.
Images:
Mt Shasta, 2020, Digital Photograph She Surrenders, 2020, Digital Photograph Past the Horizon, 2020, Digital Photograph
About: The images submitted are part of Internal Landscapes, an ongoing series of paintings exploring the inner workings of the psyche. I hold undergraduate and graduate degrees in art, and there learned to render representational depictions of people and things; however, in the lens through which I perceive the world, abstract expressionism best lays out my internal schema of dancing with nature and divinity, and with outcries wedded to hope, agency and human decency.
Sweeping colours juxtaposed to tight enclaves of textured details speak to the nuances of my being and becoming fully human. Here, visual tension and melodic movements reside in the marrow of my bones alongside jazz and the blues, alongside moans of I can’t breathe and sunlight dancing through thickets of trees. Jazz, the blues and abstract art, to me, is where intellect boogies to the door of the heart knowing it speaks her mother tongue.
My name is Yasmin Sayyed, I am a visual and poetic artist, an expressive arts therapist, a trainer of social service professionals and an unapologetic socialist. I am a mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. I divide my residence between the bay area and South Lake Tahoe. I have exhibited my work in the greater SF bay area, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, Hermosa Beach, NYC, the Tahoe Basin and Nevada, and authored an ethno-autobiographical book about painting with the splendour of spirit.
More info: Images: 1. Mother Earth is an acknowledgement of she who gives us sustenance and to whom we owe caretaking. 22″x30″, $2,000 original, $700 print on canvas 2. Brave Joy depicts a bold daring to know and embrace positive anticipation and joy in life. 22″x30″, $2,000 original, $700 print on canvas 3. Internal landscape illumines travels through internal schemas found in dreams and meditations about nature, 22″x30″, $2,000 original, $700 print on canvas
Special events: Tiffany Conway is embarking on her debut Solo Show titled “Ethereal Hue”. Opening April 26th, 2021 at Oakstop Gallery, 1721 Broadway, Oakland. Visit projectgetfree.com for further details. Sign up for the weekly newsletter to stay informed on the show’s progress.
About: Art has provided me with the tools to communicate in a way that was not able to do before. And for that, I am forever grateful for the practice. Art allows me to retreat, restore, and express all that I have learned from moving through the world as an African American woman. Art connects me to the energy that lives within myself that I’m not always able to see.
I focus a lot on the transmutation to grief and beauty. And creating a dialog with myself through painting. I have an interest in skin tone and all that we carry underneath the top layer, which is why my art is so textural. I have an interest in using color as a language for emotions and perspectives and the body as a vehicle. Even though my work displays the beauty of others, what lies behind that initial layer are parts of my personal evolution.
I believe that it is important to unmask the myth of what strong should be. My overall vision is to create art that empowers vulnerability, as I believe that this is the ultimate superpower. When creating, I try to portray “softness” through my technique with skin tone in the attempt to portray my community, with humanity. When looking at my work I would like my audience to also see themselves with beauty, without hard lines, multidimensional, and navigating the world from the inside out.
About: Xan Blood Walker was born in Seattle Washington in the heat of the summer. She learned print photography in high school and went on to obtain two BFA’s, one in printmaking and another in painting from the University of Washington. Many years later when pursuing graduate studies in counseling she obtained a Master’s certificate in Art Therapy. Prior to her higher education, she attended the school of hard knocks in Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, as an 80’s street punk at the height of the punk rock scene. With over 20 years in recovery, she finds a way to blend her varied experiences into a unique and personal style. Currently, she is branching out into two new areas: documenting the living breathing urban landscape through photojournalism, and incorporating mixed media into her photography. She has already begun using graffiti markers and hopes to add beeswax from her beehive, as well as dip back into her printmaking background with stenciling, lino block, and woodcutting.
ARTWORK Xan has exhibited her work primarily in group shows in Seattle, San Francisco, Emeryville, Alameda, Oakland, and New York.
HONORS AND ACTIVITIES Xan was awarded a Links Scholarship for her woodblock print depictions of her emotional experiences around rape. She contributed as an intern artist for the mural project on the Women’s Building in San Francisco, CA., in 1994.
More Info: Join Emeryville photographer Xan Blood Walker in a virtual presentation of her new book, Abandoned East Bay San Francisco: Where Graffiti Is King. She will be joined by librarian Steven Lavoie who will field questions about the particular structures and try to contribute some background about the locations.
This is a virtual event to be webcast live on the Oakland Public Library’s Facebook (@oaklibrary).
