SeBiArt News: New Work/Shows, New Book, and Now Curating!

Coming full circle. 

Over a decade after graduating from my school as an  Acting/Theater major, I just showed my work in the Hewitt Gallery of Art at Marymount Manhattan College. 

This was really a personal milestone because I took photography elective classes here while pursuing my degree...NEVER intending to become a photographer. All thanks to Prof. Millie Falcaro who taught me how to do formal portraiture and dark room processing all those years ago, and who invited me this year to do this show. So fitting too that I showed my family portrait work, Neue Rootz, taken in Germany/Czech Republic 4 years ago,  just weeks before setting off to do the same trip again with my mom. In fact, I'm blogging this all from Nuremburg right now!

Just goes to show...you never know what the future holds. 

Life is kinda funny and neat like that sometimes eh?

 

 • • • 

 COMING IN OCTOBER

 Watch this space for show dates!

•

It's time again for ArtfromtheHeart with the Vanderbilt Republic

  

I have 3 pieces in the show

 ♡

 October 19th

Get your tickets HERE!

photo!

•


Finally The Other Hundred book release is upon us!

ReCap:

    
  
The Other Hundred is a book project initiated a few months ago by the pan-Asian organisation, The Global Institute of Tomorrow [G.I.F.T.] based in Hong Kong. 

A Worldwide photo-call was announced and featured on the BBC, explaining the reason for this work.  The Jury received over 11, 000 submissions from 158 countries...    100 were chosen.
I am one...for Jamaica...with a portrait of street artist and painter: Delroy Anderson
 
See The Other Hundred Website

 Book available on Amazon  

  • 

Branded, We Walk

New Solo Show

Sept 30 - Oct 28th

 NH3 Gallery/Splashlight Studios, New York

Music by DJ Belinda

Hors d'oeuvres by Sean John/Spur Tree Lounge

•

Guest curating the show  
illusive self 

at the Taller Boricua Gallery, NYC

"An interpretive visual conversation of immigrant identity

retention, destruction, and (re)Creation."

Submissions now open through October 1st
 

 Artist Announcements October 15th.

Show Opening Nov 15th

More Info here:

~ About the Show

~ Guidelines

~Application

Conceptualized by Guest Curator: Berette Macaulay

Gallery Director: Fernando Salicrup

• • • 

 COMING IN NOVEMBER

 • 

New Solo in Jamaica!  

More news on this a bit later...



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Thank You

Sisyphean Struggles vs Overcoming like a Trojan

This is quite connected to the #MindtheGap philosophy that I am working my way back to. Here is a wonderful and accessible explanation for why we do what we do, and why we despair when it is no longer serving us...

Dan Ariely: What makes us feel good about our work?

Condensed Milk

It's been a LONG break since my last post and I'm not even coming back at you with a production of philosophical rantings with fotos right now. I've been back in Jamaica for just under 2  weeks and the blessings have been so delicious that I just had to jot down a condensed sweet n' creamy report of recent fortunes.  

Upon arrival I received my copy of the recently released Jamaica Fi Real: Beauty, Vibes and Culture - a book written about Jamaican history, culture, and contemporary life on the island by Kevin O'Brien Chang.   I submitted a couple shots to Randle Publishers earlier in the year, just a couple images I had lying around really - some of which were taken with my little (now old) Canon Powershot S1000 point + shoot.  Anyway the book features about 200 fotos and illustrations - and they printed two of mine.  SWEET!

Original - cliK for a larger view

One as the first foto page...
(Taken in Port Antonio, 2007) 

Original - cliK for Larger View

...and the other as the Introduction page (which also appears on the back cover)  Yay!!
(Taken @ Hellshire Beach, Kingston, 2010)





For more info on this book or where to buy it check these links:

•CVM TV Interview with writer Kevin O'Brien Chang 
•JA LITERATURE BLOG 

JAMAICA GLEANER ARTICLES: 
•Highlighting The Nation's Positives
•ARTS + LEISURE: Understanding 'Jamaica Fi Real'
•CHAT BOUT Blog

Check these sellers:
•Jamaica Fi Real from AMAZON BookSellers  
•Bookophilia, 92 Hope Road, Kingston
•Fontana, in Savanna-la-mar, Mandeville, and Montego Bay

 ...

Right - Dyllese, Left Steve, and me, freaked with glee!

The co-conspirators - heehee ;)

Then...my best friends Dyllese(UK)and Steve (GLOBAL) threw me a surprise bday party (in JA) at which a good handful of dear friends were in attendance.  Everyone kept the damn secret via email and a FB group page!  I was so shocked I couldn't stop breaking sweats all night.  haha.  And I keep going on about this because I still can't believe they pulled it off.  To be so actively loved is to be truly blessed.  Endless gratitude and creamy yum!!  :)

...

Berette Macaulay Neue Rootz - Marisa Willoughby-Holland Uprising

After partying LITERALLY all night, I dragged my hung-over ass to the opening of the National Biennial @ the National Gallery of Jamaica the next morning.  I kind of waded through the whole show in a condensed mix of extreme nervousness, nausea, and hazy euphoria.  The two works from my Neue Rootz series seemed to be well received, and really, what more can a girl ask for?!  My childhood friend and ridiculously talented painter, Marisa Willoughby-Holland, also had a piece in the show - and it was great to experience doing one of these things with a close gal-pal. 

(Btw I will also have photo books of all the black and white portraits from Neue Rootz on sale at the gallery, and through an online store - more on that in another post.)

See YardEdge Interview I did with Marisa a couple years ago.  Her work is MINT!

 

...

  

And now...B A H A M A S!!!

Photo Source Link

Extra Rich, Sweet n' Creamy 

;)

Some talk about a new project ...'BRANDED'

So finally - a chat about the creative part of the journey - or at least, the current inspiration for my artistic trippin'.  I know it seems like I've been vacationing and getting rewarded for it - haha.  But the truth is my last couple of trips to Jamaica have mainly been about work, work-work-work.  I have 3 new projects slow roasting on the burner now  - but the higher fire is under a series called BRANDED...therefore I AM which I started in the early Spring of this year.  

I've had a couple of delicious 'AHA' moments over the past year and a half regarding the use of social websites, and the maddeningly-genius-connectivity-of-a-near-socio-psychotic-reality that bothered the heck out of me but didn't seem to bother as many other people as I'd thought!  Of course I'm a player and therefore a part of this online global community shift, so it feels oddly dissociative to criticize the mediums that I use on a daily basis - but, my fascination with human complexities and my studies in psychology just dragged me into this analytical and critical discourse - and naturally I had to figure out how to create work out of it.  Hence the first 'exile' image of the series that I posted back in April:

BRANDED - Fool In Exile

BRANDED... is in essence, a rudimentary representation of the seemingly open and sophisticated, yet phatic self-branding we often create on social websites. It is comprised of a series of location portrait and nude photographs showing aphorisms or phrases on body painted subjects; a video short; and an interactive installation (a secret until showtime);  all serving as observations or portrayals of private thoughts and social fears of rejection, isolation, or persecution, - or conversely - social wishes of mass acceptance, popularity, power, and influence.  BRANDED... however, is raw on purpose. I don't want to create polished imagery because I want to test our senses to see if a crudely created image can still be visually, psychologically, and emotionally tangible. And, in this mass intangible coming together there seems to me to be a new collective isolation which begs at the very least, for some mental masturbation on the matter!

I have interviewed a number of people so far for this work, and in so doing I've been inspired to conduct a full scale survey on the usage habits of social websites (which will take me back to my school days when I had to do surveys for my social psych papers - ahhhh!).  It's so fascinating how we all have deeply rooted ideas about our identities and character traits, and how sharply these ideas sometimes contradict our online (onstage) personas.  And what I've found even more interesting is how some of us seem to need to express these altered parts of ourselves to jumpstart or finish our days!  But sadly, if we're not careful, we can be 'outed' but not-so-friendly 'friends'.

BRANDED - Beautiful Mistakes

Just a few days ago it was reported that a young man, shamed in the virtual world by his roommate, shared his last words on Facebook before jumping off the very real George Washington Bridge in New York.¹  And I just heard on the news this week that the first US internet withdrawal clinic (requiring physical check-ins, as opposed to that of virtual clinics -  a sardonic  contradiction) just opened up in Washington!  Actually the nation with the second largest web user population of 94 million*, China, beat the USA (the largest user pop) to this back in 2005, with the opening of a Web Addiction Center for children and young adults - after government officials  cited concerns that the internet was "eroding public morality". And speaking of that - don't you  find it troubling that face-to-face contact has not only decreased as a result of our online social lives, but with the acceptability of our web/iphone/bberry-time demands, many of us actively create that decrease in our scheduled time for hanging out with our friends?  Will the norm of staring into screens make us socially enept?  I kind of think so.  And as a friend of mine noted, and aptly too, even when we are in each others company - the unspoken understanding is that at least 50% of that time will be devoted to staying connected on our devices while chowing on brunch or in the theater watching a flick! 

I just stumbled upon yet another by-product of this phenomenal shift on the BBC news site where the new business concept of friendship rental services are now popping up in several countries - where, yes guys, people are renting 'friends' so they can have company in their actual lives since their real friends are too busy to go to the movies or check out a new restaurant, etc; like online dating if you will. Now some of you may say, 'that's never gonna take off' - 'those people need to get a life' - 'that shit is for looo-sers'; not far from the general protests to social websites in recent years too, until one by one...we conformed.  The point is - this is not my imagination (well duh Berette!)- the virtual world is so close to really taking over that  I have to ask if this 1984-BigBro-touchless-life-of-staring-into-lit-screens is really the way to get closer or to keep in touch (as we ironically justify it)??? Do we want to live in the matrix; I mean really? And though it may seem like it, no, this is not meant to be a seditious plea against the advertising mecca** of Facebook and the like; I mean, maybe all the entertaining online bonding and networking benefits outweigh the unfortunate  community expropriations*** - who knows? I'm just inspired to examine its effects, on me, my relationships, and social behavioral changes in general - for the good and for the bad.  And where Facebook is concerned, how can one effectively speak out against the Goliath of middle and upper class conformity of 500+ million??!!

BRANDED - Signs of Success

Where ever one stands on this topic (which may soon spark sensitive reactions in proportions akin to the other hot topics like religion, politics, and sex)the newly released film "the social network" from the brilliant mind of Aaron Sorkin, has really put the topic on the big thinking table now, which kinda feels like a notarization of my artistic response - heehee - so I am thus, in a rush to share this with you, on my blog, before the tangible gallery exhibit.  And, um, to the first obvious counter response here - touché.

BRANDED - Running for Stillness

 


More Reading:
 ¹ - UPDATE  Rutgers webcam spy Dharun Ravi sentenced to 30 days,  May 2012 
*Wired Magazine, Beijing Clinic Treats Web Addicts, July 3rd, 2005
**Bloomberg Businessweek, How Facebook Sells Your Friends, Sept 24, 2010 
***Net Addiction Souces



 © BRANDED (...therefore I AM)  in name, concept, and imagery are the copyrighted property of Berette Macaulay/SeBiArt.  All rights reserved.

SUPPORT POST: ArtsLawRoundUp

So usually I'm waxing on about feelings, creativity, shows, or some sort of community project. 

Now it's time for the business of art people, and no better way to get yourself prepared than to arm yourself with knowledge, specifically legal facts and rights pertaining to your work.  I'm talkin' copyright issues, contracts, licensing, advertising, creative commons, rights to credit, patents, etc, etc, et al.  

My dear friend Justin Lynch, attorney-at-law AND pianist AND dancer (yes, you read that right) started a blog that addresses all these issues factually, patiently, humoursly, and thoroughly (and always with additional sources) which will leave you less frightened and better armed for protecting your work.  

Leap off this page, check it, and Subscribe!  Where else are you gonna get legal advice from a lawyer who is also an artist?!

 

SeBiArt Getting Award for LIQUID

I'm so happy and ridiculously excited to share this with you!  I found out this week  that I am an awardee for the JCDC/NDG* National Visual Arts competition!  I submitted 3 large pieces from my LIQUID Trees series and thank GOD they liked them.  Yipppeeeeeeee! I don't know what the award will be exactly - but I'm happy for the recognition nonetheless - it's been a while since I won anything!

The award ceremony details are in the poster below.  Calling all of you in Jamaica to come out and support.  There will be voting at the ceremony for the 'Public Favourite' Cash and Trophy prize.  I wouldn't mind walking away with that too!  HolleR.  

Feeling love from the universe SO MUCH right now.  See you there!

                  
                  *

RELATED JOURNEY POSTS:  

                                         Ha - I got support like Obama used to have! lol (July 2010)

                                         SeBiArt Getting Award for LIQUID (July 2010)
                                                  I Friggin Won!!!!! Ha - I got support like Obama!! lol! (Feb 2008)

 

New SeBiArt Series "Perched" at AFP's Artists' Loft

Unstuck and perched on a branch of uncertainty
yet cradled by the majesty of freedom,
betwixt two worlds and poised for the sweetness of NEW...

...go

by Berette Macaulay


If you're free this Saturday, come see me and a new photo series: Perched I, II, & III

Just for reinforcement

SeBiArt Hosts Video Blog on YARDEDGE - 1st Interview - SPUR TREE LOUNGE, NYC

PART I

PART II

1 COMMENT FOR THIS ENTRY

germaican_lady

Laaawwed, mi hungry now!! ...lol... Oh, by the way, what DON'T you do, girl?

Posted by GermaicanLady on Sunday, January 18, 2009 - 21:50
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PHOTO Contests: Embarking on a Whole New, Frightening Thing

It is said by some that the only way to know if you’re good enough, or to know if you truly want to be good enough, is to put yourself to the test. I’ll rephrase that here as...throw yourself to the werewolves of judgment, truly the only living things that will not spare you tears by placating your greatest fears. And thank God!

So, there it is, I’m taking the advice of a photographer I met in London a couple of months ago, who advised that the best and most affordable way to keep learning and improving in my craft, is to enter photo competitions. Brilliant, scary, and absolutely necessary plan!

Adding to this challenge is the shameless solicitation of support from others in this - a particularly difficult exercise for me that often leaves me feeling full of shame. But I’m learning to let go of such nonsense. Why should it be shameful to ask for help or support in something that you pursue in earnest and with love?!! So there you have it - I shamelessly appeal to whomever is reading this to support me!!

Below is a link of the current competition I’m in - you can find me in the “Creative” Section. Online voting ends Feb 20th, 2008 - and I’m so excited to report that I am currently in the lead!!!

It is said by some that the only way to know if you’re good enough, or to know if you truly want to be good enough, is to put yourself to the test. I’ll rephrase that here as...throw yourself to the werewolves of judgment, truly the only living things that will not spare you tears by placating your greatest fears. And thank God!

So, there it is, I’m taking the advice of a photographer I met in London a couple of months ago, who advised that the best and most affordable way to keep learning and improving in my craft, is to enter photo competitions. Brilliant, scary, and absolutely necessary plan!

Adding to this challenge is the shameless solicitation of support from others in this - a particularly difficult exercise for me that often leaves me feeling full of shame. But I’m learning to let go of such nonsense. Why should it be shameful to ask for help or support in something that you pursue in earnest and with love?!! So there you have it - I shamelessly appeal to whomever is reading this to support me!!

Below is a link of the current competition I’m in - you can find me in the “Creative” Section. Online voting ends Feb 20th, 2008 - and I’m so excited to report that I am currently in the lead!!!