Imagining Africa: Building Artistic Bridges Through Perception
Imagining Africa, conceived by Abu-Hassan (Askia) Koroma and sponsored by the 21st Century African Youth Movement, is a transformative multi-phase artistic initiative. The project leverages the power of art to build bridges of communication between Africa and America, fostering fresh perspectives and innovative approaches to global challenges. With a focus on creativity, Imagining Africa encourages artists to reimagine worldwide issues and explore solutions that inspire positive change. By engaging artists in optimistic learning and exploration of Africa, the project aims to create personal transformations that ripple outward, positively impacting the global community.
Vision:
To foster cross-cultural understanding and innovative problem-solving through artistic imagination.
Mission:
To use the arts as a platform for building bridges between Africa and America, inspiring personal growth and global positive transformation.
Project Phases
In Phase I, we will come together as a group on-line. In this phase we are asking artists to imagine Africa, to explore their own perceptions of Africa and translate these thoughts into an image or object, Each artist is required to produce and deliver one piece of artwork, based on the theme, Imagining Africa.
The Imagining phase is an exciting period of exploration. The simple act of deciding to think about Africa acts as a channel for information and ideas to enter one’s mind. We will encourage self-study and recommend resources for information about Africa. We encourage group members to share their resources with one another at the on-line site.
Requirements of Phase I: One piece of artwork
In phase II, artists will be immersed more deeply in images and thoughts of Africa. The dream of meeting Africa face to face is gestating. Phase II is a magical time of diving deep into learning, embracing and attempting to understand the myth, magic and reality of the many cultures of Africa. Each artist will create two new pieces of artwork about the Africa she or he has begun to imagine and dream. Consider these three works as planks of the bridge we will create together. In phase three we will walk across this bridge we have created.
Requirements of Phase II: Display a total of three pieces of artwork for inclusion in a group show. Included in the three works is the first piece of artwork from phase I.
In Phase III after months of imagining, learning, dreaming and creating, we will travel to Sierra Leone, Africa. AYM is working towards securing grant funds to assist artists in their travel expenses. Lodging will be provided in Sierra Leone. We will interact with artists in Sierra Leone, observing, identifying and integrating ideas with one another. Exact dates for the journey have not been set, but it is expected to be a minimum of a two-week visit.
Requirements of Phase III: Travel to Sierra Leone to share and learn with African artists. Date of travel is yet to be determined. We do know that the trip to Sierra Leone will not take place before 2006.
In this final phase of the project, artists will have experienced Sierra Leone, Africa first hand. Returning to their studios, artists will continue to build the bridge to Africa with their art. In this phase, artists are required to create three additional pieces of artwork and keep connected via online with their colleagues in Sierra Leone.
The work produced in this final phase will no doubt reflect each artist’s personal transformation as a result of being involved in the project.
Requirements of Phase IV: Complete the final three pieces of artwork. Participate in a group exhibition and consent to all six pieces of artwork being available for a traveling exhibition.
Participants
Luis Vera
I have always been fascinated by African art. My recent paintings focus on elements of nature; animals, people and landscapes from distant and foreign cultures. The images develop from my memories and perceptions interweaving with my imagination, dreams and the collective unconscious. I believe my artwork is a testament to the infinite possibilities of connections between cultures and individuals.
Sarah Willman Grote
I am a professional artist who paints both intuitive abstract and representational subjects. Born and reared in the Midwest, my circuitous route to LA included living and working for a time in Africa. This project is one more wonderful reason to contemplate Africa which I have yet to paint.
Amanda Hanlon
My paintings focus on the figure and its context within a narrative construction. My subject often depicts everyday events or domestic tasks in order to bring awareness to these often over looked moments. I have studied illustration at Pratt Institute in New York and fine art at the U of Wisconsin – Madison.
Alissa Bennicoff
Alissa Bennicoff is currently a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison studying art education and adaptive art. The focus of her work is in art metals and photography.
Erick John William
Colleen M. Stepanic
Emily de Araujo
Emily de Araujo completed her BFA at California College of the Arts in 1995 and her MFA at Carnegie Mellon University in 2001. Her work takes form in installation and works on paper. She currently teaches in the area of 2D studies at Bowling Green State University’s School of Art.
Heather McClintock
I grew up on a dairy farm in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, went to a small liberal arts college in NH (and England), lived in NYC for twelve years working as a photographer’s assistant and recently moved to North Carolina were my husband teaches photography at ASU. My work is mainly comprised of social documentary photography, environmental portraiture and travel.
Jaroslava Sobiskova
I was born in Czech Republic. In 1985, I left Czechoslovakia and lived in a refuge camp in Austria for on year. In 1986, I came to the United States as a political refuge. Lived in Boston, NY, in 1989 came to Madison and studied art in UW. After finishing BFA 1993 I left for Czech Republic and worked as a art director for the Civic forum Foundation in Prague. In 1994 I came beck to USA moved to Chicago where I started my own business doing interior design and mural painting. In 1997 I got married 2001 my first daughter Cassandra was Born the same year I moved back to Madison WI. Then I and started to focus on my artwork. In 2003 my second daughter Sylvia was born. Now I am at home with my two lovely daughters, and in spare time I make my artwork.
Jaroslava Sobiskova
I was born in Czech Republic. In 1985, I left Czechoslovakia and lived in a refuge camp in Austria for on year. In 1986, I came to the United States as a political refuge. Lived in Boston, NY, in 1989 came to Madison and studied art in UW. After finishing BFA 1993 I left for Czech Republic and worked as a art director for the Civic forum Foundation in Prague. In 1994 I came beck to USA moved to Chicago where I started my own business doing interior design and mural painting. In 1997 I got married 2001 my first daughter Cassandra was Born the same year I moved back to Madison WI. Then I and started to focus on my artwork. In 2003 my second daughter Sylvia was born. Now I am at home with my two lovely daughters, and in spare time I make my artwork.
Babette Wainwright
Babette Wainwright was born and raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She started painting market women at the age of nine. Her parents sent her to the US in the late 60’s to escape the oppressive regime of Papa Doc Duvalier. With no training in painting, her work was mainly guided by childhood memories and emotions. She paints peasant women, who are the veritable pillars of her culture, the Poto Mitan, as it is referred to in the Haitian Vodou tradition. Her work reflects the strength and beauty of her African ancestors; she uses this image in her art as a conduit for her cultural, political, and spiritual expression.
Jessica Wimbley
As a visual artist, I have been able to pursue this study on a personal level, and contribute to the visual production of images representative of Diasporic hybridity. Functioning as a contributor and creator of visual culture, I would also like to diversify my lexicon and contribute to the critique and discourse involved in the larger context of Black Diasporic representation and production. I find it extremely important to display the diversity among the African American experience, as well as the varying experience of the Black Trans-Atlantic. This varying perspective is important in a contemporary art world where artworks produced and critical theory addressing the works are often excluded from mainstream discourse.
Gordon Ricketts
I grew up surfing on the beaches of Southern California and Mexico. In 1966 I was drafted into the armed services where I served two years in the Marine Corps and received an honorable discharge. I was married and later divorced. I have two children. I worked as a truck driver, in the 70’s, where I was a member of Teamsters local 683 for 10 years. I was also a member of the International Association of Machinist for 2 years, while employed as a factory worker in San Diego. Car salesman, bar tender, carpenter, general building contractor, along with artist and teacher fill out my work history, present and past I currently teach Introduction to Art and a Sequential and Narrative drawing course at Bowling Green State University. My passions include art and travel. I maintain an artist studio in downtown Bowling Green, Ohio where I create and do my own visual research. I am a serious traveler because I seek the challenge of the unusual. I have become an expert on group travel. My travels include multiple trips to Ghana, West Africa and the Navajo Reservation in Arizona/New Mexico, El Paso Texas for Habitat for Humanities and to California for an alternative Spring Break Artist experience. Last summer I spent a month floating up the Niger River in Mali where I made my way to Timbuktu. In 2001 I visited Moscow and spent two months in Kathmandu, Nepal, where I immersed myself in the culture and made the trek to the base camp of Mt. Everest. I have just booked passage to Peru—I will explore the Amazon.
Jessica Wimbley
As a visual artist, I have been able to pursue this study on a personal level, and contribute to the visual production of images representative of Diasporic hybridity. Functioning as a contributor and creator of visual culture, I would also like to diversify my lexicon and contribute to the critique and discourse involved in the larger context of Black Diasporic representation and production. I find it extremely important to display the diversity among the African American experience, as well as the varying experience of the Black Trans-Atlantic. This varying perspective is important in a contemporary art world where artworks produced and critical theory addressing the works are often excluded from mainstream discourse.
Julie Higginbotham
Currently a lighting designer for an engineering firm in Wisconsin, Julie incorporates her eye for art into the workplace. She attended St. Norbert’s College where she studied art and psychology but did not finish. After a few years of volunteering with Rock County Habitat for Humanity, she went back to a tech school to get her associates degree in architecture. In her free time, Julie continues to expand her art thru commissioned work along with her personal projects. She likes to use a variety of media: pen & ink, pointillism, pencil, charcoal, pastel, watercolor, acrylic & oil paint. Her art evolves around life and her influences. Julie’s works include portraits, still life, surrealism, realism, landscapes, and architecture.
Kelly Reedy
While living in Asia the past seven years, my long-standing interest in Medieval and Byzantine art has fused with a passion for Asian folk art on paper. I became intrigued by the uses of paper in Eastern religions and folk traditions after discovering little bundles of printed papers stacked to the ceiling in a small shop. I learned they were Taoist ceremonial papers to be burned for the well-being of dead relatives in the after-life and for the good fortune of the living. Further investigation led to research on early Japanese Buddhist prints, Chinese paper cuts, and Indian popular painting. Unlike Western sacred icons, these pieces are seen as ephemeral. The act of making the image is a form of prayer, more important than the piece itself. The papers serve their purpose in the moment and are continuously being renewed. In comparison, Western sacred treasures are often locked away only to be used on rare occasions. My own work changed as I began to paint, cut, and collage these "found papers" onto sheets of rice paper. I have incorporated the traditional techniques of Chinese scrolling and woodblock prints into my work. My icon paintings evolved into goddesses and other universal images, as I developed my own "prayer paper" drawing from a personal iconography. At the same time, my preconceived notion of the timelessness of art works was turned upside down. The attraction to Asian papers used as prayers is their transient quality, yet I have not relinquished the idea of making enduring images. The value of works of art lies not in their physical permanence, but in the ideas they invoke and the mark they leave on our imagination.