New Artwork: For Annaelisa

Today must really be a special day.  Because 3 great people were born on this day.  Sade, Aaliyah, AND Annaelisa.  i have art in the works for all three… actually i just completed the one for Annaelisa just moments ago.  i’m just waiting for her to get here and see it!

It’s of an old photo from her parent’s wedding back in Italy.  When i first saw it, i knew i had to draw it.  So i decided to do that and give it to her as a birthday gift.  It’s just Charcoal and Colored Pencil on paper.

While i was working i listened to “Primo Amore” by Carlo Buti sooooo many times.  And earlier i was listening to Sade.  i still can’t get over how great she/they is/are.

p.s. R.i.P. to Miss Aaliyah Haughton.  Love you ALWAYS!!

New Artwork: Happy Birthday, Prince!!

So, today is June 7th.  This is what I call my “Gemini birthday,” because this was the day I was due. However, as I mentioned in the previous blog, I was not born until the 30th.  “How many people weren’t born on their due date?” you may ask.  “How does that relate to their astrological chart?”  Well, I don’t know.  I just like to claim Gemini because it would explain why I have some of their tendencies.  I am a true-blue Cancer but I have a little edge that is not typical of Cancerian people.

Anyway, if I had been born today, I would’ve had the same birthday as His Purple Highness – Prince Rogers Nelson. (Side Note: Allen Iverson was also born today.)

Prince is an idol of mine and one of the most influential artists in my life.  I jokingly refer to him as “my husband,” because he is the prototype – the kind of guy I’d like to marry.  He’s talented, free-thinking, compassionate, graceful, deep, AND sexy.  Did you know he’s a Vegan?  At least, that’s what I heard..

Yeah, we’d be the odd couple for sure.  But we’d have a helluva lot of fun, I’ll tell you that much.   Cuz we’d be on the same page.   Sometimes, the lyrics that he writes make me think he ripped a page from my own diary.

I would love to post them all, but there’s not enough room.  So, my favorite Prince lyrics at the moment would have to be from “Love Like Jazz” on Lotus Flow3r:

Eye want a lover that can improvise
Eye want a lover that can make me cry

Baby eye don’t care what you learned in lovemaking school
U and me we ’bout 2 jam
Make love like the first woman and man
Eye don’t wanna know ahead of time
The notes you play should b a
Reaction 2 mine
Nothing planned or contrived
Then both of us will arrive
At r destination

*Sigh*  All this Prince talk has inspired me to do a likkle sumtin’ in honor of the Purple one…  From his beloved Violet (that’s my middle name, fyi.)

It should be done by tomorrow.  Nothin’ big… a simple drawing in comparison of what I’d like to do for him in the future.  I really want to paint him inna surrealist style… And not from a photo – he’ll have to be my live model.

6/8

I wanted to incorporate the Gemini symbol – those are the Roman Numerals behind him…  and I’m going to use a gold paint pen on those, I guess.  Then I’ll perfect the eclipse behind him.  I always associate eclipses with Gemini – I don’t know why, because they’re ruled by Mercury.  I dunno.

p.s. Please read the following article if you’re into the stars and that type of thing.  I found it very interesting:

http://www.lynnkoiner.com/astrology-articles/neptune-retrograde-2008

I finished!  I’m probably gonna work on it again once I get some natural light tomorrow.  Butfor now, I’ m done.

Oh, that blue planet in his neck area represents the throat chakra.  Read more about that here:

http://www.chakra-colors.com/Throat-Chakra/

Ok, NOW it’s finished.  I think…

New Artwork: Portrait of My Grandmother

We call my grandmother “Mommy Cain.”  Her real name is Cassie Mae McCain (nee Roland).  I don’t know who started calling her Mommy Cain first, but it stuck, and pretty much everybody refers to her as that, or “Momma Cain.”

Anyway, her 87th birthday is coming up on October 11, so I decided to do a portrait of her.  In the photo I am using as a reference she is holding her firstborn, my uncle.  I would have included him in the drawing, because the photo captured such a beautiful moment, but I wanted it to be all about Mommy Cain, cuz she’s had to share EVERYTHING else in her life.  This is her time to shine.

I will never forget, back in our “lean” days, how she would cut up a Snickers bar that Daddy Cain had bought for her into 6+ pieces, just so we could all have a piece.  And how she would give us a dollar to do her hair…

I’m gonna call this one “Dos Gardenias,” the title of a song by Ibrahim Ferrer of the Buena Vista Social Club.  I’m going to draw some gardenias around her, and maybe the words “Mi Abuelita” in script….

10/10/10

I am trying to get this thing done by tomorrow, so I can present it to her for her birthday…  shouldn’t be too hard.  I only have to draw the little flowers in the background.  I am steady listening to Bilal’s “Airtight’s Revenge” today.  He posted a video for “Restart” from that album last night on twitter, and that just got me back on a Bilal hype.  You know, everything he touches is gold, and this album is no exception.  He’s actually talking about something, something more than love and heartbreak and all that drama.   It’s definitely a must-buy…

10/11

p.s. If you are one of the many people asking, “How is she your grandmother?”  Please read my “About Me” section.  Thank you.

NEW ARTWORK: For El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X)

Yesterday (May 19**) was the day of birth of Malcolm X.  Being as though he is one of my heroes and my idol, I felt it necessary to take a little time out of the day to pay tribute to him by doing this illustration.  It’s permanent marker on paper, and only took a little time, but I’ve put all my love and passion into it just the same.

If you don’t know much about Malcolm X, please let this post be encouragement to:

a. read the Autobiography co-written by Alex Haley or

b. rent the movie.  Spike Lee’s version, of course.

There are also a host of YouTubes that feature interviews and speeches that will knock your socks off.  There is no one who can compare to Malcolm – he was one in a million.  Yet I will strive to be like him in all his glory – honest, steadfast, passionate, and a force to be reckoned with.

He has also taught us that it is possible to turn your life around if you’ve been living in “sin.”  He was a crook and a robber, a liar and a cheat, and through Islam he was able to regain his purity and integrity.

Please, please, PLEASE take a moment of silence to pay your respects to the one and only.  This one is especially for Sister Betty Shabazz, their daughters, and my Mom, for whom this piece was drawn.  She always had a picture or calendar of Malcolm X posted in our house, and shared his words of wisdom with us from the time we were old enough to understand.  For this I am soooooo grateful…

The geometric design in the background is from a perforated marble screen enclosure of Sheikh Salim Chishti’s tomb within the Friday Mosque complex at Fatehpur Sikri.  Malcolm was a devout Muslim and I’m sure he was into Islamic art, especially after he made the Hajj.  ”Islamic art developed motifs derived from calligraphy and geometry to produce a rich and infinite palate of intricately interconnected decorative designs which reflect Islam’s belief in the sublime underlying unity of creation.” (Taken from India: Life, Myth and Art, by Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad)

So I’m gonna finish it shortly.  I’ll post the finished piece a little later…

**You know, I never thought about it before, but he was born on the cusp, so he is actually a Taurus with Gemini tendencies.  Two of my favorite signs rolled into one…

5/21

FINITO!