Threads of Community: Fiber Arts at Downing-Gross

“You sense what people call passion” when you are around Clayton Singleton. This Virginia resident’s blend of verbal and visual art inspires, motivates, and educates. In addition to being a member of the Hampton Roads National Poetry Slam Team, he has been noted in many publications ranging from The Virginian Pilot to Time magazine.

Clayton has created public art, won numerous awards, and produced several solo and group shows including Walking on Paper at ArtWorks Gallery, Recent Works: ART INSTALLATION PERFORMANCE at SONO gallery and LOOK BEYOND at d’ART Center @The Selden, which benefited The Autism Society of Tidewater. The Virginia Opera commissioned Clayton to design sets for Porgy and Bess and Freedom’s Journey. Clayton has served as a member of Norfolk's All-City Teaching Team, The d'ART Center Board of Directors, and Norfolk Arts Commission.

In addition to helping rewrite Norfolk's art curriculum, he produced solo exhibitions DEFINING BEAUTY at The Sandler Center for the Performing Arts, CULTURAL SHIFT at The James Wise Gallery at Norfolk State University, LOVE OF THE GAME at The Virginia Sports Hall of Fame and Museum and VALEDICTORIAN which consists of paintings, mixed media, and video; an extension of the group show Looking Both Ways: Roots in African American Art at the Peninsula Fine Arts Center. Moreover, Singleton exhibited at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, The Chrysler Museum of Art, and has co-curated regional group exhibitions such as NOW: African-American Artists in Tidewater. Most recently he produced a solo exhibition FUTURE LOVE PARADISE which toured for two years beginning at Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center and ended at his alma mater Virginia Wesleyan University.

Contact:

https://claytonsingleton.com/

Follow me on Instagram @claytonsingletonartist and find me on Facebook Clayton Singleton Fine Art and Twitter @claytoncanpaint

Artist Statement

My artwork is about our abilities to create our own stories. Layering and juxtaposition are central to my treatment of appropriated vintage photos, wallpapers, and texts. I'm drawn to the narratives of the people in the photos because their captured experiences parallel my own. I create “blended” narratives developed from various contexts that shape and shift identity. The repetition of Adinkra symbols, fragments of wallpaper, flowers, and text create a density reflective of circumstances. Defining Beauty is a term I use identifying abstract roles used to actively describe and forge “selves.” These paintings on seemingly decorative backgrounds leave spaces to be filled in by the addition, subtraction, leaving, and retrieving necessary to define an “individual self.” Revealing the emotional process choreographed by contemporary society, my work echoes opportunities and moments in life that urge us forward and continue to inspire each of us to define our own beauty through living.

Alyssa’s journey to portrait painting began in 2014 when a young black man, Michael Brown, was shot and killed by a police officer. Mainstream media had painted this man as aggressive and animalistic, which would become a reoccurring pattern for black people who died at the hands of police officers and vigilantes. In order to counteract this narrative, Pickens began painting portraits of people of color adorned with floral crowns and a gentle expression. Despite living in a society where black features are considered undesirable and hyper-masculine, these portraits became a way to expose the beauty and delicacy within. Pickens often paints subjects adorned with crowns made from flowers or other natural elements to further mirror the natural beauty in flowers to that of the subject. The highly saturated tones draw the viewer in and uplift the subject in a positive manner. In her paintings, these “feminine” qualities (softness, gentleness, delicacy) should be seen as a source of strength in black culture.

Contact:

Follow the artist @alyssa_channelle on Instagram, Alyssa Channelle ART on Facebook, and visit her website www.alyssachannelle.com to find out more about her work.

Artist Statement:

Love of Self and Becoming

Loving yourself is the bravest form of love. It is learning to love yourself unconditionally, acknowledging you aren’t a perfect person, and being able to forgive yourself over and over again. Self-love is taking care of your inner child’s needs and it is treating yourself the way you would treat a friend or partner. Love of self is a continuous investment to bridge the gap between who you are and who you want to be.

The painting that reflects the love of self and becoming is a 4x5 foot painting of a woman adorned with flowers on her head against a red background. In this piece, the girl holds her hand over her heart, as if to make a pledge to herself. The viewer has no choice but to gaze into her eyes and she gazes right back as if to ask, “Do you love yourself too?”

A red background was not a color that I had originally wanted to go with. I find red to be abrasive but once I saw the size of the canvas, it seemed like the right color. It instantly took me back to the first time I saw a Kehinde Wiley painting. “Willem van Heythuysen,” an 8x6 foot painting wrapped in a golden frame, stood tall in all its grandiosity. A black man wields a sword and stands princely in his white Sean Jean tracksuit against a red background. The piece resonates with me. It was a feeling that I hope to give to others.

The repetition of sunflowers and dahlias is a specific homage to a recent trip I took to Seattle last summer. It was the furthest I had ever traveled alone. The trip taught me the importance of self-sufficiency and the enjoyment of my own company. I find that spending time by myself is like a sigh of relief. I can do as I please, without the pressure of others’ desires. It is the only time I can be completely selfish. An important facet of self-love is believing that I can do this because I am enough.

“i will not apologise

for choosing myself

this time–

self-love is the chapter

that i’ve always wanted

to write.”

CHAVONNE Whisonant is a multifaceted young woman of renaissance, considering herself to be more of a Natural Creator, than a self-taught Artist. She prides herself on keeping her attention and efforts local. She gains most of her inspiration from real life experiences and singular visions that often take longer to explain, than to display.

If you were to ask her what her goal is, she would say “wanting to learn how to create freely and with greater emotion and intelligence, to leave behind the fullest body of work possible.”

Though she works intimately with mediums such as acrylics and gouache, she expresses through an array of mediums like photography and modeling (locally published photography, Ceasoning magazine, internationally published model, CLIQ magazine, T. Keith]. She also works with paper art, writing, and special effects makeup.

As an instructor, in less than a decade CHAVONNE has led more than fifteen thousand of Virginia’s citizens, from Gloucester to Alexandria, to create their own masterful expressions.

Whisonant’s art is also a community servant, with public installments like one of the popular Norfolk city mermaids, and mural work that can be found throughout surrounding schools and city buildings.

2020 consisted of the design and creation of a 900 square foot mural sponsored by “Something In The Water” and “VA for The People”. In an endearing partnership with a courageous non-profit, “Teens With a Purpose”, this mural serves as a reminder to the public that their collective voices matter and can be found on Brambleton and Church, Norfolk VA.

She lists a few of her most influential role models to be Sage The Artist, Ray Johnson, and Clayton Singleton.

Whisonant is a native of Hampton, Virginia, sharing roots with Wilson, NC.

Contact:

Follow the artist on Instagram @studiochavonne

Artist Statement:

“On a string” 4’ x 5’ Multimedia Sculpture by C H A V O N N E

A layered, visual representation of how love’s light.

Insisting on your attention

with the use of grand scale pieces,

unusual arrangements, and commanding color palettes, the production is meant to make it easy to feel kindly at first glance. The vibrancy and warmth are inviting.

The threads generate a sense of motion while holding everything in place. A lovely dance.

CHAVONNE believes with a bit of studying you may find that there is a darkness, a looming disappointment.

Will you attach to the highlights?

The fun and freedom? Get lost in the details? Do you notice the darkness?

DOES IT ALL MOVE?

My Name is Jasmyne Hampden, I also go by Mars. I’m a multidisciplinary artist,

based in Hampton Roads Virginia. I tell my stories through painting, photography, writing, collage, and illustrations. It’s important to me to be vulnerable as an artist because vulnerability is power. In my works, I radiate that power, inspiring others to radiate that same light within themselves.

My recent works have been a reflection of my pregnancy journey. It’s been about self-freedom: letting go of many versions of myself while creating new versions of myself. My art is also about expressing grief, healing, rediscovering of self, and documenting my growth internally and externally through self-portraiture.

Living my life while creating life has been inspiring. Each day, week, and trimester I feel completely different, developing new ideas and new emotions. My pregnant body has been my canvas as well as a vessel. My creative process has been strictly intuitive- as I live, as my belly grows, I create.

Contact:

Follow the artist on Instagram @ hiiipowermars

Artist Statement:

I’ve always found light in the darkest

moments of my life.

Beauty in the ugly.

Lights From All Sides.

Either you look up.

You look Down.

Left or Right.

It’s up to you,

Lights From All Sides.

I open my eyes, I’m pregnant.

They tell you don’t look at the light,

But I looked. it blinded me.

I was dead, a version of myself was gone.

Forever. I cried.

But my tears watered a woman growing into

Motherhood so beautifully.

A new version of myself was born.

Let the sun shine on my belly.

Lights from all sides.

Seeing myself in a new light.

Art has always been a part of Julian’s life. At the age of six he taught himself how to draw and sketch. While recovering from a major leg surgery that left him unable to walk in the summer of 2014, Julian began painting. All Julian had around him at home was blank canvases and a few tubes of paint from TCC where he previously attended school. Within a couple of years he began to regularly display his artwork within the Hampton Roads area of his home state of Virginia. He has also displayed in areas including Richmond, VA, Washington, DC, Baltimore, MD, and even New York.

His love of art has also accumulated into having three successful solo exhibitions, a mini documentary, and many other accolades and recognitions of his work. Julian has enjoyed learning to master the medium of acrylic paints while also experimenting with many other styles. The artist has made a vow to never stop creating and believes that no matter what, you should do what you love.

Contact:

artculture757@gmail.com

Follow him on Instagram: @creative_culture757

Artist Statement:

“Muted Friendship Silent Relationship”

Being surrounded by darkness and confusion, She is muted and composed while he is comfortable in the chaos. She is lost. He is complacent, knowing that she will be there. Not knowing that he is silently losing her as well.

Mensah Bey is a native of Richmond, VA residing in Norfolk, VA. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design from Hampton University and his Master of Fine Arts in Visual Studies from Norfolk State University. Bey has exhibited nationally with highlights in Los Angeles, California and New York. He has also participated in an Artist Residency in Cuba. As an illustrator, painter, and printmaker, Bey explores the digital realm as a commentary on contemporary society. His graphic, hard-edged style is reminiscent of the works of Aaron Douglass Jacob Lawrence. Bey often draws inspiration from the Surrealist movement that challenged our perceptions of truth and reality, viewing the virtual world as an evolutionary subconscious that bridges our imaginations with the physical world.

With a passion for the human form, Bey’s figures symbolically navigate this evolutionary subconscious, the virtual realm. Superimposed with elongated necks, his Ajents reference some African ideals of beauty and power. The neck in some cultures represents balance being the connection between the spirit (the head) and the physical (the body). The combined presence exudes confidence and courage while acknowledging the awareness of one’s vulnerability. Through exposing the sensitive connection between worlds, subjects are portrayed with poise and elegance that was historically reserved for high society. His surrealistic approach to contemporary thought and experience reflects a melding of virtual, spiritual, and physical realities.

Contact:

Website: www.mbeyarts.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/mbeyarts

Instagram: @mbeyarts

Artist Statement:

“The Selflessness of Selfies”

Mensah Bey

Acrylic and Acrylic medium on Canvas

48” x 60”

This artwork takes an unorthodox perspective on “selfie” culture, praising the most popular form of self-portraiture in contemporary society. The confidence we find in exhibiting our best selves through our curated social media presence can be as inspiring as it is comparative. Bey paints “The Selflessness of Selfies” as a highlight on the communities we build through social media platforms often connected by one very identifiable symbol, the hashtag (#). This link between people, cultures, and ideas shows our nature as social beings. The two figures, painted as Bey’s iconic Ajents, are posed as if taking separate photographs. Their proximity suggests another connection potentially developed through a virtual medium. As we look upon our friends, family, and others through devices we don’t tend to see that we being reflected due to our choices of who to follow. This love of community comes in chaotic form as reflected in the textural background. It forms in a somewhat improvisational act just as our virtual lives act as a subconscious of our physical world experiences.

Paparazzi in the mirror,

Staring at an image seeing a star adorned

Bounce back of reflection,

Light traveled through voids intercepted,

Dangling hashtag connections,

Catch and release,

spread by love of community,

Its a share, share world,

Bits of our selfies fill pound sign museums,

stored in clouds of nuanced categories,

exhibit in tic tac toe grids,

We, separate in this physical plane get entangled through 6 degrees,

now become next to besties, screen captured for inspiration,

our down to earth composition posed to express our best, in reflections.

This, seemingly vain version of me is paired next to a million hyperlinks,

to create the world record, squad goal, group shot, community

Thank you, we now feel a part of something we never knew we had,

Flash, now you have me to add.

Parrish Majestic is an abstract visual artist born in queens, New York raised in Virginia currently based in The 757. His mediums range from paintings, bodypainting, murals, collages, rugs, textiles, and home decor. Recent commissions and collaborations within the 7 cities include Circle of Friends Llc, The creative nation, Jack Daniels, Tito’s, The NORVA, Circle of friends Llc, PETA, WHRO, VA Beach Vibe District, Norfolk Neon District. Painting is his way of coping with life so he uses very bright and bold colors to uplift and inspire the viewer to be filled with “that feeling” when you were a kid. That excitement you get from rushing home from school to catch your favorite cartoon, or not sleeping cause your to excited to go on your school trip the next day..those are the feelings he’s pouring into the piece. Nostalgia is the root. And inspiring and uplifting imagery is the goal.

Instagram: @0hpm

Artist Statement

“Abstract Harmony” is my depiction of creation itself sitting in its creative wormhole meditation while constructing viewing and figuring itself out by creating portals through the fabric of time, space, and the mind with universal harmonies of symphonic vibrations.

Creation creating itself to be

On a canvas that’s free

Free to be anything the viewer sees

Making portals of transit without a fee

Waves of change without a sea

Are Calmer than camomile tea

Makes your perspective shifty

Making you squint oh so gently

Creates the Devine to put simply...

My collections are inspired by the books I read, the people I meet, the knowledge I have obtained, and the questions I seek. I use colors and symbols to convey abstract thoughts and emotions. I believe that through my Art I have the power to heal, inspire and enlighten. It feels like so much more than art to Me- I feel like I have been painting meditations. I have a deep passion for landscape art. I teach primarily landscape painting in my “Painted Meditations” adult and youth classes. The sky, water, and flowers all remind me to be patient and enjoy the cycles of life. They remind me to be grateful for my senses and that life is worth admiration.

Contact:

Website- www.poetryjackson.com

Email- poetryjacksonforever@gmail.com

Facebook- Poetry Jackson

Instagram- @poetry_jackson

Artist Statement:

My collections are inspired by the books I read, the people I meet, the knowledge I have obtained, and the questions I seek. I use colors and symbols to convey abstract thoughts and emotions. I believe that through my Art I have the power to heal, inspire, and enlighten. It feels like so much more than art to me, I feel like I have been painting meditations. I have a deep passion for landscape art. I teach primarily landscape painting in my “Painted Meditations” adult and youth classes. The sky, water, and flowers all remind me to be patient and enjoy the cycles of life. They remind me to be grateful for my senses and that life is worth admiration.

The light of the world illuminates her mind.

More flowers bloom here than the first Eden.

Clouds dance to her pulse when she's tuned in.

Her breath becomes the wind and the breeze is just her breathing.

She paints the sky with her imagination.

Each color is vibrant and bright like her spirit.

Butterflies rest in her hair, the sweetest smell of mother earth is there.

The green pastures and yellow daffodils are like miles of pillows.

She could lay here forever,

Stay here forever

Pray here forever.

She got a place so pure in her,

she got a place so pure in her,

she has a place that's so pure inside of herself.

She got miles of peace and time just a concept in her mind.

The world around her is conspiring her greatest evolution.

All she ever had to do was close her eyes,

and breathe deeper to enter.

Being drawn to Art at an early age, Virginia Beach based Artist, Rain Spann, decided to take Art seriously his senior year of high school after enrolling in an AP Art Studio Class. From this time up until he graduated, the Artist experimented and explored different mediums until he created a blueprint that was composed with the depiction of self-doubt, ambition, and the constant conflict that resides between both.

While the Artist continued to experiment, his evolution into working with more bold color, composition, and subject matter was influenced directly by his exposure to Surrealism, Architecture, and his studies as a Computer Engineering Student at Old Dominion University. Constantly seeing inspiration in the world and people around him, the Artist found his voice in the utilization of vivid color to embody organic and geometric forms seen in his surroundings. While studying this concept and the different movements that have also been associated with the idea of the digital and physical, he began to call his work “Geometric-Organicism” and works to explore the different forms of media that it can reach.

Today, Rain finds himself being drawn to all branches of creating; whether it be sculpting, digital manipulation, drawing, painting, or even collage. While constantly creating and finding new ways to depict his blueprint, Rain has achieved success in National Group shows from Virginia Beach all the way to San Francisco and New York, International Group shows in Taiwan, and even his first Solo Exhibition in Washington D.C. As well as finding success as a fine artist, Rain has also dipped his hand into designing with the establishment of his Clothing Brand, ONEWING.

Contact:

b. 1998, Abbeville, AL, United States Live and works in Virginia Beach, VA • rainspannpro@gmail.com • www.onewing-owtf.com

Artist Statement:

Rain Spann is an emerging artist, who primarily works with oil and acrylic paint, pastels, and ink to depicting abstract forms in vivid colors. His use of vibrant colors embodies the organic and geometric forms seen between the digital and physical realms. Spann’s “Geometric-Organicism” investigates form and media to capture their raw qualities and interactions. His interpretations bring new life to his surroundings and inspirations aligned with the ideals of surrealism and other modern art movements.

Life's positives and negatives have given Ramon "Ray" Johnson motivation to create art that expresses hope, strength, and determination. Ramon began drawing at an early age and shortly after high school, he created a comic strip titled "Comin' of Age" that was published in several small newspapers throughout Florida.

Ramon attended college in Atlanta, GA studying illustration at Atlanta College of Art (2003) and Savannah College of Art and Design (2005). In 2010 Ramon returned to his hometown Norfolk, Virginia, and became a self-taught painter. Within a couple of years, Ramon began to consistently display his artwork in the Hampton roads area of Virginia and surrounding areas including Richmond, VA, Washington DC, and Baltimore, MD.

Having two successful solo exhibitions, a handful of selected group exhibitions and a few publications Ramon has received regional recognition for his work. With oil and acrylic being his top mediums Ramon enjoys experimenting with different textures and mediums, including but not limited to sand, ceramic stucco, and gold leaf. In his artwork, Ramon addresses the themes of love, struggle, and togetherness. Using people of color Ramon expresses the universal meaning of life.

Contact:

Website: www.rayjohnsonart.squarespace.com

Instagram: @_rayjohnson_

Artist Statement:

Fear of A Rising Son was greatly inspired by a quote from the Ta-Nehisi Coates’s 2015 release, Between The World And Me: “Black people love their children with a kind of obsession. You are all we have, and you come to us endangered.”

As an artist, I aspire to create art that is meaningful and emotional. My art engages a representation of black beauty, strength, and perseverance. With the influences of artists like Dr. Fahamu Pecou, Patrick Dougher, and Clayton Singleton, I try to capture the power in what it means to be “black”. I want all people to be able to connect and relate to my work. But I particularly hope that people of color gain pride through the positive representation of the black men and woman that I create.

In my work, I like to use men and women of color to express the topics of love, struggle, and togetherness. With acrylic and oil, my paintings of random nameless figures are full of emotion that come to life on canvas.