Project 2020

  (L) Adjoa opens the page she created in Aziza's book while Pam looks on. (R) Gail is shown with her accordion book about the Crocodile. As we move closer to the end of the book rotation, Pam was kind enough to let us meet at her beach home again in Venice Beach, MD on March 27. We turned each page of Aziza's book with excitement, marveling at all the diverse styles and materials used. Everyone enjoyed looking at Gail's book as well, as she unfolded each page in her accordion book. 

I explored a variety of materials in my studio to use in Aziza's book. I ended up using translucent vellum paper, india ink, white embossed paper, and a woodcut that I created years earlier. I cut out some of my images and pasted them to the page to create a collage. I really liked the back paper that Aziza chose for her book. Everything looks great against black.

  This piece honors my name and depicts both me and my mother as young adults and mature women. When I was a child, I didn't like my name much.  I only knew 2 other Pamela's in school, and people tended to call me 'Patricia' rather than Pamela (this still happens today)---I'm not certain why because they don't sound alike. One day in frustration I complained to my mom that I didn't like my name.  She looked sad and said, "I named you after me.  I didn't want to name you 'Patricia' because then people would get us confused." My mom has always been my guiding light, the person I wanted to grow up to be.  I greatly admired her and from that day forward took pride in my name. Our middle names are "Anne" meaning 'favor' or 'grace' and this I knew was in honor of my great-great-great-grandmother, Anne Nichols.  In our family names are a source of pride and a way of honoring past ancestors.  Middle names are typically...

                                             almost done  I was so excited to start Fran's book. Everybody ahead of me really put a lot of energy into their work, and I wanted to do the same. Her book is so rich in detail, texture, and color. She told us to have fun with it, so I did. My goal was to create a textured landscape using cardboard, burlap, handmade, painted and printed papers for the ground. I focused on the poem by Amanda Gorman read at the 2021 inauguration "A Hill to Climb." Next, I will write an excerpt from the poem, "Somehow we've weathered and witnessed" which to me relates to Black peoples ongoing struggle in this country for our humanity in the midst of constant assault. I decided to use layers of acrylic paint for the sky, starting with a deep blue of night to the warm oranges and yellows of sunrise.            ...

I love the black paper Aziza provided for us!  Like Julee's book it prompted me to create a completely black and white piece.  Our project has focused on reflection---on ourselves, the current times, and the future.  This made me think about creating a piece that is a mirror-like reflection. The black paper got me thinking in photographic terms--positive and negative images. In reflecting on myself and the need to be even more resilient due to the personal and global events I experienced in 2020, I used the self-portrait I made for Julee's book and printed it with white ink on the black background and black ink on a white background. To illustrate the concept of resiliency in current and future times I used the thistle as a metaphor. Similar to the dandelion, the thistle, the national flower of Scotland, is a tough, medicinal, and beautiful weed, but with very wicked thorns (don't mess with me)!  This image I also printed in white ink on black paper and black ink on ...

The Process When I began working on Francine's book, I had a different idea in my head, but once I actually had the book in my hands I decided to let the materials I had guide me.  I really want my participation in this project to push me into using mediums I don't usually use.  I don't want each page I create to be a 'signature' Pam piece. I have a lot of stuff from teaching and from print work.  I knew I wanted to use the happy little girl template Francine provided.  I have a lot of small leather samples and used one of those to create the body for the girl.  I then used material samples and some 'hair-like' blue yarn I had.  As I began to think about the story my pages would tell --given 2020 was dubbed the "year of the woman" in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the 21st Amendment, giving (most) women the right to vote and the historic election of our first woman/ BIPOC Vice President--I decided to focus on positive messages for women an...

I decided to make a monoprint of a crocodile for Gail's book, with an emphasis on the eye. I learned that the crocodile has a highly evolved eye, that can see in both water and in the dark.

This mask represents the "metaphoric mask" that my ancestors had to wear to disguise their feelings and disappointment while negotiating through a racist American society.  However, through further research it is also a fact that they had to disguise how smart they were as it relates to knowing how to read and speak proper English. Literacy threatened the major justification of slavery--that black people were"less than human". Therefore, it was to the slave's advantage to express "bad English" to whites because, as Fredrick Douglass (1817-1895) said, "Ignorance is a high virtue in a human chattel; and as the master studies to deepen the slave's ignorance, the slave is cunning enough to make the master think he succeeds." (Paulette Brown-Hinds, Black English during Slavery). In Kamala's book, half of the mask opens to reveal the inside of the page. There, you will find the shape of Africa with a sampling of names of different languages...

This is a follow-up on the remake of my book that was lost in the mail early on in the project.       At Pyramid Atlantic Printmaking Workshop, I had fun revisiting and solidifying my knowledge   of this process. I am using a letterpress machine to print out the statement that flows throughout my book. The statement: The crocodile lives in the water, yet breathes in the air... represents resilience, which is directly connected to the survival of African Americans in America against all odds.   Back to the drawing board! Here I am re-constructing the box that will house my book. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the same papers and fabrics that was used previously, so It will look a bit different from the original one. Actually, it only took one day to build the   structure and another day to embellish. Below are the different materials and fabrics used   along with the letterpress statement that will be attached to the back of each contribution....

Pam's book entitled "Retablo of Resistance"challenged me to complete eight signatures, which consist of two pages folded in half using all sides. After selecting my center page from an assortment of pre-made papers supplied, the journey began. Her theme was very close to mine in that resistance and resilience takes you to the same place, survival! The page I selected was about the freedom and the necessity to vote, so apropos leading up to the November 3rd 2020 election. I printed BLACK LIVES MATTER on black paper and collaged it diagonally across the page.  I also added 2020, VOTE, and WOKE with adhesive black letters and VOILA! done. The cover and back pages were much more complicated. Using another transparent gel medium mask, I superimposed fragments of mono prints, metallic papers and Adinkra symbols. The symbols were cut away from the mono print paper with an exacto-knife, leaving an empty space, while creating a relief affect. This technique has become a new way of...

"Say their Name" is the title of Adjoa's book, which inspired me to create this page. It was a challenging experience because I had to design it to withstand an origami fold. Working with collage made the paper too thick to fold, therefore I had to leave spaces on the fold lines so that it could fold easily. Hopefully, my measurements were correct. The mask is a gel medium transparent print of a drawing. The transparency print allowed me to add colored shapes behind it while still being able to see through it. On the sides of the face I reversed the process by collaging colored paper on the top of the image. I strategically intersected parts of the face with "BLACK LIVES MATTER" because Say Their Name is almost synonymous with that mantra. At the bottom of the face under the mouth is a list of people who have been wrongfully killed by the police. The request to "Say Their Name" is to ensure that they aren't forgotten and to understand that they des...

A chance to experiment with the figure! I had a linoleum block that I had begun but was incomplete. I decided to cut back into it and print it using black ink on a translucent Japanese paper. Once the ink was dry, I cut sections of the white paper away,  I made textured papers by painting on them with acrylic paints. Some of the papers were printed using acrylic paint on linoleum blocks with patters cut into them.  I cut the shapes of  adinkra symbols  from the papers to give an additional layer of context http://www.adinkra.org/htmls/adinkra_index.htm. Using a white pencil, I drew the mask and adinkra symbol for a wind house on the back of the woman's shirt. A wind house is a Ghanaian architectural structure made to resist winds. I see my people as  people that have a powerful ability to resist adversity. Both the COVID-19 and the American political/social climate have been tremendously challenging. We Survive.  The title of this piece is FORWARD! Painted...

 Julie asked us to work in black and white for her book. Having spent the last twenty years with color as a important element in my work, her request called me to pause. I decided to put the emphasis on texture, and worked segments of the piece with black on black. If it was the blackness of coffee that gave it it's strength, mine would have Black on Black sections. Looking ahead, strength was going to be needed by all...plenty of it.  Returning to the aesthetic of my Etude Series, the  perimeter being  pushed out by rhytematic forms. Another page is completed. Julee's book is three dimensional, and I can't wait to see the final book.  

  A friend of mine said of these times, "adapt or die." Harsh, yes, but indeed, for too many, it is a sober reality, as COVID has swept through the country and the world. On the front page left the purple image is that of an adinkra symbol from Ghana for, "adapt". Within the purple form, the paper has the repeated image of an Ankh,  an Egyptian symbol for Life. On the right the adinkra symbol in green and red-orange speaks to the sanctity of mother earth.   The dots and dashes form an abstracted S.O.S. in Morse Code. Do you see more adinkra symbols? To learn more see http://www.adinkra.org/htmls/adinkra_index.htm     There are more adinkra symbols, and the Patterned shapes form  symbols http://www.adinkra.org/htmls/adinkra_index.htm     Dandelions have been a symbol of tenacity and resilience in my work for many years and continue to make their appearance. I enjoy percussive imagery, syncopated in pattern and color.

I started by doing some research on crocodiles---honestly I don't know the difference between crocodiles and alligators, but I did know that they've been around since the dinosaur era--so they are definitely resilient.  In my research I discovered that crocodiles really do shed tears and they do look like they are smiling.  But don't be fooled, the tears are not real ones, but a means to help lubricate their eyes and keep them clear.  Gail's piece for the book included the poem, We Wear the Mask  by Paul Lawrence Dunbar, which speaks to Black folx need to continuously mask their true feelings as a survival mechanism. I believe the crocodiles tears and smile are also a mask, a form of insincere expression. I knew I wanted to create the image of a smiling, crying, crocodile with it's head out of the water. I also wanted to experiment with materials I've never used.  I have several leather and cloth samples given to me by an interior designer.  I cut the leath...

My mother is constantly on my mind.  She's suffered from dementia for about 15 years, a result of several mini strokes.  Additionally, she's survived breast cancer and cervical cancer (resulting from her breast cancer treatments).  At 91 she's still hanging on but has lost so much weight, she is skeletal.  I know we will lose her soon---another 2020 trauma that I'm struggling with.  NEXUS for me refers to an intersection and connection.  Mom and I have a lot in common and she has greatly influenced my life.  I decided to approach this by creating an exquisite corpse, focusing on the similarities that bind me and my mom. I created images of us both at age 8 from photos I have and cut each image into 5 mix and match parts.  Each part has a piece of velcro that can be attached to the back of the long strips of paper that serve as a base to 'play' with the images, rearranging them in various ways.  I think perhaps as a whole, the piece is a bit t...

Pam's Contribution to Michele's Book After the first book swap at my place, listening to Aziza talk about dandelions and thinking about my last book/print project that included weeds--specifically thistles and dandelions as metaphors for Black women, I wanted to use them in Michele's book.  Keeping with my theme of resilience and resistance and connecting it to Michele's theme of "progression."  This year has been one of dichotomies, so I used one in my approach to Michele's book---progression/regression---for every step forward, we seem to take one back, but as dandelions, we also continue to hang tough, spread the word, and raise more warriors for the cause.  I started with a gelatin print and collaged paste paper triangles --one showing upward motion (progression) and one showing downward motion (regression).  I then collaged the dictionary terms for both words, and the quote about contemporary artists:  "The world is a crazy place to the inspired ...

Pam Lawton-- Book Swap Meetings at Pam's Venice Beach House I've really enjoyed hosting our second and third book swap meetings.  The first meeting, held on September 26th, started out rainy and ended with warm sunshine--reflective of our fellowship.  Here are a few pictures from my kitchen of book page sharing of our second round works and some amazing and inspirational pieces by Francine.  The second meeting at Venice/Highland Beach took place on 10/24/20.  I attempted, last minute, to include our NYC sistahs via Zoom on the TV screen---we'll have to plan for that in November.  This meeting was very special, not only did the clouds roll away to reveal another warm sunny day, but we had photographer/videographer India Soodoo with us to document the moment.  India interviewed each of us about our thoughts on Project 2020--why we're doing it and got some background on each of us.  Thank you so much Kamala for inviting India to professionally document ou...