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Good evening everyone,

My apologies. I had to leave early for a funeral, then headed to the hospital afterwards for a family emergency. I did, however, complete my material project. Here is the finished products and steps I took to paint it.

So first I chose my fabric, which was an old blanket like material (compliments to 2nd Ave thrift store in NJ… on $3). Second, I stretched the material onto a canvas on the side that was more abstracted. Third, I observed the material to get ideas using the handouts from class. Fourth, I sketched my idea on a piece of paper. Next I gathered my materials which consisted of acrylic paints, the stretched canvas, a palette knife, a flat paintbrush and the acrylic medium. I used the shapes that were already on the canvas to design the images. The red cardinal I imagined into a phoenix exploding out of a nearby planet, or something. I used the Santa Claus face to create a God like subject. I also used the little dots with stripes, turning them into little fiery residue from the explosion which now orbits the planet.

I’m a big texture person so I used the pallet knife and acrylic medium mixed with acrylic paint to create texture for the flames of the fire and the features on the face which is seen blowing life into the phoenix. I used the paintbrush to create the little comets (fiery residue) by using the pointillism technique. Only the dots I did wasn’t that small. I think I did a combination of harmony and contrast, but it’s open for interpretation. Overall I’m proud of it.

[tafferial]

This is my abstract piece. I saw a fire extinguisher, used it as my model, and simplified the image into this abstracted object. Many thought it was a wagon, fire truck, and even a shopping cart. 🤣 I was amongst for smooth and texted, but I noticed that I used too much granular gel which created more texture than needed. I know next time to mask my canvas in the areas that I want to make a different texture. I was told to do so this time but I didn’t really understand the concept fully, which I should’ve discussed. However, I now understand the assignment and know what to do in the future.

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I’ve been working with ancestry for about 13 years now, and I’ve met quite a bit of relatives I never knew of. Recently, I met my cousins in Arizona. They are the children of my great great grandfather, Bird Hale’s (on the right)half brother, Richard Hale. While uniting with his kids for the first time, I found out that Richard was an actor, starting out in the silent film era, graduating to westerns, comedy, and suspense, and had his origin in opera. I also found this portrait of Uncle Richard painted by Winold Reiss, which motivated me to create the art I did, including my relatives. This portrait was created as a promotion for one of his earlier performances. Though I use collage in my projects, I tried to incorporate my relatives as a sign of them being important to my family, our growth, and our development. I thought I’d share this portrait (Left) of my Uncle Richard Hale, painted by THE Winold Reiss. Hopefully it gives you all a sense of the direction I attempt to go in, and provides ideas you can use for your own art.

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Happy Thanksgiving! So, I went to the Alabama Museum of Fine Arts. I’ve never heard of an Art Crawl program before. There’s apparently a program called Art Crawl that introduces infants to the art and continues to grow with them. Some of the kids from the program donated their art to be displayed at this museum. This would be great if it was national wide.

[tafferial]

Through The Fire

My maternal family history in art form. This story depicts our history In America. The medium for each painting is mixed media, acrylic and collage on canvas (18 x 24).

First painting shows the slaves crossing the Alabama River, some drowned from jumping or being thrown overboard. The river now serves as a tourist attraction apart of the Legacy museum’s exhibition.

In the second piece, we witness the auctioned slaves at the auction block. The auction block is now referred to as the Court Square Fountain in Montgomery, Alabama. The lady sitting to the right is my 3x’s great grandmother, Ola Mae Hoffman. The man standing alone by the horses is her husband, and my 3x’s great grandfather, John Wesley Hoffman. At the time the photo of him was taken, I’m told that he was the only blacksmith In town, and respected by many. He was a strict, no nonsense kind of man.

The third painting is of my cousin’s grandfather, Willie Burke, standing proud after taking part in the completion of the Bibb Graves Bridge around the time of the Great Depression, and my great grandmother, Julia Mae Hoffman, invisioning her departure from Wetumpka during the Great Migration.

Finally, my great grandmother, and older Julia Mae Hoffman, now Kendrick (second marriage) is seen, eventually settling in Bloomington, Illinois, founding not only her first church, but the first Church of God in Christ, called Holy Temple, on Oakland Avenue and Evans street, in the city of Bloomington, Illinois. Julia was an Evangelist at this church, and was in a sense, a neighborhood mother. Being the first African American female head chef at the Holiday inn, in Bloomington, Illinois, she’d often cook and serve food to the children, homeless, addicts, and anybody else in the neighborhood who was hungry.

[alexiswardillustratedlexicon]

Hi everyone, just wanted to update everyone on my Special Project: ¡Bomba es la raíz del mundo! / Bomba is the root of the world! Im very pleased with the eventual outcome of the piece, from the bold line work remaining in tact to the layers of diverse, rich colors I was sable to achieve.

What especially helped me in understanding and applying color was the exercise Professor did a few classes ago. We layered sheets of cellophane to achieve color and shade variations and this inspired how I’d approach layering my watercolors to achieve the reds, blues, and greens you see. The second part of my project is in the works so stay tuned.

[tafferial]

I love the color scheme in this piece. I love how vibrant it looks overall. The aesthetic is also very present within the painting, and gives the main object in the portrait life. I’m inspired to bring life and an illustrated story in to my personal projects as well. This is really inspiring.

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So, for this assignment we basically had to work together as a group to discover and talk about different painting techniques to improve our painting skills. We observed different ways to fix mistakes. We learned different variations of painting forms. Our group also experimented with different brushes to see the different effects. We also utilized different mediums to find unique textures and styles we could use for future projects.

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So, while I loved this glazing assignment, I acknowledge that it’s a skill I have to work on. Shading is clearly not my forte. I can continue to work on it though for improvement. I started off very well, but I have yet to train my eyes to stay on each line. A lot was happening visually. However, I was able to see my issue and now have a better understanding on how I can perfect this style of art.

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So, here is my maquette that I made for my glazing model. I chose 2 words from a pile of words that my group and I came up with. The words I chose were “Trust”, and “Selah”.

Trust- firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.

Selah- in the Bible means "pause and reflect”.

I chose these words because they both speak to me spiritually. I also knew it would be a challenge, which I always accept and embrace.

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Color, depth , and shade variations.

For this project, I layered sheets of cellophane to achieve color and shade variations. I started off cutting images and shapes and positioned them onto a paper to create an image that gave a sense of depth from where the viewer stands going into the art. I then created different colors, shadows, and shapes by stacking different colored cellophanes on top of one another. I started with 2 primary colors to get a secondary color, then added another secondary color to get another color. It was very interesting and exciting to see what came next after each mix, paste, rotation, and shade. This is something I’d definitely do again, and can apply to my other art. I learned a lot a lot from watching my class mates.

[tafferial]

While being a descendant of the former southern African American slaves, I was inspired to tell my family’s story of going through slavery, to becoming independent and self sufficient, working as freedmen in cotton fields and farming, migrating during the Great Migration to the Midwest, and remaining still and confident in our spirituality and closeness to our creator, culturally. I was strongly inspired by Jacob Lawrence, who expressed aspects of this in his Great Migration series. In Lawrence’s work, he uses images easily easy to interpret, dark and light values (very high in contrast), and he creates a staccato rhythm with shapes repeatedly within the art. He “…captures a mood, a history, and a feeling of a moment and an image of a specific event.”

Staccato- In art, staccato refers to a style characterized by short, detached, and abrupt marks or brushstrokes, creating a rhythmic and visually choppy effect similar to the musical term for sharply separated notes. This can be achieved through various techniques, such as using short, energetic strokes, sharply defined lines, or repeated motifs, often resulting in a vibrant and dynamic composition.

[tafferial]

Good evening! So, as I mentioned before, my paintings are of my great grandmother’s journey from her ancestors home of Wetumpka, Alabama to Bloomington, Illinois. Originally, I just painted a picture depicting the Alabama River, the Bibb Graves Bridge, and my grandmother’s church that she purchased and founded, the Holy Temple Church of God in Christ. I was trying to figure out how to make my finished work more personal to me, and relatable for my viewers.

I came up with the idea of pasting photos of the people, my relatives, whose story I’m portraying. I thought “Why not give them, or bring them back to life and immortalize them?” I pasted my ancestors, aunt, and cousins into my painting then blended them into the background. I then searched the web out of curiosity to see if there was any other artists out there that created something similar. Surprisingly, there are. Here are some artists who share the same vision as myself. Here are a free to introduce yourselves too.

See Images from ‘Black Collagists: The Book’

See a slideshow of works featured in 'Black Collagists: The Book' by Teri Henderson.

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Hey everybody! So I was going through old messages between my aunt and I from a time we were discussing my great grandmothers hometown of Wetumpka. I forgot all about this documentary that tells a little of where my grandmother was from. As you can see, Black people were clearly not depicted in this documentary which show the zeitgeist in Wetumpka during the time of Jim Crow Laws. However, Blacks were pretty much doing the same things that the Whites were doing, with the same aspirations, inspirations, and expectations. You don’t have to watch the whole video but at least you’ll get a sense of the culture or what the American dream consisted of back then.

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Here is my Grandmas obituary from the newspaper. It mentions her founding the first church of God in Christ in Bloomington, Illinois. The church has been since handed over and is now called the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church.

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The Bibb Graves Bridge

Downtown Wetumpka and Bibb Graves Bridge (2025) – Best of TikTok, Instagram & Reddit Travel Guide

Iconic rainbow arch bridge over the Coosa River, gateway to a charming, revitalized downtown Wetumpka.

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Court Square Fountain, once the auction block where my 5x’s great grandparents, Minerva and Wesley Jeffries were sold.

Walking Down Montgomery’s Dexter Avenue

How the competing narratives of racial oppression and racial justice play out on this short downtown street.

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In correlation to my personal project, I will be posting some information worth reading about the history of the settings that influenced my work. Here’s the first.

Montgomery’s Riverboat Brawl and its Connection to Black Liberation - Upscale Magazine

This year has been marked by daily viral moments. But elements of the riverboat brawl in Montgomery and its connection to the past are worth