RANDOM
NOVEMBER 15TH
NOVEMBER 15TH HOLD THE DATE
What you up to on Friday, November 15th?
Well, you will be hanging with me at the ‘Dope Ever Since’ event in NYC.
I am super duper excited to announce my newest latest pop-up exhibition. It is taking place at a SECRET Chintatown location on November 15th between 7 p.m. 12a.m. One of the main agendas of Mz.Icar is to create and participate in engaging ‘real life’ experiences. Thanks to the movers and shakers at Lost Art BK, we have been able to team up with some musicians and creatives to do just that.
This night promises to be a fun exhibition, with live music performances. Space is extremely limited if you plan on coming please RSVP there is a tight capacity…you have been warned. The event is free with RSVP and if space permits, there may be a fee at the door.
In other news of growth and expansion, I have started to figure out my relationship with commerce and I and will have art for sale at this exhibition. and wait there’s more, I will launch the long-awaited Mz. Icar webstore on Nov. 15th. If you have any specific pieces in mind please get at me to make arrangements for purchase. Hope to see you soon.
PRESS RELEASE:
For one special night in NYC, LABK brings you “Dope Ever Since,” the live music/art installation event for all tastemakers & connoisseurs of everything dope, fly & fresh.
D.E.S brings together a tribe of artists, aligned on the same vibration of creating original artistic works for the mass appeal. In collaboration with the uber talented visual artist, Mz. Icar (@mz.icar), the space will be set for embracing the night & inhaling the moment. It’s going to be a jam packed night with DJ Tough Dumplin behind the wheels steering the ship. D.E.S will feature live music performances from two of illest hip hop acts out of Brooklyn right now: Bedstuy’s favorite brothers – DJ Jahmedicine & O-Boogie will set the tone for the night. And the following set will elevate the moment featuring the emcee: Rashid Amir, guest starring legendary producer- Ski Beatz as the conductor.
SPARK
SPARK...THEN SHOOT
My latest endeavor has been on love, joy, beauty, elation and inner peace. Its thrown a wrench in my process of using old imagery to collage and reconstruct ideologies. That being said, this new theme has forced me to create new works from the ground up. I realize that in this day and time there just aren’t many fabulous images of black people being joyous and peaceful. Now my mission is to create that.
As a collective, We take image making very seriously. Our talents range the professional art fields of photography videography, advertising, marketing, street and fine art.
One of the things that continue to emerge is the changing industry, how creators such as producers and art directors are either getting laid off or lost in the shuffle. Companies are looking to do things more efficiently to save money. We know that cutting the organizers doesn’t necessarily save money. We see how shoots run over time, how the industry wants more complicated content, and the day is only so long. Basically, the shoots are too cumbersome for the lack of direction.
We sat down, we bitched about how shoots used to be more fun, smoother and just had a better direction. Although it seems we can technologically do more, and the capabilities are endless we’re getting really confuzzled about how to go about it. We feel as though things are in flux to meet the demands of social media, the demand for more. It’s stressing us out. Luckily, we’re not the types to sit, complain, fart and scratch our butts all day. We decided to plan a shoot and basically remind ourselves what we’re working with. How super we are. That we have the answers to trifle with a demanding industry that wants more.
We had a creative direction in mind and got our main Mz. behind the camera. The goal was to optimize logistics for the shoot to be seamless, timely and fun. And we did it! Their is minimal retouching because Ediomi and Kat are fly to begin with.
Hope you enjoy. We did this completely in house all in a day, cuz we had to flex on them.
SOCA UNIVERSE
SOCA UNIVERSE SPECIAL PROJECT
Throughout my creative career there’s always been a synergy between the visual work that I make and music. I’ve noticed that I consider my process similar to a hip hop producer or composer in general. Sourcing or creating imagery to be used for collage is in the vein of sampling an break beat. The thing they have in common is that they are a deliberate breaking down in order to reconstruct. Visual reconstruction is my jam. Every story has multiple perspectives and I feel like the medium of collage and deconstructing and reconstructing is the most immediate recognition that the author is giving you a perspective, it is in itself a medium that recognizes that there are various views, layers and ways to tell a story. I’m always dealing with pieces of imagery and putting them together. That seems to be the one common thread and everything that I do.
The energy of process seems to attract musicians. I’ve had the opportunity of my career to work with amazing musicians in all walks of life. This latest projects is really close to my heart. Machel Montano is pretty much the king of current-day soca and creative cover art for Soca Universe’s Vol 1 compilation is huge. Soca music and Calypso was an integral part of my upbringing. My mom’s side is from Belize, Central America and soca is King. Growing up in southern California it was very much so marginal music, but the sounds blaring from my grandmother’s house and every family gathering told a completely different story. I often crack jokes and call soca the techno or House of Caribbean music as it requires some serious stamina.
Oftentimes the iconography of our culture is created by an external entity. This project gave me the opportunity to be in the front of center of creating and example or option or celebration and how we see ourselves. I shot the image used at Trinidad’s carnival a few years back and when Machel’s camp approached me to do this project I was elated to do something that felt so close to home and pull some of the archival footage from that journey.
MS. LAURYN HILL SPECIAL PROJECT
MS. LAURYN HILL
I spent a good chunk of early this year and last year working on visuals for Miss Lauryn Hill’s 20th anniversary Miseducation World Tour. It was a life-changing experience to be able to work with such an iconic creative and one that has inspired me so much. It is a real honor and I am so grateful for the opportunity. Some of the images and things are still in the work so we can’t share it all but here’s a sneak peek of some of the things that we have been working on including graphics and designs for afrochella and merch for various pop up throughout the tour we were also very honored to be able to showcase our work in her curated digital exhibition across the world.
"farewell to meat" CARIBANA 2019
"FAREWELL TO MEAT" (UPDATED)
Hiya peeps!!
Catch me this Sunday working on a live large canvas piece in celebration of Toronto’s Caribana 2019.
Did you know that the Latin derived name of the holiday ‘carnaval’ means “farewell to meat” I will be exploring this theme in terms of the objectification of black bodies and farewell to that notion.
Catch me this Sunday, Aug 4th, 2019 at
Harbourfront Centre
235 Queens Quay West
Toronto, ON M5J 2G8
Many thanks to @harbourfrontcentre
And @supafrik fo inviting me out.
See ya soon t-dot peeps
And @toughdumplin will def be around.
Update. Here’s the final piece
REMIXED!
REMIXED
I love museums but I really have to be in the mood to go. It’s so hard to go into these institutions that basically have erased your whole existence, or minimize it ie: minimal inclusion for tokenism. That’s why I tend to go on the pay what you wish for the free days. I figure they have enough rich people upholding the racist ideas of the institution. I’ll just mosey on in and go for free because I feel like my people have paid enough, be it inspiration or sheer labor or continuing to be ‘the help’.
It’s interesting, as I walk through this whole exhibition all I see is the designer’s access, access to money, access to materials, access to audience, and access to media. I wish I didn’t recognize one third to half of the designers, but access seems to buy you a piece of the audience whether they like it or not. This access is so cloudy that it’s hard to tell if this work is amazing, or if it just had so much access that it is revered. The recognition of the designers, itself just gives the whole exhibition more gravity than I’d like to.
I’ll always be inspired by color texture pattern so it goes without saying that this exhibition is inspiring but I can’t help but feel that something is missing…oh yeah, designers of color.
Ironically the exhibitions is guarded by docile looking black people dressed up like butlers.
Side note funny story. I once went out one night in Philadelphia wearing these exact shoes only to be turned away by the doorman saying that women had to wear heels and I was out of dress code. Ironic to see these exact same shoes in an exhibition in the Philadelphia Museum of art. I guess it all depends on who’s wearing them.
The gatekeepers of history and culture seem to have those little blinders on like a horses that you see carrying people around in New York on little wagons. With blinders, one has such a limited view and the casualties of the limitations include all the people that helped inspire influence and push these fashions and art. Sometimes it feels as if they are purposely placing invisibility to all these other people that exist.
Don’t worry I won’t leave you hanging. Here’s a few notable fashion related pieces that highlight the participation and role of Black culture in fashion. The Nod did an amazing episode on the Battle of Versaille, called ‘Chitlins at Bergdorfs.’ In 2015 Sacha Jenkins directed a pretty cool doc called ‘Fresh Dressed’ that focuses on urban fashion and its role in main stream. The Mz. Icar team and I decided to remix this exhibition because we will pull up a seat at any table we want to.
Collage/ Illustration by Mz .Icar
photos courtesy of @jendayiasha, c.kennebrew and Junkprints archive// Select shoot Production by: @ediomi @efikokostudios // makeup: @_brittanyrogers // hair: @tierras_hair_artistry // accessories: @statement92
models: @mariosimonee, @annett_ka26, @sheshe_themodel
LISTS
List are the greatest way to organize things.
List create checkpoints for getting things done.
Sometimes I put very simple things on the list like take a deep breath. Just so that I can check it off.
The feeling of accomplishment is amazing. you should try it. Just put read this post on your list and check it off when complete.
Other times I put things that remain on this for a very long time. Every task isn’t a quickly.
I like looking back at list they remind me of what I saw how I spent my time.
And then make a list about the love of lists.
THOTS ON HORSES
Often times when we can’t see other people we try to distance ourselves in a way that puts the other person as far away from us as possible. It’s a clever way to justify crimes and injustices committed against that person or group. Just make them very separate from you you don’t have to see the humanity in them. it’s a way to excuse yourself from being empathetic to that person or group of persons. The resolution that one would find for someone that they love or considered a member of one’s community would be much different from that of someone seen as on outsider or not seen at all.
The hyphenation on American is the perfect proximity manager. Its a linguistic divider that acts as a bridge or train track to the ‘other type’ of American. They type that is so far that they almost aren’t. If they ‘aren’t’ then the dignity empathetic and inclusion awarded to those that are isn’t necessary for those that aren’t. The only non hyphenated Americans are white. Everyone else gets that nifty proximity managing hyphen. Case in point the original Native-Americans, the exploited African-American, Asian-Americans etc.
That like hyphen might as well be as long as a trail of tears. I would like to say it’s a celebration of heritage and perhaps sometimes it is, but I feel that it is used more often as a proximity to whiteness manager.
As language does, It’s evolved to reflect the guilt surrounding it. An example of this evolution is the outdated term ‘half-breeds’ which was used to identify people who were partially of the African diaspora and part white in the United States. Better translated “as half of you, half of me, kinda like a horse but not like me at all because I’m not like a horse, you are.”
My artist brain was thinking, wouldn’t the literal version of a half breed would manifest as a centaur? To put a literal figurative component to that particular term as most things that we try to distance ourselves from become so absurd.
Speaking of horses. As a kid I wanted a horse. I wanted to go horse back riding and do competitions like some rich girls I had recently read about. The closest I personally got to acquisition was my little ponies which were fine, because real horse aren’t pink and purple and do not have hearts in there eyes. Well, there was that one time when our next door neighbors from Mexico brought back 2 horse and kept them in their suburban southern California back yard. The whole block smelled like horse poo and all the kids from the elementary school would crowd the gate to see them.I didn’t want a horse any more it seemed silly. My grandmother was so annoyed and called the city and that was that the horses were gone. Don’t know where they went maybe sold to those rich girls I was reading about.
Perhaps because, I didn’t have a real horse or stable I figured only like 4 girls had that horsey life. Fast forward to college and I met those pony having girls. They were real. It was weird…it was a thing…and I wondered if they ever thought of girls who didn’t have horses. My conclusion is that it never crossed there pony having minds. At that point I was annoyed with my childself for putting so much thought into them.
CAREBEAR RUG NOTES
Thots on The care bear skin rug: The way that we love things is interesting. You'll meet an avid recreational hunter who will tell you how they love nature so much as they gaze upon taxidermy head on a wall. They love animals so much that they kill them and put them on the walls. It's a strange brand of love. This ownership destroy and conquer type of 'love'. I always find it fascinating the way that we revere things, sometimes to the point of annihilation. The care bear skin rug represents that fascination it's almost as if we can take our childhood simplicities, fantasies of share bear and brave heart bear and put them all together on a rug and put it in our living rooms and that'll be enough and proof of our dedication to peace and love.
OBSERVATIONS FROM GLOVER PARK WASHINGTON D.C.
Due to a bit of nudging from a travel mate we decided to stay in a 'safe' neighborhood. Generally, this means a predominately white neighborhood with wealth and this area did not prove wrong. These social settings require careful consideration, as the cloak of blackness creates a marker bringing on stares and overly friendly gestures that seem somewhere between overcompensation for discriminatory thoughts/past actions or nosiness as to why we are occupying white spaces in such a leisure manner. In super early hours of the morning I made tea, grabbed a book and sat on the front patio. I watched about 20 white dudes all wearing light blue button down shirts and khakis...actually all the dudes donned this uniform, leave well manicured homes, rush to their fancy cars parked in front of those homes and drive off. One of the duded even came out of the house i was staying at, fearfully replied hello to me and left. I then also watched about 15 black and brown women arrive and replace the Audis and bmws with old hondas and Fords. They then rushed into the same houses and come out with white babies in stroller.
I wonder if it has always looked that way. The dude Charles C. Glover, the namesake of the neighborhood, was a big banking dude, came from Dutch wealth and was pretty chummy with Pres. Roosevelt. In the development of the neighborhood, I wonder if black and brown women caring for white children was baked into the design of if, it's just left over from slavery.
This caste system is a tough one and it appears that the folks benifiting the most are just completely blind to it. There is nothing inherantly wrong with caring for another's child, and a job is a job, but there is something cringe worthy given the racial and gender 'uniform' of who does that job and who does other jobs.
So I'll be leaving some offerings, hopefully a reminder to share and 'see' and occupy space mindfully.
After writing this I went to go back into the airbnb only to discover the fearful dude rushing out had locked me out. Well I suppose he wanted to feel safe...at my expense.
Welcome to the capital.