Gingersnap

Up close view of Susan's Boyfriend Loves Her Afro It's quite an over dramatic notion- the way women obsess about beauty- whether it's makeup, body image, and age. It has gotten to the point of shallow ridiculousness due to media ploy. Yet hair roots are another story entirely nowadays, especially African Americans fighting a raging battle between staying naturally beautiful or getting the sleek, kink stripping perm. Keep in mind, men never have to obsess with image as much as women do. They're allowed to keep their hair in any way, in any style while women resort to spending tons on weaves, relaxers, perms, and extensions to appear "attractive" and in turn, cruelly punishing natural sisters for not following suit. Based on true accounts of a turbulent upbringing (was given the ugly nickname "Carpet" in school), the tragedy of African American women despising free style wearers and going as far as publicly criticizing and embarrassing them...

The second part of the ongoing REACH artist series at Sinclair Community College, James Pate's "Attack" charcoal drawing series is an exploration of the tempestuous beauty, alluring grace, and ferocious power in the African American female body. Opposing oppression and weakness, she is bold, brazen, and bare, her nude, voluptuous body a towering strength in every kinetically activated composition. A stunning companion to Linda Stein's "Fluidity of Gender: Sculpture" exhibit, Pate's sensuously captivating world of sleek, crisp lines and elegantly etched value structures showcase a woman clad not in clothing, but the fiery cloak of awareness in every fiber of her skin, telling the viewer that she needs no hero, no rescuer of the detrimental reality and terrifying peril. On the verge of being attacked and pursued by targeting minute airplanes, she pays the metaphorically crafted danger no mind, averting her gaze away, seeming disinterested, nonchalant, or ...

Best architecture in the city of Dayton goes too.... Atop of Grafton Hill, sits a beautiful, classically red bricked tower of cascading stairs that seems to have escaped from a M.C. Esher work. A remarkable piece of Dayton history, the Dayton Art Institute is a museum that once featured an amazing art school that taught great artist friends like Virginia Burroughs and Willis "Bing" Davis. With incredible exhibits continuing to come to one of Dayton's most impressive treasures such as 100 Years of African American Art: The Arthur Primas Collection, Creating the New Century: Contemporary Art from the Dicke Collection, and From Romance to Rifles: Winslow Homer's Illustrations of 19th Century America, Norman Rockwell is no exception. Having recently opened November 12th, I went five days later, on a Thursday, when they closed at eight PM. This was what happened that day. True story- when I reached the top, those grand epic stairs were closed. No way was I walking back dow...

What happened on another hour walk journey in Dayton-ville? If you guessed something artsy & fartsy, you get a prize! Reading this! Hahaha! Held in the auditorium of Dayton Metro Library was librarian, Matt Kish's brilliant talk about one of the best art related titles published this year, "Moby Dick In Pictures: One Drawing For Every Page." Articulately spoken with remarkable insight and humor, Kish gave the visitors a taste of his upbringing (hippy parents? charming!) and his influences (vinyl LP's, illustrated folklore/science fiction paperbacks & JACK KIRBY: COMIC BOOK GOD!!!!). The passion for Herman Melville's classic, "Moby Dick" was evident in the joyful tone of his voice, the manner of presentation, and in the images themselves. Funny considering that it all started from an innocent little tagged note on Facebook in which he had made a list of top five books and completely omitted his precious "Moby Dick"... First of all, I mus...

This has been an incredible Sunday. I say that after walking an hour and twenty minutes to a gallery reception. The October skies were cloudy, the temperature was pleasantly warm, and the sweetly singing birds couldn't sound any better.... Okay. In all honesty, there were no actual birds, more like squirrels, but if those squirrels could sing they would probably sound just like those chirping imaginary birds in my head! I just had a good, positive feeling about today, intuitively knowing that very soon I would be in the company of some wonderful people. That I was! Star of the hour, James Pate graciously socialized with the best of Dayton art celebs like Willis "Bing" Davis, Dwayne Daniels, Kevin Harris, Delora Bufurd Buchanon, Terry Hitt, other known local artists and admirers of all ages were in attendance! Rob missed out on an unbelievable experience. And I'm not talking fried chicken or sugar cookies here! Alive, hopping, and jazz bopping, Ebonia Gallery was defin...