Storyteller Story #5: I Talk to the Spirits

This may be the last time,

This may be the last time,

This may be the last time. It may be the last time, I don’t know…

Ohhhhh, I remember when I was a little girl in church in the middle pew. Smack dab in the middle. Hair in pig tails. “All rise.” Fellowship time. Sister Washington bangin’ away on that old piano. Time to sing: This May Be The Last Time. My favorite. Our voices come together as one. Mostly off key but still one. The Lord hears our cry. Better when we raise our voices together. The Lord hears my prayers. Oh I know what people say about me. The Lord hears me and I hear him right back. I got the gift. Just like my mama and her mama before her. “Those Francois women…witches all of em…” Kids would tell the teacher I was giving them the evil eye in school. That’s all it took for the teacher to give me the strap. But the nasty stuff folks say don’t change nothin’: the dead talk and they talk to me. There’s nothin’ wrong with bein’ dead jus’ like there’s nothin’ wrong with bein’ alive. Both sides want to be heard. I’m just one of the ones that can hear ev’rybody. Even if what they sayin’ ain’t worth half a penny.

Storyteller Story #4: Red Is My Power Color

If you want something you’ve got to get it yourself. Just take it. You can’t sit around waiting on someone to give it to you. I keep telling Jenny: “Stop waiting on Bob. He’s a selfish asshole. A loser.” I keep telling her he’s not worth her time, but she won’t listen. Not my problem. I’ve got my own problems to deal with. Plus I’m busy. Work. Gym. More work. Repeat. Work. Gym. More work. Repeat. Then I’m always having to clean up someone else’s mess. I learned how to take care of myself early. That’s the problem with most people they don’t take responsibility. They make stupid mistakes and want other people to clean it up. You’ve got to take control of the situation or you’ll drown. I tell Jenny all of the time: “Bob will drag you down. He’s dead weight.” But she won’t let go. She just won’t let go.

Storyteller Story #3: Wind & Leaves

“I like long walks on the beach, horseback riding, and deep conversation…” No. Scratch that. “Stimulating conversation.” Crap. I hate writing these stupid things. You can’t sound too smart you’ll scare someone off. You can sound like an idiot and you might get a date. Then they are disappointed when they find out you are smart. If you are physically attractive and smart, well…then their head might just explode. Ok. Let’s try this: “Multi-faceted individual. Looking for someone to grow with…” That sounds like a resume. Ok. “Must love nature. Must love hiking or at least walking. I love seeing the emerald green of my surroundings and feeling a cool breeze on my skin after working up a good sweat…” Hmmm. No. Too cheesy. Well…wait. I don’t want to sound all ‘hippy dippy’ but that’s kind of who I am. Right? I’ll leave it. Oh, who am I kidding? “I love horseback riding and long walks on the beach. Looking for someone to be my ‘plus one’…”

Storyteller Story #1 - Do You Hear The Drums?

The most important component of my most recent show Storyteller was the stories that accompanied each piece. Some are long, some are short. Some are more like poems others monologues. Each, though, says a little about the person that I imagine would wear each piece.

People at the showing told me how much they enjoyed reading the stories that accompanied the work.  I thought it would be a shame if the only place people really read them was at the show so I decided to post them again here. I will post one a week here until they are all up.

Story One: Can You Hear the Drums? 

Can You Hear the Drums?

Boom Ba. Boom de boom bop bop! Thump. Thump. Thump…I can feel it in my chest. In my heart. That whole rhythm is in my body. My mama said I came out dancing! Popin’ and lockin’. Break Dancin’. Tap. Jazz. Modern. Even a little ballet. I don’t discriminate. Definitely a little African. Positively Brazilian. I threw a little capoeira in there. Do that sweet side flip that drives the girls wild and stops those boys in their tracks. Only men here. They don’ know who they messin’ with! They don’t know in the battle it’s not with me they fightin’. It’s the beat. It’s the rhythm. It’s the drums. It’s the bass. It’s the passion. It’s the color. It’s the light. It’s the heart. It’s the music. It’s the love. And everybody knows you can’t fight the love.

TALENT: An Interview with artist Teresa Annabelle of Artefact Redux

 

This month I talked with Artefact Redux artist, Teresa Annabelle about her romantic jewelry confections. Full disclosure: Teresa and I have had a couple of really great conversations concerning the awesomeness of all that is jewelry at one of my favorite local jewelry supply shops Bead Here Now. Teresa, too, is an assemblage artist like myself. She appreciates the history and unique stories that vintage and antique components have to offer. Listening to (in this case reading about) Teresa talk about her use of historical items helps one to realize it’s not about a history that is recognized by a large group of people that has been edited and compiled in a book that matters. It is our personal histories, our family histories, our love histories, our ‘everything’ histories that truly matter.

Urban Atelier: Talk about Artefact Redux a little and how it got started.

Artefact Redux:The name and cohesion was born of my husband and I, sometime in ’06. I still have the napkin from IHOP where we doodled up names and logos one too-late night. He was an artist and musician. I’d been creating jewelry since grade school. We had this shared love of the rusty and dusty and old and it wasn’t enough to simply place the items on a shelf.

Urban Atelier: Artefact Redux uses vintage and antique items in its creations. Why are these types of items your media of choice?

Artefact Redux:  Jewelry has always fascinated me. The older, the better. My grandmother had a lifetime's worth of fantastic pieces that lived in a tall jewelry wardrobe. I would sit on her bed and stare at the sparkling rhinestone brooches and stroke the pearls, treasured for their stories and history as much as for their beauty.

So I was well groomed for a lifelong love affair with the grand and romantic designs of the past. But…I grew up dirt poor, the kind of poor that isn’t cute or funny. My folks were super and did everything they could. We never wanted for the necessities and I still haven’t found anything to beat my mother’s cooking or the taste of a tomato straight from the backyard garden. But there certainly wasn’t any money for the expensive jewelry my classmates were wearing. So I started looking around me for different places to find pretties: thrift stores, yard sales, the cast offs of others. When that wasn’t enough – because even in middle school creating jewelry is addicting  – I got inspired by doll furniture, origami and other small non-traditional trinkets.

As I got older and learned more about crafting in general and jewelry specifically, the massive scale of consumption by the average hobbyist flew in the face of the sparse, “waste not, want not” way that my creating had evolved. So decreasing my “footprint” became a core tenet.

Urban Atelier: I know that you have strong ties to the local arts community having a space at Fans & Stoves [a local antique|vintage|artist mall] as well as working at Bead Here Now. Have these relationships influenced your work in any way?

Artefact Redux:  I don’t feel very connected to local arts, especially since my husband’s passing. But I wonder if everyone, even those I view as being in the thick of things, don’t feel the same way. It is so hard to stay focused sometimes on the creating and I recognize that I’ve become quite the recluse so I usually choose the less draining option of sitting at home and creating.

But, in answer in to your question, having the space at Fans & Stoves is a symptom of the jewelry, as I was a customer for years (decades?) before I became part of the crazy family that is that place. It is a great place for supplies, and being able to touch and see things in person beats etsy or ebay any day. Bead Here Now was such a serendipitous blessing. The day I landed the job I wasn't even looking, but that’s how the best ones happen. I love working in such a welcoming and creative environment and discovering other local creatives. And thankfully, because my work is driven by vintage and antique elements, I am not nearly so tempted to blow my entire paycheck on the beads as others might [be].

Urban Atelier: What are the biggest influences on your work?

Artefact Redux:  Man, so many! It really fluctuates. Five or six years ago, all I wanted to see was Mucha and Lalique. I wanted to drown in those lines and colours. Right now, my lifelong passion for Egyptology and my husband’s Kemeticism are really driving me to create simpler, more spiritually inclined pieces. Textiles inspire me constantly as little-girl me dreamed of being a fashion designer and I still dabble in a bit of reconstruction. Feminine strength, whimsy and darkness seem to be the prevailing themes on my Pinterest boards.

Urban Atelier: Recycling various items to create artwork is a popular trend right now. Do you think it's a trend that's here to stay or a passing fad? And why?

 Artefact Redux:  Like yourself and other artists who reuse and re-imagine probably have, I've pondered this at length. I suspect it has already begun to wane in some parts of the country. But that’s the thing about trends – they’re fickle and by the very nature of today’s society “what’s trending” isn't supposed to last. And if that means that Michael’s and other big box stores and their manufacturers move on to another aesthetic or principle to co-op and subvert for their gain, I am okay with that. In the meantime I’m going to keep doing my thing and if every one of us inspires just one other person to shift their perspective on what non-couture jewelry “should” be constructed from, our planet will be a little bit more awesome.

Urban Atelier: What type of impact do you believe or hope that you have by doing the type of work that you do?

Artefact Redux:  I hope that myself and other artists with similar principles and aesthetics can bring exposure to the rich history and resources that are so readily available. I hope that we can inspire others to look beyond the mass produced and utilize the wealth of unique and history-heavy elements that surround us. So much is tossed aside and ignored to languish in the shadows, in favour of cycling faster and faster through the new and bland. I wish more people would risk a glance into those shadows, and find the stories and pasts that should be revered and learned from.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to share my thoughts on this thing we do. While there are many assemblage artists in the area who are focused on non- wearable sculpture, every chance to highlight us jewelry artists is a blessing.

If you want to see or find out more about Teresa's work you can make it happen here:

https://www.facebook.com/ArtefactReduxOriginals

https://www.etsy.com/people/artefactredux

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Storyteller - An Art Show

One of the most well known images of the storyteller hails from West Africa. There, griots are honored for their talent in maintaining the cultural traditions of poetry, music and storytelling. But storytellers have been around since the beginning sharing the stories of how we began. From the time we spent our nights telling stories around the fire and drawing the lives of ancestors on cave walls, storytelling has been integral to our human existence. The most important part of our stories is that they are all connected.

How we clothe and adorn ourselves is one of the most fundamental ways that we tell our stories. Do you have one tattoo, none, or ten? Do you wear a suit to work everyday or shorts? Do you have a diamond necklace around your neck or cowrie shells? Though these choices might seem benign, they tell others a little bit about your background, income, interests, and passions. We adorn ourselves to impress, frighten, and seduce on a daily basis.

The newest collection from Urban Temple Jewelry (The Urban Atelier) is Storyteller. This collection explores the stories we tell others and the stories we tell ourselves. Fancy yourself a beach goddess? Are you a king or a ladies’ man? A teacher? A leader? Storyteller poses the question: What do you want to say to the rest of the world?

The collection will make its debut at Violet Ray Vintage in Neptune Beach, August 21st 2014 during the North Beaches ArtWalk.

To celebrate the collection every week leading up to the show I’ll be sharing great human stories real and imagined from history, tv, books, and everywhere.

If you have a great story or know a great story feel free to share!