August 25, 2025 • 51 mins
Art of the Diaspora encompasses an incredibly wide range of artistic traditions, practices, and expressions from across the African continent and around the world. It's not a monolithic entity. From ancient rock paintings to contemporary, this art reflects the people of the Diaspora's rich cultural heritage, spiritual beliefs, social structures, and historical experiences. Important influences on the art are experiences that were joyful and experiences that were filled with pain and tears.
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ASharpe Outlook is broadcast live Mondays at 8AM PT on K4HD Radio - Hollywood Talk Radio (www.k4hd.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). ASharpe Outlook TV Show is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
ASharpe Outlook Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/asharpe-outlook--6643730/support.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
This program is designed to provide general information with regards
to the subject matters covered. This information is given with
the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station
are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial, legal, counseling,
professional service, or any advice. You should seek the services
(00:23):
of competent professionals before applying or trying any suggested ideas.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hello, and thank you for tuning in to a Sharp
Outlook on pay for HD radio and Talk or TV.
I am Angela Sharp, your host. Our arm chair discussions
with industry experts will give you the steps, tools and
information to be successful in business and to prepare you
to be your best self. Hello, I'm Angela Sharp, and
(00:57):
welcome to a Sharp Outlook Day. We're going to talk
about something that I believe touches everyone, and that is art.
The show today is called Art Watches the Soul, and
it really does. When you really get engaged in get
involved in what you're looking at, whether it be visual
art from a painting or some canvas, or you're looking
(01:21):
at a sculpture, or you're enjoying art on stage someone acting.
That's all still art and art is really important today.
Art of the diaspora is a term that encompasses an
incredibly wide range of artistic traditions, practices, and expressions from
(01:42):
across Africa continent and around the world. It's not a
monolithic entity. We're talking about thousands of years of history,
hundreds of distinct and ethnic groups, and diverse array of
materials and techniques and purpose ruses, from ancient rock paintings
(02:03):
to contemporary installations. This art refleet reflects the people of
the diaspora, rich cultural heritage, spiritual beliefs, social structures, and
historical experiences. In other words, it's an art that is
actually coming from the soul, from experiences that they have
(02:26):
gone through, experiences from history, from the beginning of time.
I know people don't believe you can think back that far,
but you know, today they're talking about the DNA. DNA
never forgets, and we're talking about tens of thousands of
years ago that we are still bringing in emotions, we're
(02:47):
bringing in thoughts, we're bringing in things. You know, sometimes
you feel like, gosh, seems like I've been here before.
Maybe you have, maybe through an ancestor maybe you have yourself.
But it's just kind of interesting how we reflect on
things that we have seen before. A good starting point
is to recognize the importance of contexts. Art from people
(03:10):
of the Diaspora or any other group is often deeply
intertwined with daily life, ritual, and community. It's not always
created for purely esthetic purposes. Many objects are functional, spiritual,
or social roles. For example, a mask are often used
(03:32):
in ceremonies and rituals to connect with ancestors or spirits.
Sculptures can be represent deities or some of importance in
a community. Textiles can signify status or identity, importance, influence
on art, or experiences that were joyful and experiences that
(03:56):
were filled with pain and tears. We want to delve
into the stories behind the world's most fascinating art and
artist and today we're embarking on a journey to explore
the vibrant and diverse world of the Diaspora through art.
And we're incredibly fortunate to have with this Brenda Phillips,
an artists that brings such expressional art that it touches
(04:20):
your very soul. And I've seen her art and I'll
tell you when I was thinking that art washes the soul,
and it was something that I had seen her write,
I thought, it really does you feel something? You cry,
you laugh, It just affects you that way personally. Brenda
(04:44):
is a self taught artist creating from digital art medium.
Her digital paintings mirror the joy and energy she feels
when creating works of uninhibited color, movement, and emotion. Her
dedication to promote and preserving the diasporus rich artistic heritage
(05:04):
has significantly contributed to raising awareness and appreciation for bold,
colorful and emotion art that draws you into her passion.
You begin to smile or cry or laugh, and you're
drawn in and become a part of a story in
the art piece. Brenda's passion for art began early in life.
(05:28):
Growing up she exposed to She was exposed to diverse
cultures and artistic expressions, which sparked a deep interest in
the arts. She has a career in the performing arts
as an actor Aldiko in the arts. She has a
career in the performing arts as an actor, award winning playwriter,
(05:51):
vocalists and poet at More Pity Party Blues, She worked
at Visual and Performing Arts Academy and Visual Arts Strand.
Her artistic work is characterized by a commitment to presenting
some African arts and arts of the diaspora in a
(06:13):
nuanced and inform manner, challenging stereotypes and promoting a deeper
understanding of the cultural significance. She realizes art offers a
profound window into the human experience for listeners. This may
be familiar, how but I'm going to have Brenda join
(06:36):
me now because I would like to find out more
about all of her art, which she's going to give
you information on how to see her art and be
able to purchase her art. But we're going to talk
about a lot of things. One of the things I
wanted to talk to you about I was mentioning that
you presented you that you actually did performing arts. Tell
(07:02):
us something about the performing arts, and to tape some things.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Hey, hi everyone, and thank you Angela for having me today.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Oh my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Yeah. But visual not visual arts, but performing arts. I
just sort of moved into it from a child. My
mother used to always have my brothers and my sister
and I always in church singing, you know, always ad
that extra something that they would uh the church would have.
Oh we got this group and this group and dis
(07:35):
choir and this choir and this family sing, and these
kids sing, so along with my brothers and sisters and
sister we performed early on, you know, but only gospel.
Who sick. My mother wasn't having anything except when she
wasn't home. We didn't have any any what she could
(07:58):
call worldly music in our home. We all only had gospel.
We just had all kinds of gospel. And I love it,
I love it. I love it. But you know, as
a child, you know, you want to hear other stuff too,
and you hear other stuff from other places. So when
she wasn't around, trust and believe, we got all we
needed from the other stuff in reverence of music, rhythm
(08:20):
and blues, you know, of the times. And so as I,
as an individual performing artist, got older, I started performing
in high school, but in a choir that was called
the Jefferson Acapella Choir, which was well known. And then
they had an outside group which was the Leyshon Tours.
(08:42):
And I was also a member of the Layschon Tours.
So we were always performing and singing all types of music,
show tunes, gospel, what they call spiritual, all kinds of music,
you know, and every year we'd have big performerformances especially
around Christmas time and the Hallelujah chorus and that song
(09:05):
that you know, Hallelujah, Hallelujah. Yes, it was just but
there was fifteen different harmonies going at once. It's just
a beautiful thing. So I was always performing, you know,
but I didn't do theater until after I had gotten
out of college. I started doing theater with this local
(09:28):
theater group called the Interstate Firehouse Country Center in Portland, Oregon,
and also with Rosemary Allen's Black Theater Company that she
had going at that time, and it was a phenomenal experience,
and we did original performances, original works. We did Langston
(09:50):
Hughes Simply Heavenly and the late Garland Lee Thompson Senior
he directed that. He's all so from Portland, Oregon, but
he lived in New York, so he would go back
and forth from New York to Portland. He was one
of the founders of Frank Severe Writers' Workshop in New
(10:11):
York City at the time. He used to be one
hundred and twenty fifth and fifth. I can't remember the
others across street, but anyway, I just sort of gradually
got into performing arts and then you know, doing speeches
and writing, making short poems and essays and things like that,
(10:35):
and I would start to perform them in small groups
and things you know of that nature. But I didn't
have any training, any professional training in the theater while
I was going to UH school when I was in
high school and college. But I got on the job
training and trust and believe. Afterwards. I joined the Actors'
(10:59):
Union in nineteen eighty eight, so I've been a member
of the Actors Union for quite some time. I lived
in New York for ten years during professional theater, and
I I was involved with Intosaki Shane Gays a remount
of the nineteen ninety five production for Colored Girls who
(11:24):
Committed Suicide When Enough, and they got the Tony Award
for it. So we did the remount of it and
the past we all received our individual Adelco Awards, which
is a very high prestigious award in reference to theaters,
especially African American theater. You know, we have to we
have to crown ourselves. We can always look for someone
(11:46):
else to give us praise and give us about, you know,
what we're doing from the other you know groups out
there that people looked at the oscars and all of
that and we're just for position, but uh, we better pay.
If we don't have a seat at the table, we
better make our own table.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Nacan. Yes, absolutely absolutely, I.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Think a little bit about it. But that's the gist
of that.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Oh no, no, not at all. When you were talking
about being at church and things like that. Yeah, I
remember we had to go and do our speeches and
we had to sing in the choir. And I had
two other sisters and we were called the Sharp Sisters,
and we traveled around going to different conferences and meetings
(12:34):
and stuff like that, singing. And I tell you, you just
get pushed into things. It's like, okay, whatever you say.
It wasn't like we had a choice.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
You had to.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
She said you're going to sing. You were going to sing,
and we had a yeah, and we.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Traveled around and you know, thought we would enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah, it was really great. So for listeners who may
be less familiar, how would you describe the diversity of
diaspora art. It's such a vast category. I mean we're
talking about when we're talking about diaspora, I want to
kind of say we're talking about, you know, areas of Africa,
(13:22):
but we're talking about America. We're talking about the islands.
We're talking about South America, We're talking about Mexico, we're
talking about Philippines. We're talking about a huge area of
peoples and everyone has their own culture. But you're the artist,
you could give give a little better description.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Well, people would tell me early on when I would,
you know, would be presenting some of my work and stuff,
and they would say, you know, this looks like something
from Panginia or this is uh. Are you familiar with
the ivory colts? Are you from? And they would ask
(14:05):
me about different things Zimbabwe and Ghana and Nigeria, and
this looks like that? And I said, I have never
been to Africa, I said, but I have been around
people from other countries. I mean Africans and Asians and
and and and East Indians you know, and uh, Native
(14:28):
Americans and and and I always was interested in their art,
you know, and just and looking at it and seeing,
you know, how they related to their particular cultures. And
I could see me in all of it, something that
I liked, something that drew me in. And I would
(14:49):
be thinking, like, wow, that's nice. I really like that,
you know, So I would, you know, I would copy uh,
some people's style, and if it didn't work for me,
it wasn't gonna work because the only thing that can
come out of me, it is me. But I always
wondered how certain works of our different types, of our
(15:11):
different medias of our how how people would come to
learn to do that and it would be spiritual for me.
You know, I would see something, I'd say, I'm gonna,
I'm gonna, I'm gonna paint that, And nine times out
of ten, whatever I started out doing is not what
it ended up as. I just had to let it flow.
(15:34):
I had to let it be whatever it's gonna be,
and it would always turn out to surprise me. And
it was a journey. So I have fallen in love
with the creative process in reference to the arts and
in reference to where they came from, and in reference
to our differences and our sameness in so many ways.
And for me that's kind of the diaspora, especially with
(16:00):
reference to the African diaspora, you know, me being from
my ancestors from the Motherland, I have always felt something
that that I wasn't getting in Portland, Oregon. That's where
I was raised, born and raised in Portland, Oregon and
moved to New York much later in my forties. But
(16:23):
I always knew that there was more to us than
I was seeing the media, other than you know, the
stereotypical us in the media. And I always knew that
the colors and things that that I was drawn to
(16:43):
were just off to the off center from primary colors.
They were red wasn't red. Red was a deep blood color,
or orange was like a burnt orange, and yellow was
like a mustard yellow for me. And that's what I saw,
and so that's what I would gravitate towards when I
would start to create something. And even as a small
(17:05):
child of my my kindergarten teacher, when we would have
you know, crayon times she would give us crayons and
she would say, use every color in the box. So
it was like every color, you know, So every color.
I would always try to use every color in the box.
(17:27):
You know. I don't care how big the box was
or how small it was. I was going to use
every color in the box to create something. Now I
thought it before as a little child, but uh, it was.
It had everything. Like I said, it had every color
in the box. And a lot of times it didn't
even make sense, but it made sense to me because
I was creating and no one was saying that's not good,
(17:51):
or you can do a little better, or you know,
stay inside the lines. You know it was it was obstruction,
but they gave us freedom to create. So I've always
had that creative, you know, desire in me to make
something outside of me and to present it.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
So you know, my sister, I have a sister, well,
my oldest sister. She has this wonderful gift of seeing
something and being able to write beautiful poetry. And then
my other sister, she was just wonderful in designing art.
And she could do art in painting, or she could
(18:33):
do art with cloth, you know, putting cloth together. And
and I just never ever got that. I don't know
what it is. I never ever got that artistic. I
tried to play instrum everybody. I just it's just just
if there's a creativity in me, I don't know where
it is. I've tried different things, but I just can't.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
And what we're doing now, we're communicating. It's what we're
doing now. You got to because.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
I couldn't need to draw the line I got in
trouble for not being able to I had a ruler
and couldn't draw a line.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
That's okay. Everybody has a gift, and everybody doesn't have
everybody else to get I.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Know, I said, it's straight to me.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Yeah, might up.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
I was lining and up and and still would end
up crooking.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
So I just like, okay, my art teacher says, there
are no accidents. There are just interesting mistakes that you
create something from that, and so there are no accidents.
I was like, I don't know, this looked pretty bad
to me over here. So and I wouldn't get frustrated
and I would stop and I would paint over the
(19:47):
entire thing and start again on some you know, I
didn't want to continue on something that was that my
soul wasn't feeling. And see, that's what I realized when
I'm working, that if I'm doing something and it's just
not feeling good to me, or I get back and
I look at it, because we as artists, we are
(20:08):
our worst critics, and I said, I don't I'm not
feeling this at all, and I will cover it up.
It'd be totally something different from whatever I started it
out to be. So but everybody has gifts. I don't
care what people say this. Oh I can't act, I
can't sing, I can't do that. But there are things
(20:29):
that you can do that others can't do that I
can't do. My mother, God rest her, so she had
me doing taking piano lessons and I absolutely hated it.
I did I just you know, and I could do
the basics. I could do all of that, and I
(20:49):
could go to the recitals and I could fumble through.
But it was just like it was just torture to me.
And then I would My mother brought up bought a piano,
and my sisters just sat down and started playing singing.
She would play sing if she played by ear beautiful.
(21:10):
I was like, let her take the lesson. She said, no, no,
you're you're going to take the lessons. You're going to
teach her. No, she can play already. She didn't take lessons.
My mother didn't understand that. But I said, we people
are born with gifts.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
And I'm going after those gifts. Identifying and going after
those gifts are really really important. Can you remember when
you really got that drive or got that spark that
you wanted to draw and do art and do expression
to art.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
I remember when I wanted to do that. I was
in college, but I had so many other courses and
classes and things that what I wanted to do was
just you know, take art and nothing else. But of
course you can't do that, you know, you got recograce
to whatever you're late and all those things. And I
(22:08):
just said, well, you know what, I can't focus on this,
you know. And I and it wasn't that I knew
what I was doing. I just had a desire. I
had a desire to be in art and be there
all day long and learn from instructors and stuff. But
I couldn't, so I didn't. And I didn't really pick
up a brush again for twenty five years, really, oh
(22:32):
twenty five years, right, And so it's been about twenty
years now that i've actually after I retired, After I retired,
after I moved to New York. I retired, and I
moved to New York in ninety three, and I was
in New York for almost ten years, and I was
(22:55):
doing theater in music, but I could also also dibble,
dabble in the mediums of art. But I didn't take classes.
I just would do stuff, you know, at home, you know,
and it was usually around whatever piece or that I
was working with or whoever I was working with, and
the theater, and you meet all these people and you
(23:18):
see people from a different background Saints, African Americans, but
from different backgrounds, you know, from very very poor to
very very wealthy and everything in between. And me, I'm
just like a sponge. I want to know it all.
I want to know how did you come up? You know?
I met one girl she had she was a freshman
(23:40):
in college right along with me, and she had five
kids already, and I was trying to figure out, girls,
where are your children? And she said with my mom,
she said, but I needed to go to college. And
I was thinking to myself, I wonder if I could ever.
(24:02):
I couldn't imagine having any kids and going to school.
I just couldn't. She had five and she was a
phenomenal person, and I was so in awe about her.
I was like, you know, people are really different. You
need to really dig into what people are like and
stay open and has become communal with these people from
(24:27):
all these places. My nephew would say, stop smiling at everybody,
stop talking to everybody. You talk to everybody. My nephew.
He already lived in New York and he told me,
he says, take off the jewelry and chew gum. And
because you always talking to people, you shouldn't be talking
to people. And I was like, I'm gonna have to
(24:48):
move to New York and become somebody else. Uh uh, girl.
I talked to everybody and anybody, and it wasn't always
a good thing I did. And so I don't know
if I could answer when was that point that I
actually just really started doing stuff. It's probably been really
(25:10):
within the last ten years. Really, did I just yeah, yeah,
when when.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I see your artists like you started the ten years old,
did you just like capture so much depth and personality?
But that's probably how IM just communicating with so many
different people on.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Learning people, learning other artists and being around other artists
and seeing how they would do. And I would think
that it's absolutely absolutely beautiful. My art instructor that I
have right now, his name is Jamal Jones and he
is phenomenal. And you know, I just asked him everything
(25:53):
and anything. Should I do this? Should I do that?
Can I add this to that? And he would say, no,
you can't use mogpoge. When you're using puffer, you can't
uh puffer paint. You can't do this and you So
I'm learning a lot of stuff that I didn't know
that helps me in my creativity. Mm hmm. That I
don't hear a long. I don't care how long it
(26:15):
takes me to work to do a piece. I really don't.
I just figured like it's done when it gets done.
And sometimes a girl, I don't know exactly when it's done,
but I'll stop and I'll go on to something else.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Do you do you do you have a favorite artist
or or a favorite type of art or or something
that I aspires you Jonathan Green.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
I love his work. He is a phenomenal artist out
of North Carolina and his work. I really was drawn
to his work with his colors, how deep the colors,
and they're always just off and they always speak to
sort of a gulla geechee Africanism m hm uh or.
(27:10):
I could see all of that, you know, but it's
it was like country and and and and and different
and a different sort of movement in his is the
way he worked. That's Jonathan Green. I also am uh
uh in awe with Charles Bibbs. I love his work.
(27:31):
It is so detailed in the hands and and and
and the way the he'll have a head tilting and
he'll have four or five people with the same form.
It was. It was like motion and on a canvas.
You just look at the canvas and you know nothing
is moving, but it's all moving. Ye. Just those are
(27:55):
the artists that I gravitate to. Any artist really that
uses all lot of color and a lot of movement
in their work. Oh, I'm all in it. I'm like, Wow,
that's beautiful, you know. And that's basically it. I had
a friend that told me years ago, years ago ago,
(28:15):
and then I was working on a piece, just just
a piece of art, and he told me, he says,
you use a lot of color and that's going to
be real expensive down the line if you continue to
do this, So you should you should find less different
different colors. And I was absolutely insulted.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
I was that's what makes it beautiful, was all of
the color, because it's all the moods, it's all of
the emotions as all of the I mean, we're not singular.
We have so much multiple things going on, a lot of
an expression. That's kind of strange for somebody said don't
(28:59):
use so much color.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
He said that he was another artist.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Yeah, it was another.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Artist, and I love his work. I do. But he said,
I use so much color that if you know it's
going to be expensive, I don't care how expensive it's
going to be. If I need it, I'm gonna get it. Yeah,
whatever it is I need, and I'm going to use
the colors that come from my experience as opposed to
(29:25):
something that you'll see. And I don't think he wasn't
saying it in a negative way. I maybe he was,
but anyway, it bothered me. I was like, well, so
I'm not going to use a color that I feel
that I need to use right now because it can
be expensive. That's ridiculous. So that I left it alone.
(29:49):
I didn't think another minute of it. I kept right
on doing what I was doing. Like my kindergarten told me.
My kindergarten teacher told me to use every crayon in
the box.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
And beautiful too.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
I'm enjoying it.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Yeah, yes, And like I said, that's what's so wonderful
about it is seeing all of the colors. I love
to look at the art. That's you know, whether it's
material or jewelry or anything. It's generally just filled with colors.
And if you go outside and you walk through a
(30:28):
garden or anything, it's full of all of these colors.
So it's it's just a creative spirit that you know.
Some people have the talent of drawing it down and
actually putting it on a canvas, and it looks like
something that was created with real reality and emotion. And
you can feel, you know, the wind blowing. I can
(30:49):
even kind of hear the bird stirping everything you know
in it because.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Emotion in it.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Yeah, yeah, it helps to, yeah, really make you feel
because I see your art. This one here makes me laugh,
and then this one here, Oh, it just kind of
draws you out. Oh, and then this one, Oh, I
want to go travel there. And so I mean that's
what that's the purpose of it is to bring out
(31:18):
an emotion and bring feelings. You know, maybe you're just
having a hard time or whatever. You see some art,
you see a play, you see some artistic expression. It
puts you in a different mood or maybe even changes
your emotion at the time or something like that. It's
(31:42):
kind of I think it's just wonderful people that have
that capability of putting there, putting all that thought and
all of that emotion and expression down on camp Feld
or however they do. It is. It is and it
absolutely speaks to to everyone, not just you. It speaks
(32:09):
to everyone. I see, you know, I see myself in
the kitchen with the women that are in the kitchen,
some of your paintings that have it in there, and
doing the dishes. I remember that, and you know I can.
It takes you back to the times when you were
young and laughing and having fun and surrounded by your
(32:31):
your parents and aunties and things. So it's just going
back and just letting it just take you to another place.
That's what That's what I see happening every time I'm
looking at the art. Yeah, when you decide when you're
getting ready, you say, you just begin working, But what
(32:52):
you started out with it doesn't end up that way.
Is it just kind of like like a crescendo notes
or something that just got to speak to you and
just just keep go going Or how do you get there?
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Okay? And how I get there is still a mystery
to me. But I had a picture, a picture that
I had done years ago, an art piece of a
vase with flowers. That was it. It was a vase
with flowers, and I said, okay, that's nice. And I
(33:28):
left it alone for ten years and one day I
looked at that and I said, I think I'm going
to do something with this vase. And the vase was
half of the half of the canvas actually itself. The
vase was here and the flowers are here, and I
just black. I just painted over it, painted all over it.
(33:50):
And I created a face, a head just ahead, an
African woman head and a neck and I said, okay,
just ahead, no eyes, no lips, no nothing, you know.
And I said, okay, this is cool, this is good.
So I didn't know what I was going to do.
But I made this vase, this this vase into a face.
(34:16):
And then there was like ten flowers that were sticking
out of the vase and they were just plain little
you know, flowers, nothing, nothing exotic or anything. And I said,
I'm going to add more flowers. I'm going to make
these flowers that are here, I'm going to make them bigger.
I'm going to make them with more color. I'm going
(34:37):
to give them more greenery. I'm going to do this
and so I just have this this head with this
these flowers, these big flowers, and then I started doing
eyes and a nose and a mouth. I didn't like it,
so I painted over and I did eyes, different type
of eyes, African eyes, you know, bigger lips, you know,
wider noses. And then I next thing I knew, I
(35:01):
had a whole different picture. And it's the piece I
call call it her. She's holding a cigar and she's
just being in her grandness and her greatness. And then
I decided a week or two afterwards to give her
locks deadlocks throughout the weave them through the flowers that
(35:24):
were in there. And then I decided maybe a little
time after that. She had her shoulder toward the front,
and I said, I think I'm gonna put a bird
on the shoulder. There's another artist and I can't remember
her name. She passed away of maybe about twenty years ago.
She was a young woman too, and in every piece
that she did, she always had a bird somewhere in it.
(35:46):
Somewhere in her piece, no matter what the piece was,
there was going to be a bird somewhere in it.
So I put the bird on her shoulder, and I
call that piece her, and it's it's in my website. Actually,
I have it here, but I don't know if I
could pick it up and show it to you. If
I could maybe maybe, well give me a hot second. Okay,
(36:20):
I don't know what you can see it? Can you
see this? Oh?
Speaker 2 (36:22):
I can see it. It's gorgeous. Yes, right, that's something
that I.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Used to be a vase and I ended and I
you know, and I gave her a neck and then
the flowers were so thin, but I made them, you know, different.
So anyway, this is that piece and it's called Her,
and I just really finished it within the last maybe
(36:53):
month or so. But it was a vase, it was
a plane. I wish I could show you to you,
but it's actually is on my website too. But I
don't know how. Thank you, Thank you so much. I
don't know how how that happens in the creative process
(37:17):
when you start off, well, when I start off doing something,
I'm thinking I'm going to do one thing or and
it turns out to be something totally different. I never
would have thought that's what that would have been.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
But that's when I works from a base to all
of that. That is just as she has a cigar
with ringlets and things.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
And I like to just imagine the possibility of a thing.
You know, you get through and you think, like like
I added things along the way. I didn't just say
I'm going to paint a lady with a bird on
her shoulder smoking a cigar with flowers in her head.
That was never and that is never how it works
(38:00):
for me.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Just some people's head moving.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
It kept moving.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Go ahead, Yeah, I guess that's how you express you're expressing,
or you what got in touch with who her was
and started expanding her personality. You know, they you know,
that's what happened.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
And I would still do some more, but that I
ran out of canvas. So in my mind, I just think,
in my mind, I have other canvases, and I thought
about creating an extension of the work from here to
this is still that part of that same canvas, but
(38:46):
it's on another canvas, but it's an extension of this
work of this work, and do it on the other
side also, and maybe even at the top, and before
long it would just be a whole wall unit of
one picture. That's just how I think. I don't know
if I'm going to do that I'll tell you that's
how my mind goes when I'm looking at certain works.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
And yeah, yeah, that way.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
And you know what when you I use different type.
I use a lot of acrylics and I use puffer paint.
And then I'll also, uh, if I see something that
I like, uh, like plants and Michael's you know, with
flowers with leaves and things like that, I'll buy them
and I'll cut them off and I will attach them
(39:37):
in my pictures. It gets into different depths. Yeah, and
so I did one that was a fox. It was
it was a fox, but I didn't like it, so
it just turned it out. It turned into a deer,
and I have her. Her name is Doretha in the garden.
In the garden it said deer. And and my daughter
(39:59):
in law said, I thought that was a fox at first.
I said yeah, but I didn't like it as a fox.
I wanted it to be something else because I wanted
to put flowers and plants and make it really a
happy thing. And a fox looks like they're looking for
something to me to get into. And I wasn't feeling that.
(40:20):
I was like no, So my daughter in law, she
just sits back and goes like okay. And then also,
you know, you can find things in thrift stores. I
do all the time thrift stores and recreate them into
something else that you may not have thought of, and
(40:41):
then as you go along it becomes something else. I've
done that with several things that found things that I
found in thrift stores and stuff like that. So and
just keep finding.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
On new way make journey I want to get.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
But I haven't tried that. But I want to get
into sculpting. That's what I want to do.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
That's and I will.
Speaker 3 (41:09):
Trust and believe I will. I just don't know when,
and I don't I don't put pressure on myself to
do anything anymore, not at this stage in my life,
you know.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Yeah, yeah, and I and I like that. Mm hmmm,
mm hmmm. Well, I know I've gone to museums and
galleries and different things like that, and they have different
shows and it's based on you know, everyone's taste. Mh
Do you you know, do you think museums and galleries
(41:46):
are playing a role in promoting more informed understanding of
the diaspora expression, you know, African American expression, you know, uh,
just okay, I only think.
Speaker 3 (42:04):
So, but I only think so in certain areas like
you have a like the Schamberg in New York. You know,
they they are about us, our work are It's a
full diaspa of us and where we come from in
our art work and forms that are shown there that
(42:25):
may not get seen in another place. But it's kind
of hard, I think. Uh. On the curator side, I
have a couple of friends that are curators and they're
constantly working, constantly working trying to put on either a
one person show, which I think is awesome, but most
(42:46):
shows have five or six different art artists and a
nimic and those ones that I truly go to and
the ones that I'm involved in, and also offee shops
and weekend pup tent put up tents and things and
show your work. But it's all in reference to the museum.
(43:10):
It's always a waiting list. It's going to be a
waiting list, and then they're really gonna pick, you know,
from maybe three or four artists or shows that they do.
Some of them are traveling shows that they do every year,
and you know they are locked in, and uh, it's
just kind of hard. I don't I don't really know
(43:31):
how they they do it on that and I'm just
on this side trying to get my work seen, and
it's it's it's sometimes it's really a difficult because you've
got to do something. They're having something that's just a
week a weekend. So you've got to get your stuff
in there up. You've got to get it like you
need it to be. It has to go. Then it's over.
(43:52):
You've got to get it down. You've got to pack
it up. You've got to go to the next thing,
or you take it back home and use the story
or you're hanging back on the wall or what ever.
Is just a lot of work, it really is, And
that's part I don't.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
Okay, since you bring in your art, so tell our
listeners how they can view your art and purchase her art?
Where do they contact you?
Speaker 3 (44:19):
Okay, I'm gonna I don't know if I were, I
thought I could type it in here, but I don't
see where I'm tell you that. But my my website
is h T T P S colon backsplash backsplash backsplash
(44:39):
backslash backslash, m HM dash or Brenda b R E
N D A dash, phillips p H I L L
I P s dot pixels p i x e l
s dot. I'll do that again, h T T P
(45:06):
S colon backslash, backslash dash for Brenda b R E
n D A dash phillips p h I l l
I p s dot pixels p i x e l
s dot com great.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
So anyone, if you look down in the little corner there,
it has a little chat thing where you can type, well, yes,
I see, you can just type that there. Well, I know,
I know that it's like music and everything else, art
comes from inside. It comes from the heart. It comes
(45:50):
from the spirit and just being able to have that
talent or the courage to put those thoughts on, you know,
down on canvas or whatever the motive is that's being used.
I mean that within itself, it is just you know,
(46:11):
that takes a lot of bravery. But I know there
are a lot of creative people out there that have
artistic capabilities, and whether it be writing poetry or making music,
or doing art or sculptures or you know, just different things,
(46:32):
writing poetry, just different things. I just want to encourage
those that have those creative abilities. Go after your dream,
go after what makes you happy, go after which fulfills
your life. You will be able to monetize in the future,
(46:54):
but just do what makes you feel good, whatever it is.
Because you've got a long time you have spend working
and making money, let it be. Let it be some
way that you are enjoying yourself as you are doing that,
and that will be. That will be how it can happen.
(47:19):
But it's yeah, yeah, it's just a wonderful thing. It's
just great listening to you talk about all of the
art that you have and all the art that you've
created and all the art that you've done. One of
(47:41):
the things I also wanted to do to say, like
I said, I know, I want you to know that
I personally and everyone that I show your art too,
absolutely loves your art. So we want you to continue
to make those beautiful, vibrant, colorful pieces that talk to
(48:01):
us that and and that tells our stories. And like
you said it, there's there's some of them that display
happiness and bring laughter. There's some that brings tears. There's
sum that brings just enormous joy. I see them in
the choir, clapping and dancing, and it's like I remember
(48:21):
that I grew up and then I see them out
in the desert, you know, and and stand you know,
with their hands raised. And so every emotion you have expressed,
every emotion that we who are observing, we appreciate. So
(48:42):
I just want to I want to say that that
we just appreciate you. We appreciate you expressing how we feel.
We all don't have the courage to put it down,
but you're putting it down for us. You're speaking for us,
and thank you for being our voice. We we really
appreciate you.
Speaker 3 (49:00):
Honored. I am so honored. I just really I'm just
grateful that I have this gift and trust and believe
it is from God. And how to give all the
phrase because I always have to look at certain things
and I say, well, Lord, I'm done with this, and
then I'll you know, I'll look at it and I go,
(49:20):
well maybe not, and I'll just be like, well, you know,
whatever whatever I do, I'm going to do it through
spiritual and through love and through emotion, through what I see,
through what what what occurs in life with other people.
You know that that I'm drawn to that I think
I need to put that on canvas somehow. And I
(49:41):
call myself an art storyteller because I want is to
tell a story, you know, so that you can look
at it see that Okay, that's what that is. Or
of course you know, people see different things because that's
that's just art.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
But that's some that see, Yeah, I see a story
in it. And that's the part that I love. You
always tell a story. Well, I just want to thank
you for being on the show today and sharing your
gift with us and with all those that are going
to continue to appreciate what you are doing. And we
(50:21):
just thank you for being here on a Sharp Outlook.
We thank you that have tuned in be sure to
like it and to also subscribe, and to also share
this with others that you may know that just loves
good art and go out and check out Brenda's website
and see what she has. Again, thank you for joining
(50:43):
us on a Sharp Outlook. And we're here every Monday
eleven am Eastern time, eight am Pacific time, and as
usual I want to say to you, stay tuned till
next week and whatever you do, stay informed. I want
(51:05):
to thank you for joining us on a Sharp Outlook.
We have been informed and energized to take the next steps.
We have posted links to websites and videos to learn
more on today's topic, Please join us again next week
for another thought provoking conversation right here on Key for
HD Radio and Talk for TV. Listen to the podcast
(51:29):
on all the podcast apps, and until next week, stay
informed
This program is designed to provide general information with regards
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the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station
are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial, legal, counseling,
professional service, or any advice. You should seek the services
(00:23):
of competent professionals before applying or trying any suggested ideas.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Hello, and thank you for tuning in to a Sharp
Outlook on pay for HD radio and Talk or TV.
I am Angela Sharp, your host. Our arm chair discussions
with industry experts will give you the steps, tools and
information to be successful in business and to prepare you
to be your best self. Hello, I'm Angela Sharp, and
(00:57):
welcome to a Sharp Outlook Day. We're going to talk
about something that I believe touches everyone, and that is art.
The show today is called Art Watches the Soul, and
it really does. When you really get engaged in get
involved in what you're looking at, whether it be visual
art from a painting or some canvas, or you're looking
(01:21):
at a sculpture, or you're enjoying art on stage someone acting.
That's all still art and art is really important today.
Art of the diaspora is a term that encompasses an
incredibly wide range of artistic traditions, practices, and expressions from
(01:42):
across Africa continent and around the world. It's not a
monolithic entity. We're talking about thousands of years of history,
hundreds of distinct and ethnic groups, and diverse array of
materials and techniques and purpose ruses, from ancient rock paintings
(02:03):
to contemporary installations. This art refleet reflects the people of
the diaspora, rich cultural heritage, spiritual beliefs, social structures, and
historical experiences. In other words, it's an art that is
actually coming from the soul, from experiences that they have
(02:26):
gone through, experiences from history, from the beginning of time.
I know people don't believe you can think back that far,
but you know, today they're talking about the DNA. DNA
never forgets, and we're talking about tens of thousands of
years ago that we are still bringing in emotions, we're
(02:47):
bringing in thoughts, we're bringing in things. You know, sometimes
you feel like, gosh, seems like I've been here before.
Maybe you have, maybe through an ancestor maybe you have yourself.
But it's just kind of interesting how we reflect on
things that we have seen before. A good starting point
is to recognize the importance of contexts. Art from people
(03:10):
of the Diaspora or any other group is often deeply
intertwined with daily life, ritual, and community. It's not always
created for purely esthetic purposes. Many objects are functional, spiritual,
or social roles. For example, a mask are often used
(03:32):
in ceremonies and rituals to connect with ancestors or spirits.
Sculptures can be represent deities or some of importance in
a community. Textiles can signify status or identity, importance, influence
on art, or experiences that were joyful and experiences that
(03:56):
were filled with pain and tears. We want to delve
into the stories behind the world's most fascinating art and
artist and today we're embarking on a journey to explore
the vibrant and diverse world of the Diaspora through art.
And we're incredibly fortunate to have with this Brenda Phillips,
an artists that brings such expressional art that it touches
(04:20):
your very soul. And I've seen her art and I'll
tell you when I was thinking that art washes the soul,
and it was something that I had seen her write,
I thought, it really does you feel something? You cry,
you laugh, It just affects you that way personally. Brenda
(04:44):
is a self taught artist creating from digital art medium.
Her digital paintings mirror the joy and energy she feels
when creating works of uninhibited color, movement, and emotion. Her
dedication to promote and preserving the diasporus rich artistic heritage
(05:04):
has significantly contributed to raising awareness and appreciation for bold,
colorful and emotion art that draws you into her passion.
You begin to smile or cry or laugh, and you're
drawn in and become a part of a story in
the art piece. Brenda's passion for art began early in life.
(05:28):
Growing up she exposed to She was exposed to diverse
cultures and artistic expressions, which sparked a deep interest in
the arts. She has a career in the performing arts
as an actor Aldiko in the arts. She has a
career in the performing arts as an actor, award winning playwriter,
(05:51):
vocalists and poet at More Pity Party Blues, She worked
at Visual and Performing Arts Academy and Visual Arts Strand.
Her artistic work is characterized by a commitment to presenting
some African arts and arts of the diaspora in a
(06:13):
nuanced and inform manner, challenging stereotypes and promoting a deeper
understanding of the cultural significance. She realizes art offers a
profound window into the human experience for listeners. This may
be familiar, how but I'm going to have Brenda join
(06:36):
me now because I would like to find out more
about all of her art, which she's going to give
you information on how to see her art and be
able to purchase her art. But we're going to talk
about a lot of things. One of the things I
wanted to talk to you about I was mentioning that
you presented you that you actually did performing arts. Tell
(07:02):
us something about the performing arts, and to tape some things.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Hey, hi everyone, and thank you Angela for having me today.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Oh my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
Yeah. But visual not visual arts, but performing arts. I
just sort of moved into it from a child. My
mother used to always have my brothers and my sister
and I always in church singing, you know, always ad
that extra something that they would uh the church would have.
Oh we got this group and this group and dis
(07:35):
choir and this choir and this family sing, and these
kids sing, so along with my brothers and sisters and
sister we performed early on, you know, but only gospel.
Who sick. My mother wasn't having anything except when she
wasn't home. We didn't have any any what she could
(07:58):
call worldly music in our home. We all only had gospel.
We just had all kinds of gospel. And I love it,
I love it. I love it. But you know, as
a child, you know, you want to hear other stuff too,
and you hear other stuff from other places. So when
she wasn't around, trust and believe, we got all we
needed from the other stuff in reverence of music, rhythm
(08:20):
and blues, you know, of the times. And so as I,
as an individual performing artist, got older, I started performing
in high school, but in a choir that was called
the Jefferson Acapella Choir, which was well known. And then
they had an outside group which was the Leyshon Tours.
(08:42):
And I was also a member of the Layschon Tours.
So we were always performing and singing all types of music,
show tunes, gospel, what they call spiritual, all kinds of music,
you know, and every year we'd have big performerformances especially
around Christmas time and the Hallelujah chorus and that song
(09:05):
that you know, Hallelujah, Hallelujah. Yes, it was just but
there was fifteen different harmonies going at once. It's just
a beautiful thing. So I was always performing, you know,
but I didn't do theater until after I had gotten
out of college. I started doing theater with this local
(09:28):
theater group called the Interstate Firehouse Country Center in Portland, Oregon,
and also with Rosemary Allen's Black Theater Company that she
had going at that time, and it was a phenomenal experience,
and we did original performances, original works. We did Langston
(09:50):
Hughes Simply Heavenly and the late Garland Lee Thompson Senior
he directed that. He's all so from Portland, Oregon, but
he lived in New York, so he would go back
and forth from New York to Portland. He was one
of the founders of Frank Severe Writers' Workshop in New
(10:11):
York City at the time. He used to be one
hundred and twenty fifth and fifth. I can't remember the
others across street, but anyway, I just sort of gradually
got into performing arts and then you know, doing speeches
and writing, making short poems and essays and things like that,
(10:35):
and I would start to perform them in small groups
and things you know of that nature. But I didn't
have any training, any professional training in the theater while
I was going to UH school when I was in
high school and college. But I got on the job
training and trust and believe. Afterwards. I joined the Actors'
(10:59):
Union in nineteen eighty eight, so I've been a member
of the Actors Union for quite some time. I lived
in New York for ten years during professional theater, and
I I was involved with Intosaki Shane Gays a remount
of the nineteen ninety five production for Colored Girls who
(11:24):
Committed Suicide When Enough, and they got the Tony Award
for it. So we did the remount of it and
the past we all received our individual Adelco Awards, which
is a very high prestigious award in reference to theaters,
especially African American theater. You know, we have to we
have to crown ourselves. We can always look for someone
(11:46):
else to give us praise and give us about, you know,
what we're doing from the other you know groups out
there that people looked at the oscars and all of
that and we're just for position, but uh, we better pay.
If we don't have a seat at the table, we
better make our own table.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Nacan. Yes, absolutely absolutely, I.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
Think a little bit about it. But that's the gist
of that.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
Oh no, no, not at all. When you were talking
about being at church and things like that. Yeah, I
remember we had to go and do our speeches and
we had to sing in the choir. And I had
two other sisters and we were called the Sharp Sisters,
and we traveled around going to different conferences and meetings
(12:34):
and stuff like that, singing. And I tell you, you just
get pushed into things. It's like, okay, whatever you say.
It wasn't like we had a choice.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
You had to.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
She said you're going to sing. You were going to sing,
and we had a yeah, and we.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
Traveled around and you know, thought we would enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Yeah, it was really great. So for listeners who may
be less familiar, how would you describe the diversity of
diaspora art. It's such a vast category. I mean we're
talking about when we're talking about diaspora, I want to
kind of say we're talking about, you know, areas of Africa,
(13:22):
but we're talking about America. We're talking about the islands.
We're talking about South America, We're talking about Mexico, we're
talking about Philippines. We're talking about a huge area of
peoples and everyone has their own culture. But you're the artist,
you could give give a little better description.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
Well, people would tell me early on when I would,
you know, would be presenting some of my work and stuff,
and they would say, you know, this looks like something
from Panginia or this is uh. Are you familiar with
the ivory colts? Are you from? And they would ask
(14:05):
me about different things Zimbabwe and Ghana and Nigeria, and
this looks like that? And I said, I have never
been to Africa, I said, but I have been around
people from other countries. I mean Africans and Asians and
and and and East Indians you know, and uh, Native
(14:28):
Americans and and and I always was interested in their art,
you know, and just and looking at it and seeing,
you know, how they related to their particular cultures. And
I could see me in all of it, something that
I liked, something that drew me in. And I would
(14:49):
be thinking, like, wow, that's nice. I really like that,
you know, So I would, you know, I would copy uh,
some people's style, and if it didn't work for me,
it wasn't gonna work because the only thing that can
come out of me, it is me. But I always
wondered how certain works of our different types, of our
(15:11):
different medias of our how how people would come to
learn to do that and it would be spiritual for me.
You know, I would see something, I'd say, I'm gonna,
I'm gonna, I'm gonna paint that, And nine times out
of ten, whatever I started out doing is not what
it ended up as. I just had to let it flow.
(15:34):
I had to let it be whatever it's gonna be,
and it would always turn out to surprise me. And
it was a journey. So I have fallen in love
with the creative process in reference to the arts and
in reference to where they came from, and in reference
to our differences and our sameness in so many ways.
And for me that's kind of the diaspora, especially with
(16:00):
reference to the African diaspora, you know, me being from
my ancestors from the Motherland, I have always felt something
that that I wasn't getting in Portland, Oregon. That's where
I was raised, born and raised in Portland, Oregon and
moved to New York much later in my forties. But
(16:23):
I always knew that there was more to us than
I was seeing the media, other than you know, the
stereotypical us in the media. And I always knew that
the colors and things that that I was drawn to
(16:43):
were just off to the off center from primary colors.
They were red wasn't red. Red was a deep blood color,
or orange was like a burnt orange, and yellow was
like a mustard yellow for me. And that's what I saw,
and so that's what I would gravitate towards when I
would start to create something. And even as a small
(17:05):
child of my my kindergarten teacher, when we would have
you know, crayon times she would give us crayons and
she would say, use every color in the box. So
it was like every color, you know, So every color.
I would always try to use every color in the box.
(17:27):
You know. I don't care how big the box was
or how small it was. I was going to use
every color in the box to create something. Now I
thought it before as a little child, but uh, it was.
It had everything. Like I said, it had every color
in the box. And a lot of times it didn't
even make sense, but it made sense to me because
I was creating and no one was saying that's not good,
(17:51):
or you can do a little better, or you know,
stay inside the lines. You know it was it was obstruction,
but they gave us freedom to create. So I've always
had that creative, you know, desire in me to make
something outside of me and to present it.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
So you know, my sister, I have a sister, well,
my oldest sister. She has this wonderful gift of seeing
something and being able to write beautiful poetry. And then
my other sister, she was just wonderful in designing art.
And she could do art in painting, or she could
(18:33):
do art with cloth, you know, putting cloth together. And
and I just never ever got that. I don't know
what it is. I never ever got that artistic. I
tried to play instrum everybody. I just it's just just
if there's a creativity in me, I don't know where
it is. I've tried different things, but I just can't.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
And what we're doing now, we're communicating. It's what we're
doing now. You got to because.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
I couldn't need to draw the line I got in
trouble for not being able to I had a ruler
and couldn't draw a line.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
That's okay. Everybody has a gift, and everybody doesn't have
everybody else to get I.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Know, I said, it's straight to me.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Yeah, might up.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
I was lining and up and and still would end
up crooking.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
So I just like, okay, my art teacher says, there
are no accidents. There are just interesting mistakes that you
create something from that, and so there are no accidents.
I was like, I don't know, this looked pretty bad
to me over here. So and I wouldn't get frustrated
and I would stop and I would paint over the
(19:47):
entire thing and start again on some you know, I
didn't want to continue on something that was that my
soul wasn't feeling. And see, that's what I realized when
I'm working, that if I'm doing something and it's just
not feeling good to me, or I get back and
I look at it, because we as artists, we are
(20:08):
our worst critics, and I said, I don't I'm not
feeling this at all, and I will cover it up.
It'd be totally something different from whatever I started it
out to be. So but everybody has gifts. I don't
care what people say this. Oh I can't act, I
can't sing, I can't do that. But there are things
(20:29):
that you can do that others can't do that I
can't do. My mother, God rest her, so she had
me doing taking piano lessons and I absolutely hated it.
I did I just you know, and I could do
the basics. I could do all of that, and I
(20:49):
could go to the recitals and I could fumble through.
But it was just like it was just torture to me.
And then I would My mother brought up bought a piano,
and my sisters just sat down and started playing singing.
She would play sing if she played by ear beautiful.
(21:10):
I was like, let her take the lesson. She said, no, no,
you're you're going to take the lessons. You're going to
teach her. No, she can play already. She didn't take lessons.
My mother didn't understand that. But I said, we people
are born with gifts.
Speaker 2 (21:25):
And I'm going after those gifts. Identifying and going after
those gifts are really really important. Can you remember when
you really got that drive or got that spark that
you wanted to draw and do art and do expression
to art.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
I remember when I wanted to do that. I was
in college, but I had so many other courses and
classes and things that what I wanted to do was
just you know, take art and nothing else. But of
course you can't do that, you know, you got recograce
to whatever you're late and all those things. And I
(22:08):
just said, well, you know what, I can't focus on this,
you know. And I and it wasn't that I knew
what I was doing. I just had a desire. I
had a desire to be in art and be there
all day long and learn from instructors and stuff. But
I couldn't, so I didn't. And I didn't really pick
up a brush again for twenty five years, really, oh
(22:32):
twenty five years, right, And so it's been about twenty
years now that i've actually after I retired, After I retired,
after I moved to New York. I retired, and I
moved to New York in ninety three, and I was
in New York for almost ten years, and I was
(22:55):
doing theater in music, but I could also also dibble,
dabble in the mediums of art. But I didn't take classes.
I just would do stuff, you know, at home, you know,
and it was usually around whatever piece or that I
was working with or whoever I was working with, and
the theater, and you meet all these people and you
(23:18):
see people from a different background Saints, African Americans, but
from different backgrounds, you know, from very very poor to
very very wealthy and everything in between. And me, I'm
just like a sponge. I want to know it all.
I want to know how did you come up? You know?
I met one girl she had she was a freshman
(23:40):
in college right along with me, and she had five
kids already, and I was trying to figure out, girls,
where are your children? And she said with my mom,
she said, but I needed to go to college. And
I was thinking to myself, I wonder if I could ever.
(24:02):
I couldn't imagine having any kids and going to school.
I just couldn't. She had five and she was a
phenomenal person, and I was so in awe about her.
I was like, you know, people are really different. You
need to really dig into what people are like and
stay open and has become communal with these people from
(24:27):
all these places. My nephew would say, stop smiling at everybody,
stop talking to everybody. You talk to everybody. My nephew.
He already lived in New York and he told me,
he says, take off the jewelry and chew gum. And
because you always talking to people, you shouldn't be talking
to people. And I was like, I'm gonna have to
(24:48):
move to New York and become somebody else. Uh uh, girl.
I talked to everybody and anybody, and it wasn't always
a good thing I did. And so I don't know
if I could answer when was that point that I
actually just really started doing stuff. It's probably been really
(25:10):
within the last ten years. Really, did I just yeah, yeah,
when when.
Speaker 2 (25:16):
I see your artists like you started the ten years old,
did you just like capture so much depth and personality?
But that's probably how IM just communicating with so many
different people on.
Speaker 3 (25:30):
Learning people, learning other artists and being around other artists
and seeing how they would do. And I would think
that it's absolutely absolutely beautiful. My art instructor that I
have right now, his name is Jamal Jones and he
is phenomenal. And you know, I just asked him everything
(25:53):
and anything. Should I do this? Should I do that?
Can I add this to that? And he would say, no,
you can't use mogpoge. When you're using puffer, you can't
uh puffer paint. You can't do this and you So
I'm learning a lot of stuff that I didn't know
that helps me in my creativity. Mm hmm. That I
don't hear a long. I don't care how long it
(26:15):
takes me to work to do a piece. I really don't.
I just figured like it's done when it gets done.
And sometimes a girl, I don't know exactly when it's done,
but I'll stop and I'll go on to something else.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Do you do you do you have a favorite artist
or or a favorite type of art or or something
that I aspires you Jonathan Green.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
I love his work. He is a phenomenal artist out
of North Carolina and his work. I really was drawn
to his work with his colors, how deep the colors,
and they're always just off and they always speak to
sort of a gulla geechee Africanism m hm uh or.
(27:10):
I could see all of that, you know, but it's
it was like country and and and and and different
and a different sort of movement in his is the
way he worked. That's Jonathan Green. I also am uh
uh in awe with Charles Bibbs. I love his work.
(27:31):
It is so detailed in the hands and and and
and the way the he'll have a head tilting and
he'll have four or five people with the same form.
It was. It was like motion and on a canvas.
You just look at the canvas and you know nothing
is moving, but it's all moving. Ye. Just those are
(27:55):
the artists that I gravitate to. Any artist really that
uses all lot of color and a lot of movement
in their work. Oh, I'm all in it. I'm like, Wow,
that's beautiful, you know. And that's basically it. I had
a friend that told me years ago, years ago ago,
(28:15):
and then I was working on a piece, just just
a piece of art, and he told me, he says,
you use a lot of color and that's going to
be real expensive down the line if you continue to
do this, So you should you should find less different
different colors. And I was absolutely insulted.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
I was that's what makes it beautiful, was all of
the color, because it's all the moods, it's all of
the emotions as all of the I mean, we're not singular.
We have so much multiple things going on, a lot of
an expression. That's kind of strange for somebody said don't
(28:59):
use so much color.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
He said that he was another artist.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
Yeah, it was another.
Speaker 3 (29:04):
Artist, and I love his work. I do. But he said,
I use so much color that if you know it's
going to be expensive, I don't care how expensive it's
going to be. If I need it, I'm gonna get it. Yeah,
whatever it is I need, and I'm going to use
the colors that come from my experience as opposed to
(29:25):
something that you'll see. And I don't think he wasn't
saying it in a negative way. I maybe he was,
but anyway, it bothered me. I was like, well, so
I'm not going to use a color that I feel
that I need to use right now because it can
be expensive. That's ridiculous. So that I left it alone.
(29:49):
I didn't think another minute of it. I kept right
on doing what I was doing. Like my kindergarten told me.
My kindergarten teacher told me to use every crayon in
the box.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
And beautiful too.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
I'm enjoying it.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
Yeah, yes, And like I said, that's what's so wonderful
about it is seeing all of the colors. I love
to look at the art. That's you know, whether it's
material or jewelry or anything. It's generally just filled with colors.
And if you go outside and you walk through a
(30:28):
garden or anything, it's full of all of these colors.
So it's it's just a creative spirit that you know.
Some people have the talent of drawing it down and
actually putting it on a canvas, and it looks like
something that was created with real reality and emotion. And
you can feel, you know, the wind blowing. I can
(30:49):
even kind of hear the bird stirping everything you know
in it because.
Speaker 3 (30:56):
Emotion in it.
Speaker 2 (30:57):
Yeah, yeah, it helps to, yeah, really make you feel
because I see your art. This one here makes me laugh,
and then this one here, Oh, it just kind of
draws you out. Oh, and then this one, Oh, I
want to go travel there. And so I mean that's
what that's the purpose of it is to bring out
(31:18):
an emotion and bring feelings. You know, maybe you're just
having a hard time or whatever. You see some art,
you see a play, you see some artistic expression. It
puts you in a different mood or maybe even changes
your emotion at the time or something like that. It's
(31:42):
kind of I think it's just wonderful people that have
that capability of putting there, putting all that thought and
all of that emotion and expression down on camp Feld
or however they do. It is. It is and it
absolutely speaks to to everyone, not just you. It speaks
(32:09):
to everyone. I see, you know, I see myself in
the kitchen with the women that are in the kitchen,
some of your paintings that have it in there, and
doing the dishes. I remember that, and you know I can.
It takes you back to the times when you were
young and laughing and having fun and surrounded by your
(32:31):
your parents and aunties and things. So it's just going
back and just letting it just take you to another place.
That's what That's what I see happening every time I'm
looking at the art. Yeah, when you decide when you're
getting ready, you say, you just begin working, But what
(32:52):
you started out with it doesn't end up that way.
Is it just kind of like like a crescendo notes
or something that just got to speak to you and
just just keep go going Or how do you get there?
Speaker 3 (33:05):
Okay? And how I get there is still a mystery
to me. But I had a picture, a picture that
I had done years ago, an art piece of a
vase with flowers. That was it. It was a vase
with flowers, and I said, okay, that's nice. And I
(33:28):
left it alone for ten years and one day I
looked at that and I said, I think I'm going
to do something with this vase. And the vase was
half of the half of the canvas actually itself. The
vase was here and the flowers are here, and I
just black. I just painted over it, painted all over it.
(33:50):
And I created a face, a head just ahead, an
African woman head and a neck and I said, okay,
just ahead, no eyes, no lips, no nothing, you know.
And I said, okay, this is cool, this is good.
So I didn't know what I was going to do.
But I made this vase, this this vase into a face.
(34:16):
And then there was like ten flowers that were sticking
out of the vase and they were just plain little
you know, flowers, nothing, nothing exotic or anything. And I said,
I'm going to add more flowers. I'm going to make
these flowers that are here, I'm going to make them bigger.
I'm going to make them with more color. I'm going
(34:37):
to give them more greenery. I'm going to do this
and so I just have this this head with this
these flowers, these big flowers, and then I started doing
eyes and a nose and a mouth. I didn't like it,
so I painted over and I did eyes, different type
of eyes, African eyes, you know, bigger lips, you know,
wider noses. And then I next thing I knew, I
(35:01):
had a whole different picture. And it's the piece I
call call it her. She's holding a cigar and she's
just being in her grandness and her greatness. And then
I decided a week or two afterwards to give her
locks deadlocks throughout the weave them through the flowers that
(35:24):
were in there. And then I decided maybe a little
time after that. She had her shoulder toward the front,
and I said, I think I'm gonna put a bird
on the shoulder. There's another artist and I can't remember
her name. She passed away of maybe about twenty years ago.
She was a young woman too, and in every piece
that she did, she always had a bird somewhere in it.
(35:46):
Somewhere in her piece, no matter what the piece was,
there was going to be a bird somewhere in it.
So I put the bird on her shoulder, and I
call that piece her, and it's it's in my website. Actually,
I have it here, but I don't know if I
could pick it up and show it to you. If
I could maybe maybe, well give me a hot second. Okay,
(36:20):
I don't know what you can see it? Can you
see this? Oh?
Speaker 2 (36:22):
I can see it. It's gorgeous. Yes, right, that's something
that I.
Speaker 3 (36:30):
Used to be a vase and I ended and I
you know, and I gave her a neck and then
the flowers were so thin, but I made them, you know, different.
So anyway, this is that piece and it's called Her,
and I just really finished it within the last maybe
(36:53):
month or so. But it was a vase, it was
a plane. I wish I could show you to you,
but it's actually is on my website too. But I
don't know how. Thank you, Thank you so much. I
don't know how how that happens in the creative process
(37:17):
when you start off, well, when I start off doing something,
I'm thinking I'm going to do one thing or and
it turns out to be something totally different. I never
would have thought that's what that would have been.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
But that's when I works from a base to all
of that. That is just as she has a cigar
with ringlets and things.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
And I like to just imagine the possibility of a thing.
You know, you get through and you think, like like
I added things along the way. I didn't just say
I'm going to paint a lady with a bird on
her shoulder smoking a cigar with flowers in her head.
That was never and that is never how it works
(38:00):
for me.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Just some people's head moving.
Speaker 3 (38:05):
It kept moving.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
Go ahead, Yeah, I guess that's how you express you're expressing,
or you what got in touch with who her was
and started expanding her personality. You know, they you know,
that's what happened.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
And I would still do some more, but that I
ran out of canvas. So in my mind, I just think,
in my mind, I have other canvases, and I thought
about creating an extension of the work from here to
this is still that part of that same canvas, but
(38:46):
it's on another canvas, but it's an extension of this
work of this work, and do it on the other
side also, and maybe even at the top, and before
long it would just be a whole wall unit of
one picture. That's just how I think. I don't know
if I'm going to do that I'll tell you that's
how my mind goes when I'm looking at certain works.
Speaker 2 (39:08):
And yeah, yeah, that way.
Speaker 3 (39:15):
And you know what when you I use different type.
I use a lot of acrylics and I use puffer paint.
And then I'll also, uh, if I see something that
I like, uh, like plants and Michael's you know, with
flowers with leaves and things like that, I'll buy them
and I'll cut them off and I will attach them
(39:37):
in my pictures. It gets into different depths. Yeah, and
so I did one that was a fox. It was
it was a fox, but I didn't like it, so
it just turned it out. It turned into a deer,
and I have her. Her name is Doretha in the garden.
In the garden it said deer. And and my daughter
(39:59):
in law said, I thought that was a fox at first.
I said yeah, but I didn't like it as a fox.
I wanted it to be something else because I wanted
to put flowers and plants and make it really a
happy thing. And a fox looks like they're looking for
something to me to get into. And I wasn't feeling that.
(40:20):
I was like no, So my daughter in law, she
just sits back and goes like okay. And then also,
you know, you can find things in thrift stores. I
do all the time thrift stores and recreate them into
something else that you may not have thought of, and
(40:41):
then as you go along it becomes something else. I've
done that with several things that found things that I
found in thrift stores and stuff like that. So and
just keep finding.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
On new way make journey I want to get.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
But I haven't tried that. But I want to get
into sculpting. That's what I want to do.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
That's and I will.
Speaker 3 (41:09):
Trust and believe I will. I just don't know when,
and I don't I don't put pressure on myself to
do anything anymore, not at this stage in my life,
you know.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
Yeah, yeah, and I and I like that. Mm hmmm,
mm hmmm. Well, I know I've gone to museums and
galleries and different things like that, and they have different
shows and it's based on you know, everyone's taste. Mh
Do you you know, do you think museums and galleries
(41:46):
are playing a role in promoting more informed understanding of
the diaspora expression, you know, African American expression, you know, uh,
just okay, I only think.
Speaker 3 (42:04):
So, but I only think so in certain areas like
you have a like the Schamberg in New York. You know,
they they are about us, our work are It's a
full diaspa of us and where we come from in
our art work and forms that are shown there that
(42:25):
may not get seen in another place. But it's kind
of hard, I think. Uh. On the curator side, I
have a couple of friends that are curators and they're
constantly working, constantly working trying to put on either a
one person show, which I think is awesome, but most
(42:46):
shows have five or six different art artists and a
nimic and those ones that I truly go to and
the ones that I'm involved in, and also offee shops
and weekend pup tent put up tents and things and
show your work. But it's all in reference to the museum.
(43:10):
It's always a waiting list. It's going to be a
waiting list, and then they're really gonna pick, you know,
from maybe three or four artists or shows that they do.
Some of them are traveling shows that they do every year,
and you know they are locked in, and uh, it's
just kind of hard. I don't I don't really know
(43:31):
how they they do it on that and I'm just
on this side trying to get my work seen, and
it's it's it's sometimes it's really a difficult because you've
got to do something. They're having something that's just a
week a weekend. So you've got to get your stuff
in there up. You've got to get it like you
need it to be. It has to go. Then it's over.
(43:52):
You've got to get it down. You've got to pack
it up. You've got to go to the next thing,
or you take it back home and use the story
or you're hanging back on the wall or what ever.
Is just a lot of work, it really is, And
that's part I don't.
Speaker 2 (44:06):
Okay, since you bring in your art, so tell our
listeners how they can view your art and purchase her art?
Where do they contact you?
Speaker 3 (44:19):
Okay, I'm gonna I don't know if I were, I
thought I could type it in here, but I don't
see where I'm tell you that. But my my website
is h T T P S colon backsplash backsplash backsplash
(44:39):
backslash backslash, m HM dash or Brenda b R E
N D A dash, phillips p H I L L
I P s dot pixels p i x e l
s dot. I'll do that again, h T T P
(45:06):
S colon backslash, backslash dash for Brenda b R E
n D A dash phillips p h I l l
I p s dot pixels p i x e l
s dot com great.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
So anyone, if you look down in the little corner there,
it has a little chat thing where you can type, well, yes,
I see, you can just type that there. Well, I know,
I know that it's like music and everything else, art
comes from inside. It comes from the heart. It comes
(45:50):
from the spirit and just being able to have that
talent or the courage to put those thoughts on, you know,
down on canvas or whatever the motive is that's being used.
I mean that within itself, it is just you know,
(46:11):
that takes a lot of bravery. But I know there
are a lot of creative people out there that have
artistic capabilities, and whether it be writing poetry or making music,
or doing art or sculptures or you know, just different things,
(46:32):
writing poetry, just different things. I just want to encourage
those that have those creative abilities. Go after your dream,
go after what makes you happy, go after which fulfills
your life. You will be able to monetize in the future,
(46:54):
but just do what makes you feel good, whatever it is.
Because you've got a long time you have spend working
and making money, let it be. Let it be some
way that you are enjoying yourself as you are doing that,
and that will be. That will be how it can happen.
(47:19):
But it's yeah, yeah, it's just a wonderful thing. It's
just great listening to you talk about all of the
art that you have and all the art that you've
created and all the art that you've done. One of
(47:41):
the things I also wanted to do to say, like
I said, I know, I want you to know that
I personally and everyone that I show your art too,
absolutely loves your art. So we want you to continue
to make those beautiful, vibrant, colorful pieces that talk to
(48:01):
us that and and that tells our stories. And like
you said it, there's there's some of them that display
happiness and bring laughter. There's some that brings tears. There's
sum that brings just enormous joy. I see them in
the choir, clapping and dancing, and it's like I remember
(48:21):
that I grew up and then I see them out
in the desert, you know, and and stand you know,
with their hands raised. And so every emotion you have expressed,
every emotion that we who are observing, we appreciate. So
(48:42):
I just want to I want to say that that
we just appreciate you. We appreciate you expressing how we feel.
We all don't have the courage to put it down,
but you're putting it down for us. You're speaking for us,
and thank you for being our voice. We we really
appreciate you.
Speaker 3 (49:00):
Honored. I am so honored. I just really I'm just
grateful that I have this gift and trust and believe
it is from God. And how to give all the
phrase because I always have to look at certain things
and I say, well, Lord, I'm done with this, and
then I'll you know, I'll look at it and I go,
(49:20):
well maybe not, and I'll just be like, well, you know,
whatever whatever I do, I'm going to do it through
spiritual and through love and through emotion, through what I see,
through what what what occurs in life with other people.
You know that that I'm drawn to that I think
I need to put that on canvas somehow. And I
(49:41):
call myself an art storyteller because I want is to
tell a story, you know, so that you can look
at it see that Okay, that's what that is. Or
of course you know, people see different things because that's
that's just art.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
But that's some that see, Yeah, I see a story
in it. And that's the part that I love. You
always tell a story. Well, I just want to thank
you for being on the show today and sharing your
gift with us and with all those that are going
to continue to appreciate what you are doing. And we
(50:21):
just thank you for being here on a Sharp Outlook.
We thank you that have tuned in be sure to
like it and to also subscribe, and to also share
this with others that you may know that just loves
good art and go out and check out Brenda's website
and see what she has. Again, thank you for joining
(50:43):
us on a Sharp Outlook. And we're here every Monday
eleven am Eastern time, eight am Pacific time, and as
usual I want to say to you, stay tuned till
next week and whatever you do, stay informed. I want
(51:05):
to thank you for joining us on a Sharp Outlook.
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