“Through the poems that I write, I seek to forge a path in the wilderness of the human experience…”  – Krista Franklin

Poet and visual artist Krista Franklin’s work openly reveals the subjectivity of the processing of human experience.  In some ways it highlights the relevance of the creative process that takes place within all human beings whether or not we choose to express it.  Through its artistic expression of the science of the mind, senses and spirit, her work makes sense of the wilderness by simply being present.

(Images: Krista Franklin, The Beautiful Dance, 2007, mixed media and it’s tricky (r.i.p. JMJ), 2007, mixed media)

Franklin’s writing and collage work express her own particular poetic that dips in and out of connection with the collective via moments of shared symbolism and experience. It’s almost as if her work paints with image and word a grid of moments that can be connected like dots on a map. Moments that ultimately reveal we each walk our own path of perception.  It is clear that impressions, whether verbal, visual or sensual, drive the Franklin aesthetic.  Interestingly, she manages to create a most subtle distinction between impression and statement.  Her main subject/image is bold enough to stand out in each piece, but becomes less objectified when considered in relations to its surrounding matter thus revealing, the instability of objectivity and the reality of subjectivity.

(Image: Krista Franklin, Transatlantic Turntable-ism, mixed media. from Callaloo‘s Hip Hop issue.)

The larger implications of Franklin’s art practice speak to the spiritual and metaphysical realm in the sense of finding peace with the unknown.  Making a commitment to explore and participate in the experience of life from the vantage point of surrender.  Her practice also suggests one’s opinion is simply one’s opinion, one’s taste is simply one’s taste and thus, one’s experience is simply one’s experience.  Live it deeply or miss the hidden bounty of life.

(Image: Lillian Bertram, Krista Franklin, 2008)

Krista Franklin’s poetry and visual art have most recently appeared in RATTLE, Indiana Review, Ecotone, Clam, Callaloo, MiPOesias.com, and the anthology Gathering Ground. Her mixed-media collages have been published on the covers of award-winning books, and she has exhibited nationally in solo and group exhibitions. Franklin is also a Cave Canem Fellow, and the co-founder of 2nd Sun Salon, a community meeting space for writers, visual and performance artists, musicians and scholars.

View Krista’s artwork here.

Read Krista’s poetry here.

The city of Ecatepec, Mexico, the most populated and industrialized city in Latin America, recently celebrated its first mass celebration of art + culture in the region, Festival International de los Nuevos Vientos (International Festival of New Winds).  The festival’s mission includes developing Ecatepec as a center of creative expression that celebrates both local and international diversity in the arts.  Through a partnership between the local community and government the project is part of a larger initiative to stimulate the intellectual and artistic develop of individuals, collectives and the community.  Dance, theater, activities for children and a music festival, including Instituto Mexicano del Sonido, Cafe Tacuba, Bebel Gilberto, and a host of other acts all represented in support of the cause.  On the visual art tip, Bay Area\NYC artist Cece Carpio, participated as part of an artist/activist delegation that was sponsored by the Secretary of Culture to plaster the town of Ecatepec with Art and Culture.  In her words, “The result was a ten day manifestation of cultural mobilization in galleries, museums, community centers, and the street…we plastered and painted wherever we could.  Watch this…you’ll see what I mean…” THE VIDEO!

(Image: Richard Louissaint, Bed Stuy Block Party, 2007)

More from Richard Louissaint…

Is there such a thing as anglicized aloofness, and if so, is graffiti not its antidote?  Many of us long for the days of flavor, before Sex in the City invited the flavorless to inhabit a once eclectically vibrant city – known as – New York.  But, like Bobby Seale said in 1970, Seize the Time. And, according to Alan Ket, for the graf world, 2008 is calling for not only the education of educators and policymakers on the importance of art, but also, an organized graf community to engage at the local level with business owners and perhaps, even, the government. If we take a look at public visual space, we generally see paid for advertising by corporations with deep pockets and the skillz to negotiate government bureaucracy.  Or, national and state funded grantmakers offering the biggest public art projects to big name artists that will boost tourism dollars for the city (Olafur Eliasson’s NYC Waterfalls).  Why does this matter and what does it have to do with Alan Ket?  It matters because young kids in local neighborhoods with limited access to resources are increasingly losing opportunities for self-expression generated through organic community based activity. And, Alan Ket is finally starting to see the light at the beginning of the end of the tunnel, after being New York City’s marquee prosecution for the criminalization of graffiti.

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(Image: Alan Ket, 2008. Courtesy of the artist.)

It’s been one year since Ket’s lawyers brokered a deal with the NYC D.A.’s office in regard to felony counts revolving around his graf activity as a youngster.  Although still indebted financially to the city, KET is continually processing the fall-out/silver lining of his transformational last few years.  His theoretical thinking has turned to the questions: How can I create something positive out of this? How can we (the graf community) have a strong, respected and influential voice? How do we (the public) address laws that stifle public voices and public creativity? And, canvas, who knew?! With plenty of experience in business development as a founder of both Stress Magazine and Complex Magazine, as well as marketing expertise, somehow it seems likely that KET will find a way to answer these questions and more.

(Image: Alan Ket, 2008. Courtesy of the artist.)

To that end, his role as an artmaker/caretaker/platform builder will be back in effect with several projects (put on hold due to his case) hitting the marketplace in 2009. Books on graf legends SENTO, GHOST and PART will come out on his publishing imprint, From Here to Fame, alongside his follow-up compilation to Graffiti Planet, a series that surveys the best graf art around the world.

Ket’s six-figure legal fees and fines have thus far been partially paid for through generous art donations and sales from artists, enthusiasts and supporters. For more info and to purchase art in support of Ket’s cause, visit supportket.org.

NeoHooDoo: Art of a Forgotten Faith is exquisite in its subtle attempt to lift the veil on the abundance of spiritual, metaphysical, magical excitement that takes place across the multicultural landscape of the Americas.  While George W. and his predecessors under the flag of Christianity have been doing it by the book, a whole host of folks have been trippin’ the light fantastic in consciousness exploration for centuries. Now that’s where the party’s at!

(Image: Brian Jungen, Beer Cooler,  2002. Plastic, 16x28x26in. Collection of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax.)

In a show curated by contemporary art trailblazer Franklin Sirmans (currently, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Menil Foundation) it’s not a surprise to find some audiences who can’t quite see or taste the flavorful depths of the exhibition.  Afterall, it tackles a topic where some folks are spectators and others are players.  According to Sirmans, “NeoHooDoo: Art of a Forgotten Faith grew out of a desire to examine the multiple meanings of spirituality in contemporary art.”  The show was designed to dissolve the boundaries between the physical and  spiritual world and was inspired by Ishmael Reed’s poems Neo-HooDoo Manifesto and Neo-HooDoo Aesthetic.  Dissolving the boundaries between the spiritual and the physical is essentially a marriage, or acceptance, of the so-called knowable and the unknowable.  Terrain that artists are quite familiar with, but audiences weened on western rationalism may find challenging.  Nevertheless, works by 30 artists, including Sanford Biggers, William Cordova and David Hammons, speak to time honored traditions and remixes of culture that put the chutzpah en la vida!

(Images left to right: Sanford Biggers, Ghetto Bird Tunic (full length), 2006. Bubble jacket, exotic feathers. Courtesy of the Artist & D’Amelio Terras. Michael Tracy, Cruz De La Paz Sagrada (Cross of the Sacred Peace), 1980. Acrylic on rayon wrapped over wood, tin and brass milagros, rosary beads, metal swords, spikes and nails, string, wire, ribbon, human hair, crown of cactus needles; wood base with gold leaf, 69x43x31in. The Menil Collection, Houston.)

NeoHooDoo: Art of a Forgotten Faith is on view at P.S.1. Contemporary Art Center through January 2009.

(Photos: Don Pollard, Courtest P.S.1. Contemporary Art Center.  Except for Ghetto Bird Tunic, Courtesy of the artist.)