About this Event
In Celebration of Black History Month, Essence in Bloom showcases a diverse collection of artistic expressions, featuring textile works, fused glass, mixed-media, portraiture, and abstract paintings from exceptional artists across the nation. The exhibition offers a glimpse into personal stories, histories, traditions, and experiences of the artists through thirty-five original works.
The title work of this exhibition, Essence in Bloom, is by Love Aritus, a visual artist whose work explores the deep connection between the human body and the natural world. Born in Haiti and raised in Denver, CO, Aritus has always been drawn to the organic patterns found in both nature and human anatomy. Essence in Bloom depicts a woman blooming from calla lilies, symbolizing a rebirth akin to the way flowers bloom in the spring.
Ample street parking available on 1st Ave. and on Utah Ave.
Featured artists:
Love Aritus (Denver, CO)
Arnaya Needleman (Los Angeles, CA)
Brenetta Ward (Seattle, WA)
Jonarra Swanson (Federal Way, WA)
Acquaetta Williams (Bowie, MD)
Malik Mayfield (Renton, WA)
Crystal Goodwin (Kent, WA)
Roslyn Burns (Seattle, WA)
Di Faria (Aubern, Washington)
Alison Barrows-Young (Sandpoint, ID)
Additional Information and Images HERE>>
Love Aritus (Denver, CO)
Love's artistic practice delves into the profound connection between the human body and the natural world, with a particular emphasis on the female form. She draws inspiration from topographical maps, aiming to accentuate the curves, imperfections, and intricacies that make each body unique and beautiful. Through this exploration, Love celebrates the organic complexity of the human form while intertwining it with the landscapes and elements that shape our world.
She merges elements from both the physical landscape and the inner world of her subjects, weaving them together to create pieces that celebrate individuality and the natural beauty of imperfection. Her process combines traditional techniques with digital experimentation, allowing her to map out the human form in ways that echo topographical maps of the earth, blurring the lines between the body and the environment.
Arnaya Needleman (Los Angeles, CA)
Arnaya’s work delves into the spaces where emotions, identities, and experiences intersect—the in-between. She highlights the imperfections and flaws that define our humanity, using color, texture, and form to convey resilience, joy, vulnerability, and strength. There is beauty in the in-between, in the raw moments that shape us, and simply existing in these moments can be a powerful form of resilience. Her work invites viewers to reflect on the full spectrum of the human experience, recognizing that even in struggle or vulnerability, there is strength in simply being. Through her art, Arnaya aims to humanize her own experience and empower others to embrace their unique identities.
Brenetta Ward (Seattle, WA)
Brenetta Ward is a Seattle-based fiber artist, third-generation quilter, and oral historian. Brenetta combines traditional quilting techniques, ethnic fabrics, and African design aesthetics to create quilted legacies. Her quilting style honors her Southern roots and incorporates a range of techniques. Using cultural textiles, vintage photographs, and symbolic embellishments, she constructs contemporary quilts that keep you warm, narrative quilts that tell cultural stories, and fabric art that celebrates the spirit of the cloth. Many of Brenetta She's pieces feature Mud Cloth, a textile from Mali. The narrow strips of this handwoven cotton are stitched together into a whole cloth, then resist-painted with symbols and dyed using mud from the local area. She carefully deconstructs the strips of fabric to use in her art. Brenetta finds that its connection to the earth of her ancestors’ homeland provides a powerful bond to her own history and personal story.
“My art is influenced by my values, life experiences, spiritual beliefs, and culture. The integration of these elements guides my creative expression. I believe fiber is a powerful influence in our lives. It is the first thing we are swaddled in when we are born, and it is the last thing we are wrapped in when we leave this earthly life.
As an oral historian, I especially enjoy designing pieces that pay tribute to African Americans whose contributions to our shared history have not been sufficiently recognized. As a Black woman, an artist, and a citizen in this country, I believe my art and artistic practice are acts of liberation."
Jonarra Swanson (Federal Way, WA)
Jonarra Swanson is a modern contemporary artist from Federal Way, Washington - based in Seattle, Washington. She uses her creativity to add value, solve problems, and emphasize community. She is an emerging artist driven to capture the essence of humanity through the exploration of balancing two things: self-expression and community connection. Her involvement ranges from teaching youth and adult classes, participating in group art shows, city murals, vending in retail spaces, and creating high-quality commission artwork.Jonarra describes her work as the result of resources and a collection of experiences that speak from a perspective of a Black American single mother. She describes the blue paint as magic, breaking down the barrier of judgment, so one can peer into the soul of the individual without preconceived notions based on complexion. Her art is about understanding American culture, her knowledge of psychology and the power of transformation. She uses her creativity to add value, solve problems and emphasize community.
Acquaetta Williams (Bowie, MD)
Acquaetta Williams’s art has been a life journey from glassblower to sculptor and now a painter. Her inspiration evolved from the vision of African Images to tell the story of African American Women in a sense of relevance in the complexity of her feelings, thoughts, and memories. Williams reflects on her past to form an identity.
Acquaetta's visual language resides between organic and architectural form; a montage of fragments that are lyrical in movement, charged with emotions, and woven together with subliminal messages. Her collages record her feelings, dreams, places, and things that she loves and remembers. She wishes to build a bridge between traditions that have been lost. Acquaetta interprets the use of materials achieved through color, texture, and scale that are often subtle and varied. Drawing from elements as diverse as vegetable papyrus, brass, copper, aluminum, gold, and silver leaf, taken together, transmute to reflect polarities of struggle and transcendence.
Malik Mayfield (Renton, WA)
Malik developed an interest in photography while living in Italy in 2003 and began painting in 2007. He describes his painting style as adventurous and organic, with a focus on self-discovery. Malik states that he typically knows what he wants to achieve with his work, but that every artistic journey presents various positive obstacles.
“When I am doing art, the creativity unfolding on the surface is typically a creative mystery in itself with spontaneous grandeur. Every piece of art is the beginning and the end of a bold, mysterious, and unconventional journey.”
Crystal Goodwin (Kent, WA)
Crystal Goodwin is an emerging visual artist with a passion for exploring the intersectionality between beauty and race. Through vibrant acrylic paintings, bold colors, and textured brushstrokes, Crystal seeks to dismantle conventional beauty standards associated with skin tone and Eurocentric features in order to highlight the beauty of all women of color. With a particular focus on the contemporary social justice issue of institutionalized racism within the beauty industry, Crystal aspires to capture the raw beauty of women in their most authentic form, regardless of sociodemographic, with most of her published pieces being reserved for an academic setting in the form of lesson plans, presentations, posters, flyers, and brochures.
Roslyn Burns (Seattle, WA)
Roslyn's artworks frequently integrate hand-drawn and digital media, featuring subject matter encompassing memories of her upbringing in the Pacific Northwest or her family history and their migration across the United States. She is also active in the development of educational tools in STEM, which synthesize her formal art training with her technical and scientific expertise. In addition to being an artist, Roslyn holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley.
Di Faria (Auburn, WA)
Di's artwork is an exploration of her identity and how her African-American heritage has influenced both herself and her worldview. She endeavors to showcase the beauty and rich history she finds within African culture, recognizing it as an integral part of her being.
Di’s shield artworks are her artistic interpretation of traditional Zulu Shields. The fused glass faces are the “magic” that traditional shields were thought to hold, which provided protection and strength to the shield bearer. The long shaft that runs down the center of the shield is removable and is known as the Mgobo: traditionally, it was long enough so that the Zulu warrior could rest the shield on the ground, transferring the weight of the shield off his arm, this would allow him to reserve energy for the battle.
The background panels for Di's masks are her interpretation of the intricate and beautiful geometric designs that you see in African Kente Cloth.
Alison Barrows-Young (Sandpoint, ID)
Alison’s works focus on humanity and speak to her perspective on current events, including war, interracial dysfunction, famine, and environmental destruction. They also serve as incantations, suggestions, and prayers for potential change as time progresses, eventually carrying on without her, her progeny, and ultimately, all of humanity. Her work reflects her feelings as a white woman married to a black man with a biracial child. They aim to memorialize their enduring spirits. It is her hope that her artworks have a similar effect on viewers.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Gallery B612, 1st Avenue South, Seattle, WA, USA, United States
USD 0.00
