Yamenja

Dear, sweet, deviant friends,

I am sorry not to have kept up with you all recently.
I will try to explain this, best I can, next week, and maybe even submit some reworkings of some of my old stuff - if I can finish any of them, haha.

Meanwhile, I truly hope you all have the Festive Season you would wish for.

May the True Spirit of Christmas be with you all!
































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. If you haven't see the clip of Denis Peterson's interview on FOX, please check it out, denispeterson.com/videoclip.ht…

If you are moved by it, you may also find Emmanuel Jal's story will touch your heart. CNN's coverage of him is very good: edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/afr…

I would also recommend a visit to 's gallery, to put things further into perspective.

I've joined a club! :
And another one:
And am supporting, and supported by
Have also joined
And had a print accepted by !

Normally I just write about visual art, but a really essential part of what I love about dA is the fact that some of us discuss music, especially hip hop.

Although I enjoy different kinds of music, (though mostly black...) I keep coming back to hip hop (not that I ever really went away), nothing else speaks to my body in the same way, and for me music that does that is really important.  

It struck me recently that for someone who loves it so much, my collection is sadly inadequate. There are some acts and albums that are surely essential, and I haven't got enough of them!

I realised I should have Black on Both Sides (and its easy to pick up on e-bay so I got it and it is everything I hoped and more!!!)) Black Star should be next, more Roots ( I only have em on cassette...!) more Wu tang (ditto), some Common, some Talib on his own, some more really old skool stuff ( again what I have is mostly on cassette and also not as representaitive as I'd like). From this side of the pond I want some Sway, Estelle, Emmanuel Jal, the new Blk Twang - and that's just scratching the surface with the stuff that immediately comes to mind. Oh yeah, and more Outkast (cant imagine anything by them not being fantastic) - yes, I know I just recrossed the pond. Oh yeah - more Tupac! Ice Cube....

So I'm wondering, for those of us who share this love, what are your must haves? What is the best album to get by any of the people I've named or any you think I should've. What do you feel is missing from your collection?  

Another thing. Do you ever feel secretly embarrassed to really love highly commercial artists? I do, I don't like to admit it, but I sometimes experience a slight uneasiness for loving Kanye or Jay-Z or Dizzee. I laugh at myself for it. I mean, it's okay to love a gangsta, a hustler or someone who is just too cocky for words if they are dead, isn't it...but otherwise there is a suggestion of something less than wholesome about it to some. And on one hand I relate to that, and on the other, I dont. Argh. I'm not about being squeaky clean or ultra-pc....so why that irksome feeling?

Maybe it's because of my anarcho-punk background, but I think also for those who like some political awareness, some 'conscious' lyrics, in any genre, then if someone has a lot of swagger and or heavy jewellery, or they rap about the seamier side of life in an affirmative way, then liking them you can end up with an internal argument about what is okay and what isnt. Bottom line is I like what I like. It works for me. End of....but I'm interested to know whether anyone else goes through that self-questioning, that knowledge that some people might think what you are digging is somehow tainted by aspirations you or they might not share (love of money, success, fame...).

Another aspect  I've been thinking about is the different ways we listen to stuff. Some people are real lyrics people, thats what comes 1st to them, the poetry of it. To me, it's groove, beats, production....I listen with my body first and brain after. The vibe is what matters most. One of my favourite albums at the moment is in spanish - I dont understand a word of it. It's a peruvian dance album with African beats and it's just beautiful, to me. Here it is www.novalima.net/afro/ - it's not hip hop but I thought I's share it anyway.

I need some Fela Kuti too ...!

Ok, that's all for now, well almost:

If you want some painting content, please check out Matty Small - I am completely blown away by his work.
www.mattysmall.com/












.

. If you haven't see the clip of Denis Peterson's interview on FOX, please check it out, denispeterson.com/videoclip.ht…

If you are moved by it, you may also find Emmanuel Jal's story will touch your heart. CNN's coverage of him is very good: edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/afr…

I would also recommend a visit to 's gallery, to put things further into perspective.

I've joined a club! :
And another one:
And am supporting, and supported by
Have also joined
And had a print accepted by !

Please check out The Living Brush - the-living-brush.deviantart.co… - an amazing project born on dA, thanks to Malachai and now providing art materials to children in Africa, with a view to selling prints of  their art to help fund their education....how beautiful is that! is the main administrator for the project, here are some pics from and setting up the 1st project in the DRC.










On a more mundane level, my first works to be exhibited in a gallery - www.lagalleria.org - have resulted in one being sold, which feels very good. It was , which was surely my most commercial piece to date. I am a lil concerned about the saleability of the rest of my work, so prepare to see more famous subjects from me, unless or until I am able to sell some of less well known subjects!
That said, I recently found the work of whose paintings of missing children I found very moving, and was inspired by the story of his painting them and where these works have taken him, when I fed this back to him he replied: " Robbie,
The purpose of these missing children paintings is to inspire.
I love your portraits and sense in your art that the further you deal with deep human issues, the closer you will come to fulfilling your destiny.
...you know this, too, of course."

Which I have to say struck a big deep chord with me...so I guess the plan is to try and provide some work that might generate income and get me closer to being able to do less of the office job and more painting, but on the other hand to still find time to follow my feelings and create works that represent people on a more humanitarian level...to be honest I currently find the challenge to do these things a bit daunting, but what worthwhile thing was ever easy, eh!

Here are some of John Paul's missing children paintings, if you have time, you might also find his interview inspiring, it is here: theinterviewer.deviantart.com/…


  
  
  


Finally, if anyone has any idea why the top of my journal was blank when I used css, I'd be intrigued to know! I tried old scripts, going right back to the 1st I used, all looked fine in preview but on the page failed to show the 1st paragraph or two. Hence the lack of style here. It's embarassing when everyone else has such fancy ones, but I might as well own up to the problem....lol.

{edit} am slowly recovering from the css issue!
















.

. If you haven't see the clip of Denis Peterson's interview on FOX, please check it out, denispeterson.com/videoclip.ht…

If you are moved by it, you may also find Emmanuel Jal's story will touch your heart. CNN's coverage of him is very good: edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/afr…

I would also recommend a visit to 's gallery, to put things further into perspective.

I've joined a club! :
And another one:
And am supporting, and supported by
Have also joined
And had a print accepted by !