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Precise Beauty Salon Hair Show, Behind the scenes

Precise Beauty Salon Hair Show, part 3

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Precise Beauty Salon Hair show part 1

Grandpa's Visit to NY

Acrylics on paper 14"x17"

Grandpa’s visit to New York

One of my early works of art.

The first photo restoration project transformed into a painting. Who would’ve thought years later, I will provide this as one of my art services!

This is a portrait of my family members. Mainly my cousins and my grandfather. It was his first trip to New York City. I recall him saying I love my family, but I can’t stand New York! As a country boy born and reared in North Carolina, perhaps the city life was too much for him. I can understand why. I guess it was such a great difference between the concrete jungle and people cramped up in tall brick boxes verses the flat and open fields of seasonal crops, grass, trees and mostly one level homes in North Carolina. It also didn’t help that it was a time of multiple blackouts, burned tenements. (Arsons cause by landlords for insurance gains). I don’t mean to sound matter of fact, but this was how it was in the first years of my life. Fires! Blackouts! Fires! Blackouts!

Anyway, this portrait was based on a damage photo that I discovered in my grandmother’s house many years ago. I asked for her permission if I could take it with me back to New York and have it fixed.

 I was frustrated with the different reactions from various photo places in Manhattan. Didn’t want to touch it it was beyond damage. It was one of those old Polaroid photos of the cardboard mount. Then I decided to create a painting as part of the photo restoration.

This was a challenging assignment. I began with small sketches of my uncle and my cousin who is in which was extremely damaged to re-create construct their faces.

When the painting was finished, I gave the painting to my grandmother as a gift.

My grandfather in the middle surrounded by Uncle Norman “Barney”, cousins Kents, Norman, Kenneth “Keith”, Jeffery and the youngest child with a big smile is me!

I would love to re-create this restoration portrait when I have time. 

My skills have changed over the years and I’m curious to see how “we” will come out!

Stay tuned folks.........

Social Scenes

Intro video to the paintings, Social Scenes

Quote “Creative”

Girl

Acrylics on canvas panel 11"x14"

Girl

This is a portrait of my aunt’s first granddaughter. I met her for the first time during one of our many family gatherings at my other aunt’s house. for years, I photographed most of the family gatherings and I enjoyed it. It also helped me as extremely shy person to “brake the ice”!  

She was probably no older than five years old. She was as cute as can be. She seemed to enjoyed her family surroundings as she ran and play with the other children in the backyard. I remember she had a heartwarming smile and I thought wow this would be a great painting. I wanted show the innocence of youth.

In other words, I loved her attitude and it is rare to find a five-year-old that is not jaded……… like a unicorn sighting!

It’s rare!

She was sweet and a kind little girl.

The Delaney Sisters

Acrylics on board 15"x17" 

Delany sisters

I read a book called Having Our Say: The Delany sisters’ First 100 years. The author are Sarah Louise and Annie Elizabeth Delany with Amy Hill Hearth.

It’s a richly detailed story about their lives through their words when they were the ages 101 and the other 103 respectively. These extraordinary sisters have heartfelt stories about growing up in the south. They speak with such conviction and lucid detail, these extraordinary women was able to recall their story from the time when their father was born a slave up to the age of seven when the Civil War ended. 

Their stories continued during the Reconstruction period, the cruel Jim Crow Era, to their journey to the north as they prospered as a teacher (Sarah Louise) and a dentist (Annie Elizabeth) in New York City, the civil rights movement and beyond.

The divisive and absurd obstacles that they had to face just because of their color of the skin, did non stop them from breaking through the barriers of hatred because of their strong foundation and unbreakable faith provided from their parents. As a result, they became civil right pioneers!

I was inspired to create this portrait of Sarah Louise (Sadie on the left) and Annie Elizabeth (Bessie on the right) because of their story. Their favorite flowers also surrounding them in the portrait.

I highly recommend this book. It’s a wonderful American history book. Also search on YouTube,The Delany sisters. It is a great opportunity to see them tell their story.

Figuring Things Out

Acrylics on canvas panel  11"x14"

 Figuring things out

This is the portrait of my niece. A typical teenager experimenting with the length of her hair. A bouncy hair 
of ringlet curls with dark auburn highlights from her maternal grandma, I thought it would make a great portrait, especially as a profile. It seems more spectacular. 

As voice of Generation Z, emojis were added to best illustrate some of her personality.

Consider the life of a teenager. It wasn’t easy for me, therefore I couldn’t imagine being a teen today. Especially a Christian teen. I can’t imagine being  an active church member, balance a social life and also active in school.

She’s an extraordinary person. I appreciated her grandmother for taking her to church since she was three years old. I couldn’t imagine her life any other way. Once more, I can’t imagine what it’s like as a Christian teenager, people expect you to be perfect.

The only thing perfect is God! 

I appreciate her accomplishments and I appreciate her flaws too.

I told her a long time ago that she was going to take this world by storm and she has and she will continue to. With God in her life, in her heart, and a strong faith based personality, I believe with all my heart, she will be okay no matter what life throws at her!

The following is from her college essay:

American evangelist Billy Graham once said, “The Christian life is not a constant high. I

have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes, and say, ‘O God, forgive me,’ or ‘Help me.’” I was taught from an early age by my grandmother that in life you might be the odd one out but God will always provide a way for you to be great. She started taking me to Sunday school at the age of three and put the seed of faith in me to make sure my relationship with God would grow. As I grew up, everything my Grandmother sowed into me began to blossom. I saw what she saw in me in my peers, except they had no immediate role model to help cultivate their gifts, so I became what they needed. I often wonder who I would be if it was not for the relationship built with my God-fearing grandmother, a relationship that came out of the ashes of a family that was not meant to be. Being an only child of a single parent that labors constantly to make ends meet became the threshold to many opportunities that I still experience  today.

In church I became who everyone wanted to be like, even the adults admired the spirit of

God within me. Being the little girl that could recite the books of the Bible in order, sang on the choir, praise danced, ushered people into the house of God and articulated herself well for her age; I was always in the hotspot. People watched my every move and it later became yet another setback. I could no longer just be a kid, but instead the perfect kid so I would not embarrass my

family and give the people jealous of me something to talk about. I felt there was no room for error and found it awfully hard to be exactly who everyone wanted me to be. My peers began to treat me differently. They no longer wanted to hang out with me because I matured rather rapidly. Although I was like the adult to them, many of the adults did not see me that way nor did they respect my efforts to increase the kingdom of God.  My faith deepened during my time of distress. I knew God would provide me instruction to get through it. That is when I realized it does not matter what other people thought of what I was doing, I was sent here on assignment to bring people closer to God and guide them along the path.

I worked harder, and took younger kids in the church under my wing. They learned their

talents and how to use them to minister to others. The same God people saw in me, I began to see in everyone whose heart I touched. In 2013, my mother got married and the following year God blessed my family with another child. I knew when he was born, I had to take care of him. Not just his physical needs but also putting him on the right path. It is not easy being an older sibling along with  having no choice but to take care of your  sibling while both of your parents are now working hard to make sure not one but both of their children have decent lives.

 I have come to the realization that God will allow you to experience some things that are

not always great. Then he will make an example of you to make the best of every situation. Had I not been an only child to a single parent, I doubt that faith would be as strong. I also would not be the role model that I am today if my grandmother did not plant the seed in me to be able to give my talents back to God.

Clint

Acrylics on board 15"x17"

Clint

This is one of my favorite portraits. It was inspired by article about Clint Eastwood, the actor, director, and producer.

 The article was about his movie, Bridges of Madison County. The title of the article was, “Has Clint eastward gone soft?” This movie and role was unlike any of the Clint eastward characters that anyone have seen before. It’s a love story about a photographer who falls in love with a married housewife which lasted for several years in the 1960s.

As I stated before in my blog, I am fan of Mr. Eastwood’s work because his roles have always been unconventional. He was never afraid to go across the grain”. Interestingly, there have been certain roles in the past, that was quite uncomfortable with because they were so different. Now I appreciate those rolls and films that made me a little uncomfortable because he has the audacity to do something different. In other words, to be creative!

So I decided to create this portrait using the question from the article, has Clint Eastwood gone soft?

I used the palette knife technique through out the portrait. I wanted to capture the “Clint Eastwood” iconic stare as he sports a floral hat!

The audacity of it all! 

Mr & Mrs Adams

Oil on Canvas panel 14"x17"

Mr. Mrs. Adams

I had brought my art portfolio to my job for meeting with an art curator immediately after work. It was just a few blocks away. One of my coworkers was quite curious about my portfolio and asked me to present my work. She was shocked and excited while seeing my work. Slowly more and more people started to gather around to view my work. My coworkers were amazed and complimented me. As I said thank you, there was one person, who remained quiet. Someone nudged her and said,”Look at what Tracey can do!” The quiet person replied politely, “I am not very into art.” Then was the awkward silence. I said, “Ok, cool.” Then someone said well anyway, I like your work, Tracey.

The person who was not into art was, Mrs. Adams. She was the only one that did not make a big deal about my art work. She was a no nonsense type of individual. She was a straight talker and could be very blunt at times. I appreciated her honesty and her intentions came from a good place. Never from a malicious place. I liked her, she was one the toughest, hard working teacher assistant that I felt comfortable in the classroom. It was all about caring for the children and getting the job done.

“ Straight no chaser! ”

Sometime later Mrs. Adams approached me about painting a portrait for her husband. He wanted a painting of them. Out of all the people, I was commissioned by Mrs. Adams’s husband. I was well beyond shocked.

A photograph that they took one year at a cruise was used for this portrait. There were some challenges too. The photo of the couple was dark. The position of their pose was also a little bit far away, but I wanted to bring them closer. They are striking couple and I wanted to express the love they have for one another. This was a well respected couple. I presume that most marriages go through challenging as well as, wonderful times.

 It was an honor to paint their portrait. A solid and strong couple. 😀

A portrait of the legendary Nina Simone

Mixed medium 11" x 14"

Nina Simone recorded the song, "Feeling Good" for her 1965 album, I Put a Spell on You.

 

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