STYLE ICON: Dobet Gnahoré
Grammy Award-winning and World Music-nominated Ivorian musician and singer Dobet Gnahoré’s style is beyond your wildest Afro-punk dreams.
With a band consisting of her percussionist father Boni Ngahoré, as well as several French and Tunisian acts, both the 29-year-old singer’s musical sounds and aesthetic mirror various elements of Pan-Africanism that can often be seen in the jewelry she wears and the infusion of Bété, Baoulé, reggae, rumba and Manding influences in her music.
Richard Serra answers: “Why make Art?”
A grand question, answered quite succinctly by a great artist.
I’m back from my vacation, and things have been slow.
Let’s just watch this beautiful video.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, famous? Actually, who are you not to be?
…
Even though I was watching this alone, I was compelled to applaud.
This shows a great combination of talent, determination, and a lot of time on one’s hands!
I absolutely love travelling. I think this was instilled to me at a young age. As a child, I never lived in one place for longer than two to three years. I am used to change, in fact, I embrace it.
So, as an adult, I’ve jumped at every chance to travel, move around, see new things and meet new people. I’ve been very fortunate that the Navy has allowed me plenty of these opportunities. Without a constant paycheck, I would not have been to do any of the places I’ve visited these past few years.
But it’s all coming to a close in six months. I won’t have that bimonthly paycheck, I won’t have security, or health insurance.
I thought my travel dreams were forever dashed, or tossed aside, or reduced to 1-week per year spans.
This new information just might be the key for me to continue traveling. It’s an intensive program and I’ll really have to be vigilant about my finances, but I think it’s possible.
So, to my friends around the world, we just might see each other again.
Looking for inspiration? Watch this interview with Mira Nair, acclaimed director of such films as Salaam Bombay!, Monsoon Wedding, Vanity Fair, and the Namesake.
In this hourlong interview, she discusses much of what inspires her, the artistic drive and how to listen to it, the importance of standing by your own vision and choosing the road less traveled. She also imparts a lot of insight about Indian culture and what it means to have an international viewpoint.
I appreciate much of what she says here. Her sincerity about her passion for art is very apparent and inspiring. I watched the first half of this interview this morning, and the second half tonight. Throughout the day, was able to work on 6 different art projects. Her passion is contagious.
This guy’s work is amazing. For a contemporary artist, he is still able to evoke the classical forms and make fans of those who may not “understand modern [contemporary] art.” It’s quite genius the simplicity of his installations as well, and how they evoke the personal out of the infinite.
“The Haiti Project”
(4 pieces, 16”x20” each)
The project is a four-canvass collage series that highlights various perspectives on the Haiti tragedy, beginning with the media’s perception, to personal accounts of survivors, to the people who worked there, as well as my personal account and photographs.
The tragedy in Haiti was one that affected not only the small nation, but the world at large. While the public perceptions of the event were mostly based on media’s coverage, I was given the chance to probe a little deeper. I was called to take care of patients - mostly children and infants - on the USNS Comfort. There, I was exposed to the other perpectives on the earthquake - those of people whose lives were completely ravaged, and the caretakers who put their own selves aside for the needs of someone else. It has truly been a life-changing event. This project serves to memorialize it, but never will it ever be able to truly portray the horror and chaos that still continues to affect lives today.
