Art Evolution: Stroke of Luck and Sue Coe

It's almost indescribable to talk about my meeting with Sue Coe.  After listening to her powerful and humorous lecture about her work I was lucky enough to have a crit with her. Instantly she was drawn to the scrolls and we discussed the artist as activist thing. I was able to explain to her my discovery of her work
( A book on the life of Malcolm X) as a freshman at Boston University and how she and Dana Chandlers socially conscious art influenced me. It was an extremely validating conversation about what I've been doing. Her suggestions for the crit : Go to Mexico City (like Charles White and other black artists have done) and get inspired by muralists like Diego Rivera. Use a better kind of tape for my backing and try using a 9B pencil for darker backgrounds. In talking with her about political art she reminds me that doing work on things you care about such as animal abuse, war or corporate exploitation of the working classes can be quite inspirational creatively.

It's weird to share personal information about artistic influences because my recent experiences have been that it's something to mock or have someone explain their work isn't as good as some artist who came before them.  My favorite insulting comment has been that an artist isn't good enough because they're " too commercial". I've been lucky enough thanks to the social network of fb, etc. to contact some of my major influences. When I was a kid Wendell Sullivan , who was a neighbor of mine inspired me to want to be an artist. Dana Chandler and Paul Goodnight's work displayed throughout Roxbury and stores like Nubian Notions kept me going and Sue Coe's work helped me think of ways to incorporate text with image.

"I don't have solutions to world problems but my work exposes the hypocrisy."
- Sue Coe

Me and Sue Coe with my original copy of  X I purchased as a freshman. She was kind enough to sign it as well as the scrolls.