June Clark: Turning scraps into art

By: Julianna Perkins

“It chose me - the art chose me.”

As a child, June Clark never considered the arts as a profession she might pursue. As a woman, now age 76, the Toronto-based visual artist reflects on a lifetime spent translating the world from thoughts and ideas to complex creative works.

Rusted metal, old clothing, bits of paper and torn images; Clark’s art is made from the scraps of what she describes as our “disposable society.” She is not against scrounging the sides of a road for the materials with which her newest creation is to be made, because her work reflects the state, both socially and politically, of the world that surrounds her. Though her art may be made from the recycled detritus of a consumerist society, her ideas are always new, driven by an exploration of passions.

Clark is a true visual artist in the sense that she is not to be limited. From collages to prints to installations, she admits that her mediums are the results of attempting to translate ideas into reality.

“Often,” she says, “I am inspired to say something and then I try and figure out the best way to say it.”

Photo courtesy of June Clark.

But for someone who has carved a lifetime of space in the Canadian art world, the beginnings of Clark’s career took place not too long ago. She started doing street photography around the age of 30 and began officially connecting with the art world after moving to Toronto from her birthplace of Harlem, N.Y., in 1969. She now works from her home and studio in Scarborough.

Clark says she left Harlem during political turbulence in the 1960s, and had not returned to live there for 28 years when the Studio Museum in Harlem invited her to complete a one-year residency in 1996. That’s when she created the Harlem Quilt.

“When I went back, I realized that nothing had changed, and everything had changed,” says Clark. The Quilt is an installation composed of hundreds of images superimposed upon scraps of fabric and clothing from a local Harlem Salvation Army thrift store and intertwined with lights. It was her way of coming to terms with coming home.

“I walked around Harlem for days and weeks with my camera at hip level and just snapped images,” she says. “I wanted to just discover what was going on.”

In Clark’s opinion, art requires depth in order to remain relevant, and a commitment to making art is lifelong. The process of capturing moments and experiences of the world should not be fleeting and spur of the moment, but should translate indefinitely.

Photo courtesy of June Clark.

“I believe one would hope that when you make something, it doesn’t get old. And if it does get old, than it probably should be destroyed,” says Clark.

Or, alternatively, it should be made of destruction. Such is the nature of Dirge, a 2004 work of Clark’s. The piece is made of oxidized metal on canvas, a creative way of saying “old, rusty mufflers.” Clark herself picked the pieces up off the side of the road, and formed them into a decaying American flag.

Dirge - which is a song or hymn of grief or lamentation and is usually intended to accompany funeral or memorial rites - was a lamenting response to current events in the U.S. at the time, says Clark.

Clark’s art is for everyone, from every background and walk of life, to approach with their own point of view. Her artmaking is a process fueled by her experiences and opportunities, yet is accessible to all and open for interpretation.

“Some days are good and some days are bad. Some days are very creative, and some days one sits and thinks about being creative,” says Clark.

Her artistic expression is a life process, and one that she relishes day in and day out.

This piece was edited by Jacklyn Gilmor. 

Rachel Rawlins: painting a passion

By: Madi Wong

Toronto artist and illustrator, Rachel Natalie Rawlins (CanCulture/Madi Wong)

Rachel Natalie Rawlins is a Toronto artist and illustrator who brings life to music and her muses with her paintbrush.

Inspired heavily by photography and music, Rawlins has created many unique portraits of singers and other pop culture figures.

She says that collecting ideas through photographs is similar to someone covering a song today that came out in the ‘80s. The cover is out of love for the song and a desire to interpret it in their own way.

“Different songs can evoke for me a certain mood, vibe, memory and even colour. I am inspired to visually represent what I hear and feel, to make my painting move,” Rawlins says.

“I get inspired by the mood of the subjects in photographs, the contrast, and the angles at which they are taken, to tell that story in my own way,” she says .

Rawlins is currently working on a series that strays away from her usual portraits of people: she’s turned her focus to animals.

“I love the magic and the beauty of the animals in the wild like the lions and the giraffe,” she says. “The theme will be the title of soca songs … the one that I started is of elephants and the title is Stampede,” she explains.

Rawlins holding her painting of Andre 3000, an artist, musician and actor (CanCulture/Madi Wong).

Growing up

Rawlins found her passion for art as a teenager. While attending high school in Scarborough, Ont., she decided to pursue art as a career.

“I realized work was like a job if you didn’t enjoy it. But if you do enjoy it, it’s more like a feeling of accomplishment,” she says.

This decision led her to take a two year digital media arts program at Seneca College, where she was able to learn different artistic techniques, figure drawing, and even to sketch with her non-dominant hand.

Creative Beginnings

“It’s just in me to be an artist, by nature,” she says.

“I have always loved to draw, and from that came a love for painting. I love to see how a concept that I imagine turns out in real life. I also love seeing the ways that different artists interpret the same general idea. I love to see shapes, line work, and colours move and vibrate to draw you in, remind you of something, or make you feel a certain way.”

Michael Jackson and Mos Def, artist and actor (CanCulture/Madi Wong)

On labels

Though she doesn’t care for labels, Rawlins says, “I do identify as a black woman artist. I am an artist who is black, [and] a woman of West Indian heritage, and loves music. And all of those things contribute to and show up in how I am inspired and tell my story artistically,” Rawlins says.

Artistic journey

Rawlins’ first big show was in 2010 for the “From the Soul” exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Rawlins created a unique set of three paintings that portrayed the same woman wearing headphones. Each of the three paintings portrayed a different emotion.

Rawlins’ ‘From the Soul’ set, (from left to right) ‘Blame It On The Boogie,’ ‘Rhythms In The Sun,’ and ‘Innervisions: Songs Of Freedom.’ (via http://www.rachelnatalie.ca/paintings)

She has participated in multiple art shows and galleries where she showcases her pieces alongside of other artists.

“I love the feeling of accomplishment after I have completed a piece … and that other people also love and want my work,” she says.

In the past, Rawlins has also given back to the community by teaching art classes for kids. She believes that arts are very important in learning, especially for young children.

Her work is promoted online and on social media, as well as online sites such as Fine Art America that have enabled her to sell her pieces as mini prints and other accessories.

Rawlins’ painting of singer-songwriter Erykah Badu  (CanCulture/Madi Wong)

Painting of pianist Chloe Flower (CanCulture/Madi Wong)

The best part

Rawlins’ favourite part about her work is seeing and feeling a piece come together.

“I always begin with black. And once the black is there I am more excited to continue, adding other colours and, in some cases, building texture. I also love stepping back and looking at my progress before I fill in the background of a piece,” she explains, “Depending on what my subject is at the time, it can look as though it will walk right off of the canvas.”

This piece was edited by Jacklyn Gilmor.

Michael Chambers: Black, white and silver

By: Dagmawit Dejene

It’s not about being black. This is the point that Michael Chambers is trying to convey with his latest show, Michael Chambers: Shadows to Silver – A 25 Year Retrospective. The exhibit, which is running from January 25th – March 18th at the BAND (Black Artists’ Network in Dialogue) gallery, is a collection of photographs featuring representations of the nude Black body, from various stages of Chambers’ career.

“I made a decision, at the very early stages of my career, to use black subjects not as black people but as generic subjects,” said Chambers.

He offered an example using one of his works which features a nude woman with her hands clasped behind her back and her face looking up at the sky. The piece is in black and white and the woman has black marks all over her body and face. Chambers put this piece in an exhibit he held in Japan, and most of the feedback he received mentioned that that piece really resonated with the audience because it made them think of Hiroshima.

“So, it wasn’t about her being black,” said Chambers. “It was about the posture and circumstances.”

Chambers fell in love with photography in his third year at York University, studying Art History. He bought his first camera, a Nikon, to help document his paintings, but soon began taking Pictures for fun. Queen Street West was his playground, anywhere between Bay and Bathurst, Chambers always felt inspired.

“It had a pulse that I have seen nowhere else in Canada,” said Chambers. “I just really was inspired by the innovative thinkers [there], people who did things because they felt they could. A question of why not.”

Although Chambers didn’t want the focus of his art to be race, he does use his photography to explore political and social issues including racism.

“I wanted to make sure that, whatever I said, reflected my ideas on politics on society on racism on people in general,” said Chambers

Chamber’s first exhibition of this show in Catham, Ont. Featured over 100 works in a large, two-story art gallery. Karen Carter, co-founder of the BAND gallery and cultural center here in Toronto, points out that there is quite a great deal of significance in the location of the original show.

“That border community has a rich history of activism or anti-slavery,” said Carter. “The school in Buxton, when they had segregated school, the black school actually was better and the white school closed because the white people sent their kids to the black school, so it’s really fascinating and really empowering history.”

Carter said that the fact that it opened there is really appropriate in historically telling, but the show needed to be in Toronto.

“Our only regret is that we didn’t have the space to show everything that they showed,” said Carter.

Photo by: Dagmawit Dejene

The exhibit is being funded through TD Bank’s Black History Month program, but Chambers rejects the idea that the exhibit was put together for Black History Month specifically.

“Everything that a black person does ends up on black history month, it’s ridiculous,” said Chambers. “It’s basically just throwing us a bone.”

In fact, in the early stages of his career, Chambers refused to do any interviews so that people would not know that he was black. Instead, people could react to his work and take home their own meaning of it without any preconceived notions. This is the idea that Chambers put behind this exhibit.

“Each person walks away with a different meaning based on who they are,” said Chambers.

However, although Chmabers doesn’t want any praise for being a “black artist” or for creating “black art,” his works have contributed greatly to the collective voice of black Canadian artists.

“An artists like Michael looking at 25 years shows you that we have had artists and creatives working and doing things in the sector, commenting on black culture and identity and the space we hold in society long before Black Lives Matter protests,” said Carter. “And we know that because protest and activism goes in waves, a lot of these images speak to very current issues around black identity and masculinity.”

This piece was edited by Jacklyn Gilmor.

BAND: Black artists breaking barriers

By: Dagmawit Dejene

The first thing you notice about BAND (Black Artists’ Network in Dialogue) is the black. Their gallery, housed in an old Victorian house in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood, is painted completely black. Inside, most of the photographs hanging on the walls are black and white. The photos belong to the latest exhibition to be held at BAND, called Michael Chambers: Shadows to Silver - A 25 Year Retrospective. The exhibition opened on Feb. 1.

BAND’s mission is to support, document and showcase the artistic and cultural contributions of Black artists and cultural workers in Canada and internationally.

“[We want] to draw attention to the fact that there is a wide breadth of artists and cultural workers,” said Karen Carter, co-founder of the organization. “And that our voices as black Canadians are an important part of the overall narrative of our cultural tapestry.”

The gallery and cultural center was founded in 2008 by Carter, Maxine Bailey, Karen Tyrell, and Julie Crooks after they saw a need for an artistic and cultural space to have a dialogue about black culture.

“I believe culture and the arts create safe spaces for difficult conversations,” said Carter. “We work to break down racist and cultural bias about us through conversations that can be created with art.”

According to Carter, the gallery was inspired, in part, by the 2008 presidential election that saw Obama take head office.

“It was a kind of political and social motivation to just not talk but do something,” said Carter.

The four women decided to host an event called ‘Who’s Your Obama’ to create a dialogue about how the black community in Canada might secure a political figure as well. This event gave them the funds to register for a non-profit in 2010.

Tennille Dowers, who is the program coordinator at BAND, says that there are a lot of biases against black art and black artists.

Dowers lists biases such as, “being told that African art is not really art, it’s just artifacts, [or] that there’s no leisure involved in black art so it cannot be seen as something of luxury.”

Despite their unapologetically black exhibits, BAND does not aim to attract people from the black community to attend their shows. Carter believes that black people do not need to be told about their identity and their place in the world because “they already know.” Instead, they hope to educate other communities.

“We push for other cultural communities and people to feel very comfortable in this space,” said Carter, “because this work only makes sense if others are looking at it outside of our community.”

Over the past decade, BAND has succeeded in challenging the biases against black art and artists and have succeeded in gaining support from many Toronto communities. However, things were not always easy for the organization. The biggest obstacle that BAND had to overcome was space.

“We had issues with landlords who weren’t really comfortable with black artists in their space,” said Carter.

Luckily, Scotiabank stepped up to help the organization in 2014 and donated a space for their gallery with a 10-year lease. Unfortunately, the building sold in 2016 and BAND was bought out, but Scotiabank gave them some financial support to help them purchase the house that they currently occupy.

Their current exhibition features the photography of Jamaican-Canadian artist Michael Chambers. The exhibition was funded by the Black History Month program with TD Bank and will be running from January 25 – March 18.

“An artist like Michael looking at 25 years shows you that we have had creatives commenting on black culture and the space we hold in society long before Black Lives Matter protests,” said Carter.

This piece was edited by Jacklyn Gilmor.