Kenturah戴维斯 '02 explores the relationship between words and humanity through her intricate portraiture—and L.A. 地铁乘客将会看到更多她的作品
“我不记得有什么时候我不想成为一名艺术家。” 肯塔基·戴维斯说, sitting at the broad worktable dominating the reconfigured dining room of her Highland Park home and studio. 但她走到这一步的历程以及她的进化过程错综复杂, 唤起性的工作一直是漫长而迂回的.
“I like referring to them as drawings because that seems to be the most flexible category for me,她补充道, 思考我们写作的方式, 我们在纸上体验书面语言的方式, 模糊了写作和绘画之间的区别.”
她的作品在国际上展出过, returned to Oxy in 2018 as an adjunct assistant professor of art and art history. 今年晚些时候, 10 of her text-based portraits will be incorporated into the Downtown Inglewood station on the new Metro Crenshaw/LAX Line, 永久展示给城市乘客.
The drawings she created for Metro are an extension from a series titled Sonder, which she exhibited at the Papillion Institute of Art in 洛杉矶 in 2013. 这个名字来自一个名为“隐忧词典”的项目, in which writer John Koenig “was inventing new words and these really poetic definitions for them,戴维斯解释道. “Sonder basically describes the experience of noticing strangers and being curious about what their lives are like.”
把这个项目放在一起, Davis put out a call throughout 洛杉矶 for anyone with a connection to Inglewood to participate in a photo shoot. “What was beautiful was just watching people engaging or even not engaging but just people noticing strangers, 他们不认识的人,她说。.
戴维斯最终使用了sonder这个词来渲染图像. “在某种程度上，一切都很合拍,她说。, “because that is the kind of experience that you can have on a train or in public transportation.”
很难定义错综复杂的事物， random bouillabaisse of influence that sparks a young person’s journey into a lifelong pursuit of art. 在戴维斯的案例中, it’s a delicate mixture of the subtleties of plein air water colors and the artistic set design nuances of 哥斯拉, 特隆, 《正规博彩十大网站排名推荐》.
“我爸爸, 科妮戴维斯, 是电影和电视的布景画家吗, 加入工会30多年了,肯特拉说, 在阿尔塔迪纳附近长大的人. “他会带我和我的姐妹们去, 特雷纳和特雷塞尔, 我的画在玫瑰碗旁边，向我们展示如何透视绘画. 我妈妈做被子，教我怎么缝，所以也有那一面. 我无法想象有更好、更支持我的父母.”
目睹父亲的专业工作, 还有他依然活跃的空中激情, “contributed to me thinking that being an artist was very practical as a career. 我没有意识到这有多么具有挑战性.”
尽管她天生热爱艺术, it was volleyball that landed Davis at Occidental—at 5'9" she could jump high with serious hang time, 她四年都在奥施康定打球. “我高中的教练, Jennifer Pullen ' 98, 去了十大正规网赌平台，然后在一次比赛中我们遇到了琳达·莱克,戴维斯说。. “她很早就在我身上看到了一些东西.”
“她的球队和我女儿的球队比赛,Lyke回忆道。, 从1976年起就在Oxy教授艺术和艺术史. “我碰巧和肯塔基的母亲坐在一起, 我说, “你女儿要去哪儿上学?? 你为什么不试试西方的? 她是个很棒的排球运动员, 她会是Oxy的好学生，而且她对艺术很感兴趣, 我很乐意帮她进去.’”
在她1998年大一之前, 戴维斯被邀请参加Oxy的多元文化暑期学院. “I lived on campus, that primed me for what college life would be like,她说。. 毕业于帕萨迪纳的约翰·缪尔高中, “就不同的思维方式而言，这真的是一个进步, 比高中更挑剔. 它真的很有价值，而且非常严谨.”
戴维斯以优异成绩毕业，成绩为B.A. 在视觉艺术和艺术史上，他上了她教的每一堂版画课. “肯塔基州是一个突出的例子, 总是, 40年的教学经验,莱克说。, 谁成了初出茅庐的创意人士的导师. “你认为只有少数人是真正的艺术家. 而且她绝对有这种动力, 人才, inclination of going deeper into her work in terms of trying to have a clear voice of what she wanted to do.”
Occidental’s liberal arts program had the broadening impact Davis was hoping for: “I was thinking about ideas beyond just painting and drawing or whatever I was interested in doing visually.她最后辅修了人类学, then-associate professor Elizabeth Chen “played a big role in opening my mind to other fields, 以及这些学科如何重叠,戴维斯补充道. “I started to think about language and linguistics and how they operate in our lives. 这对我后来的工作产生了巨大的影响.”
从Oxy毕业后, 戴维斯发现自己“挣扎”着以艺术家的身份谋生,于是她搬到了华盛顿, D.C.她在一家画廊和书店找到了工作. “我在画画，但对我画的这类画感到沮丧. I stopped making art for about two years, spent that time doing a lot of reading and writing. I eventually found that I was interested in our relationship with language and working through how I might address those ideas visually.”
In 2004, 戴维斯回到了洛杉矶, 仍然在艺术创作和生存的微妙世界中游刃有余地. She took a job in West Hollywood as a receptionist at Gemini GEL (Graphic Editions Limited), 一个艺术家工作室和出版商. 戴维斯在那里待了九年, 最终升为销售总监, putting in 40 hours a week while creating into the wee hours at her Highland Park studio.
“The beautiful thing about that job was meeting artists that I’d only read about in history books and seen in museums,她说。. “他们来到演播室, you got to witness them start a project and see it through from beginning to end. 最后到了我展示的时候, then to where I thought I could leave that job and keep working on my own.”
一位服装设计师朋友邀请她搬到阿克拉, 加纳首都, 管理制作——六个月的演出变成了一年半. “The first thing that hit me when I got off the plane was that Accra has a distinct warm smell to it,戴维斯回忆道。, 谁还每年回去一次. “它立刻就像另一个家一样. 它是如此的充满活力. You’re going through the streets passing by goats and cows, but it’s also very metropolitan. 我很快就爱上了它.”
“她的作品如此复杂，我立刻被震撼了，”布朗说. “我对她的过程了解得越多，印象就越深刻. 能和肯特拉一起开画廊是我的梦想.”
戴维斯的节目, 为了精确而模糊，于2019年1月首次亮相. “她代表了我希望画廊符合的一切, 无论是作为艺术家还是作为普通人,布朗说. “她为我冒了这样的险，我将永远感激她.”
Brown’s gallery show and surgery on Lyke’s knee became the catalysts for Davis not only returning to her hometown but to Occidental. “I had a medical procedure,莱克说。, “so we needed an adjunct to teach the printmaking classes. 我问肯特拉是否愿意为我们教书, the department was delighted because they all knew her from her days as an undergraduate. 她在洛杉矶已经是有经验的艺术家了.A.所以这很棒.”
“Linda having the confidence in me to take that on felt too good to pass up,” Davis says. “It was a great chance for me to think about the kind of teacher I wanted to be, 作为一名艺术创作者，解决这个问题对我来说很有价值.
“The teachers I learned from the most were people who realized that—while they had a lot to offer their students—they didn’t know everything, 他们的学生可以给他们提供一些东西,戴维斯继续说道. “教室就像是一个一起进行实验的空间. That’s the kind of thing I tried to create in the two printmaking classes that I’ve taught.”
戴维斯的客厅里没有很多家具, 但这里有一个复杂的SCAD艺术博物馆的比例模型, 是乔治亚州萨凡纳艺术与设计学院的一部分. 俯视着没有屋顶的房子, 迷宫一般的模型, 泡沫核心墙上有一些小的艺术品. 这可能是为博学的老鼠开设的高端画廊.
Next spring, Davis will be back teaching printmaking at Oxy, something she wants to continue. 但是，随着对她的艺术作品需求的增加，她的舞蹈表演也越来越多.
她说:“现在我正试图找到这种平衡。. “I don’t know how Linda [Lyke] and all the other fantastic faculty that I’ve had teach full-time and make art. I love it so much, but it’s tough sometimes keeping up with the deadlines these days. 但这是个好问题.”
吉尔斯特普上一期写了《23年和我.
