Everything is A Circle

I moved back to the mainland almost (but not quite) ten years ago. First & 3rd stop: St. Louis! Because of the rich culture I grew up idealizing, such as the ville, the old courthouse, etc. I knew the Lou would either make me or break me. Through time, it has done both.

I came here believing that I could springboard my career as a young black socio political photographer (i.e. the new gordon parks) and make $$ doing so. Not! Yet, I gained a strong community college program experience, a beautiful daughter, and many learned lessons.

Taking these experiences with me away (and back) to St. Louis has not only shedded me of my ego, but also gave me more insight into how to link personal and political experience... and then, how to link all of that into my art(work.)

One thing that has remained is my drive. One of the most rewarding happenings for me in 2010 was finding a single page of my old journal. Not much to the eye, but what was most fulfilling: looking into my past and seeing my goals, before being a mother, before being an artist.

Wow! Who am I??? I am still creating her, yet I am already she who I wish to create. It is funny, in one part of the list I recall my desperation for survival so much that I considered joining the reserves. (Sike! on that one!)

Fresh out of high school, I had minimal immediate family support, my mother still lived in Hawaii, other family I knew mostly as distant handwritten correspondence... and the world was still moving.

I had no clue at that time that all my lists, big ideas and images were only the beginning. I was too worried about working to be able to afford a semester's worth of classes. That goes to show (me) to not worry about the now but to keep moving forward despite it all.

After ten years, I am proud to say that almost all of the list was accomplished!!! What I thought would only take me a week has turned into a decade and I am grateful for that time. I would have never guessed at that moment I was writing my own history and manifesting my livelihood into fruition.


The Migration Series, a collaborative exhibition by Carl Moore and Dail Chambers will be opening at the Vaughn Cultural Center January 22nd from 3-5, with a meet & mingle at Gya directly thereafter, please come celebrate with us. I will be posting a formal invite on the blog soon!