I thought this was cool imagery and coloring, in addition to saying something about our human condition: that before we speak our faces tell others so much about us. In the United States race, ethnicity and skin tone are what count, but in other countries people are valued differently.

This is another type of collage, where photos instead of words create the overall image. Afros for life!

I saw this image on Pinterest and it took me back to 2nd grade at Sacred Heart Elementary, Oakland, California, because my teacher, Mrs. Elsie Horton, had an alphabet set featuring soul images on her wall. Mrs. Horton died about 5 years ago, and worked at Sacred Heart for almost 50 years. She was something else and I'm happy this image came across my feed to remind me of her :)

Fashion Plates were a popular design toy from the 1970's and '80's. The idea was to choose plates, outline the design, then color in the design. They were modern paper dolls.

For some reason this toy popped in my head. I had a set as a pre-teen, but I gained other interets and Lord knows what my Mom did with my old toys!

Now I have an idea for a fashion blog and I think this toy is providing some inspiration. Because Tomy, the company that produced this toy no longer exists, others have created similar toys. Guess I'm visiting Toys'R'Us this week!

The first time I saw the London & New York skyline images for sale as a vinyl sticker, I almost bought one then realized I can cut one out for myself. Today I see that the world's most popular cities are now for sale and I think it's even cooler!

Recognize these images? The original Pop Art movement featured iconic images from the 1960's, the height of the Pop Art movement.

In homage to Spring Break being 2 hours away, I screened a film, "Jean-Michel Basquiat - The Radiant Child" because it marries art with the birth of hip hop and graffiti. After viewing the movie, the phrase "wasted talent" came to mind becaue Basquiat died of a heroin overdose. Then the phrases "prolific" and "gone too soon" became dominant: the man left 2000 never before viewed works of art which is his legacy to the world. This reminded me of Tupac, for whom the same phrases come to my mind, who left several albums worth of material as his legacy. To be prolific is a goal we all should aspire to because more than our bodies in the ground, more than family & friends repeating stories about us, our work leaves a profound legacy when we are no longer around to tell our own stories.

The first time I encountered Justin Bua's work was in Costco, my happy place. I forget which city, but they were selling poster sizes of his prints. I was a poor college student so I didn't purchase any of the prints, but they made a lasting impression because I'd never seen artwork featuring a DJ... the closest I'd seen featuring Black musicians was sculptures of jazz groups.

Flash forward to this class i'm privileged to teach, which marries my artistic and analytic sides, Computer Art, and I chose to take the midterm as an opportunity to introduce students to art that better speaks to their generation. I wanted students to analyze Bua's use of color schemes. View more of his artwork at his website or via Google Images.