Jameela F. Dallis. 2020. 4x5 Large Format Camera.
Jemella F. Dallis is writer, artist and educator with a Ph.D. in English. Jamella’s publications range from love poems and dance reviews to scholarly book chapters on Gothic literature.
"Our interconnectedness—we should not be thinking about art or creativity in a one dimensional way, think of it as footnotes. We should always be referencing all different points that made us who we are, or who made the work be what it is, because it does take a village."
—Legacy Russell
—Legacy Russell
It was the dawn of cancel culture, North Carolina was "the new thing to hate."
The Creative State* had just passed the country's first bathroom bill, a law saying people have to use the bathroom matching the sex on their birth certificate.
Referencing beauty in the face of ugly is the plum line of Artists & Americans† (2016 - ongoing).
Artists & Americans is documentation collaboration project of artists' interconnectivity to North Carolina, captured as surrealism portraiture film stills through analog film cameras on color negative film—in conversation with "sociological footnotes" presented as: sculpture, on-site installation, wall based text, video, painting, stop-motion, and illustration.
Artists & Americans is a visual reference of artists practicing in North Carolina.
Artists are the roots in eroding soil—creativity & art make the world a better place.
NOTES
1. Legacy Russell, quoted in Gem Fletcher's podcast The Messy Truth: Conversations On Photography, Campbell Addy - On Growth, April, 2022.
* formerly known as The Tobacco State, North Carolina is presently known as The Creative State
† Historic Significance. In 2022 Artists & Americans (2016 - ongoing) was first ever documentation of North Carolina creatives presented in exhibition form. Barton Art Galleries, Wilson, North Carolina, United States.
Louis St. Lewis (mixed media artist). 2020. 4x5 Large Format Camera.
James Marshall aka DALEK (artist, street artist, designer). 2020. 4x5 Large Format Camera.
Ira Lupu (photographer). 2021. 4x5 Large Format Camera.
Thomas Sayre (earth artist). 2020. 6x7 Medium Format Camera.
The Mothership Founders (pictured: Megan Bowser, Katie DeConto, Krista Anne Nordgren). 2020. 6x7 Medium Format Camera.
Civil Disobedience: An Homage to Stacey Kirby (performance artist). 2020. 6x7 Medium Format Camera.
William Paul Thomas (painter). 2021. 4x5 Large Format Camera.