A sampling of my work was recently featured on the multicultural design and advertising website Kiss My Black Ads. I am thrilled to be included. See the work here. And check out more work from KBMA proprietor Craig Brimm here.
I updated the portfolio site with the (hopefully) best self-portraits I've taken so far. I'm still drafting an artist statement but for now, I shared two quotes that speak to what this project means to me thus far.
"She was more than eyes, ears, lips and thigh. She was a heart. She was a mind." Dolen Perkins-Valdez 1
"I am glad we didn’t know about racism then, because concepts have a way of superimposing themselves on persons and the person is obliterated." Julius Lester2
1. Source
2. Source
© Danielle Scruggs
I know two people who talk about the importance of vulnerability a great deal. They're both beautiful, inspiring multi-hyphenates---writers/bloggers/scholars/designers/artistic muses (I dare say---they're muses for me anyway). One I've known since college*, the other I met a couple of months ago through Twitter of all places. I'm glad they're both in my life because they constantly remind me, either directly or indirectly, of just how much strength it takes to be vulnerable; to pursue intimate, honest connection.
I've always wanted to be that way. Fearless and vulnerable and unapologetically me. It's hard though. It's hard to realize that we can't always control outcomes. That sometimes it's just not our time. That sometimes the expectations you had for yourself don't always mesh with your current reality.
It's hard when life hands you and your family ugly reminders that life is so unpredictable, that so much is out of our hands. It's hard not to build walls around yourself when those things happen. It's hard not to retreat.
But just because it's hard doesn't mean it's impossible. And I've noticed that when I've allowed myself to be my most vulnerable---those moments when I was scared to death to share a photo with someone or a piece of writing---that's when I've been able to really connect with people. Those are the moments I've realized that somehow, through some miracle, my words or my images were able to reach someone, to speak to that person and illustrate some shared or familiar experience.
I'm working on becoming fearless and vulnerable to the core. As off-kilter as the past year or so has been, in particular the past three months (for a whole host of reasons I won't list here, lest I bore and/or exhaust you, dear reader), there are too many good things in this life to shrink away from because of fear.
Ever onward.
*Actually, I had a crush on him that I never told him about and honestly, I'm glad I never did. We probably need to be in each other's lives the way we are now, not the way I wanted it when I first met him.
+ Golden mid-afternoon sunlight streaming through tall, floor-to-ceiling windows, shining through green water glasses, spilling onto a dark wood table.
+The network of veins within a man's cocoa-colored hands. They're strong and elegant, like a piano player's. One finger is adorned with a silver ring with an orange stone in the middle, one wrist is adorned with a thin bronze cuff.
+Another man's upturned wrist, a deep shade of brown, reveals a tattoo that declares "I Am" in bold, black letters. On his forearm, a tattoo of a simple, black crescent moon and star, the symbol of Islam.
+A banged-up, scratched Minolta SX-7 camera resting atop an artfully worn, leather messenger bag the color of cognac.
all photos © Danielle Scruggs
"You have a backup of ideas, down in the esophagus."
For the second half of 2006, I was an intern at a photo studio in Chicago. The lead photographer had an eclectic group of friends who would drop by the studio from time to time---comic book artists, professional beatboxers, boutique owners, gallery owners, fellow photographers, just about anyone you can imagine.
On my last day (or next to last day, I'm getting old, I can't remember) one of his friends dropped by and she offered to give me a chakra reading. I remember she was in school to learn more about holistic healing, that kind of thing. I'm skeptical about things like that, I admit, but I figured it couldn't hurt to hear what she had to say.
So we grabbed two chairs and sat in the studio's kitchenette. She closed her eyes and started describing my various chakras, the symbolism and their meanings. I wrote down everything she said. And one of the many images she described was of flowers popping out of my mouth every time I tried to speak, which meant that my execution of ideas wasn't keeping pace with the amount of ideas forming within me.
She also told me many, many other things about myself that, looking back, I can see just how accurate they were. But that's neither here nor there. It was just one of those slightly strange, slightly wonderful happenstances that make life...life, you know?
