i want to preface this post by talking about the blog a little bit. way back in 2009 when i first started blogging i was just sharing (often random) things i loved; and i still do, of course. but at some point the blogging world because serious business, and then we had to compete with platforms like Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram. blogs became about content creation and longform and all sorts of things that i felt, perhaps, pressured by. bloggers began hiring teams of people to keep their sites going and growing… something i’ve never done, and probably won’t ever do. i didn’t know where my blog fit in anymore, and i felt less likely to share small bits and pieces, or just funny random posts. i’ve come across so many things that i WANT to blog about, but i end up not sharing because maybe it’s just one image or it’s something so strange that i end up just tweeting about it.
i almost didn’t write this post about this compelling series of paintings by artist Emma Amos because i could only find these three pieces. but then i decided SCREW IT. 2009 Diana would share these! i want you, the reader, to be able to stop by and find something that diverts you for a few seconds or minutes in your day (or hours if you choose to scroll through the archives, ha!) i want to go back to the days where i am not overthinking what my blog should be, but rather what it always has been…
a compendium of radness.
Three Figures, 1966
Emma Amos is an artist originally from Atlanta, Georgia who has been painting and drawing since she was 6 years old. she’s 80 this year and still working!! i specifically wanted to share this series from 1966 because it really resonated with me, for whatever reason… maybe because it feels so relevant even today.
Amos is one of the last surviving members of Spiral, the short-lived, historically important African American artist collective co-founded by Romare Bearden in 1963. She was the group’s youngest and only female member. Emma, during the early to mid 60s, was working mainly on canvas with oils, very figurative work with references from abstract expressionism and from color field painting, in a way challenging this notion that these movements or techniques were only perpetuated by her white male counterparts. – culture type
you can see more of her work on her website and at Ryan Lee.
Godzilla, 1966
Seated Figure, 1966
i love this piece too, which is some of her later work from the 80s.
Dixie Peach, 1982
* shout out to long-time readers who would recognise my old tagline!
Made me smile thank you. Loooovely artist! Thanks for introducing her. Looking forward to more 2009 Diana moments! Xxx
absolutely beautiful. ps. I found your blog only a year ago- it’s perfect + organic. like a friend who wants to show me something they thought was beautiful/rad/inspiring.
I don’t care whether you share one or ten or twenty pieces, as long as they’re interesting! These ones definitely are. Glad you wrote this post.
Thank you so much for this post! I had stopped blogging for a while for some of the exact same reasons you mentioned. I also recently started posting again and it feels great to get back to the simple joy of sharing lovely things <3
You go, girl! One of the best things about this blog is how personal it is- every subject of every post seems to really strike a cord in you, and in all of us as well i’m sure! It keeps us coming back for more :)
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I like what you do and how you do it. Keep up the good work!
YES! I always loved your blog and it’s been a constant since I discovered it.
You bloggers are so much pressured to create content no matter what and I always appreciated how you gracefully continued to blog in your own way, even if something didn’t get shared.
Happy to hear this freedom of sharing is 100% back!
Please never hold something back that you’d like to share! I read a lot of blogs and yours is definitely in my top 3. I admire your “eye” so much and love seeing the things you find! Even if it’s just one image! :) These paintings are gorgeous!
Well Hello. Seems I’m late to the party which ain’t uncommon. Thing is, I found your blog only Because of This post. In my journeys around the digital universe I’m often looking for good art – and this image, um, the Seated Figures, stopped me in my tracks. A new artist to look into? I thought it might be. Lo and behold, something ‘new’ that – isn’t. Who’d a thunk. Now I’m going to look up Emma Amos… That right there is the thing I love about the internet. Discovering, and Re-discovering. So many talented people, an artist in this case, who we would likely have Never discovered before the digital age. That’s exciting. What is less exciting, or perhaps disheartening, is the fact that so many talented people have gone on undiscovered or unlauded because they didn’t fit into the ‘canon’ or the dominant idea of what talent was/is. But that’s a question for another day. I’ll just say that Ms. Amos’s work looks so fresh and stands up very proudly against a lot of contemporary figurative work by young artists who have ‘re-discovered’ figuration.
Apart from my own blathering, I’d like to say too that I appreciate the words in your post here – and I will take a gander around your blog-world. Kinda funny that this one post re-emphasizing your own perspective on blogging is The one that brought me here I think. Good journeys to you in your re-affirmed endeavors.