Never Say Goodbye~This is How I Choose To Remember

This is How I Choose To Remember
By Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney ©14


This is how I choose to remember...
This majestic, gracious, colorful..
Cherished Mother/Mentor/Sister friend...
Poet/Writer/Actor
Dreamer/Dancer/Orator
Nobel Laureate/Believer
Giver to all her daughters not of her womb.
And to her son & sons
Guy/Lydia/Robby...
Far too many to name
Who by merely being the sum of it all...
The fears...
The tears...
Triumphs & tragedies
Rising far beyond
But never submerging the faith
The all that might not have been
Had she not gone the way she chose...
The many me's not of her womb...
That were shaped...
Defined
Refined
By the stature
The grace
The pace
And that voice!
Magnificantly rich
And endowned
Surrounding you
Dancing & tickling
With its resonance & radiance
That cadence...
This is the Angelou I choose to remember...
In all the days...
Until she gets the call...
And answers.
Allrightsreserved©JHM5-28-14

. Maya Angelou 1928-2014

Set the World on Fire~ Art & Humanity National Quilt Exhibition Kick-off

City of North Charleston Cultural Arts Department
 
Setting the World on Fire~Phamtom Engima, photographer 

North Charleston Arts Festival 5th Annual ART Quilt Exhibition  presents

Arts & Humanity   

The opening reception for the Art/Humanity Art Quilt Exhibition will be at 6 pm to 8:00pm May the 5th at North Charleston City Hall 

“In art there is compassion, in compassion there is humanity, with humanity there is generosity and love”.~ Brock Peters 

The Art/Humanity Art Quilt Show is a unique quilt and fiber art exhibition organized in a joint effort by Independent curator/master quilter Torreah “Cookie” Washington and the City of North Charleston Cultural Arts Department. 

This exhibition was established to provide a venue for sage art quilters and emerging art quilters who see the connection between Art and Humanity. Art/Humanity will explore themes of Art, humanity, compassion, service, generosity, and love. This year artists were asked to explore “what do these concepts mean to us as art quilters?” The Quilts are all original creations of the artists. 

This year for the first time we are excited to include several pieces of wearable art from some of the top wearable artists in the field. Rachel DK Clark, Barbra McCraw, and I.B.Bayo will have art coats on exhibition this year. 


“Curating this year has be a great joy and absolutely awesome. Each quilt and garment is as breath taking as the next. Visitors to the North Charleston Arts Festival are in for a feast for the eyes. We are celebrating our fifth year as part of the North Charleston Arts Festival and this really is the best yet" ~ Cookie Washington, Master Quilter,curator. 

Also as part of the City of North Charleston’s Arts Festival’s 5th Annual Art Quilt Exhibition we are presenting “Quilts You Wear, Clothing for the Body and Soul.” 

The addition of a fashion show by sage art quilter and fashion designer Rachel DK Clark is an honor." I think this will fill the whole left in the tri-county’s fashion calendar when the Ebony Fashion Fair ceased production two years ago. 
This show features the original and inspired designs by Rachel D. K. Clark and is filled with the visual excitement of wearable art". 

In this fashion show/lecture Rachel will be showing over 25 coats, vests and capes representing a wide variety of styles from casual to elegant. She’ll showcase ethnic and ethnic-influenced garments in a contemporary manner. Many garments in this show are based on a particular culture or influenced by a particular culture. The unique designs, colors and interesting techniques make each of Rachel's garments an unforgettable masterpiece. 

This fashion show lasts approx. 2 hours. 
Tickets are $20 and $25 the day of the show. 

Call the North Charleston Cultural Arts Department 
@ 843 740 5852 for tickets. 
Reserve Now! Seating is limited. 

Rachel D.K. Clark

Rachael Clark wearable art: 

 

Rachel D.K. Clark is a contemporary folk artist, teacher and lecturer who come from a long line of sewers, beginning with her great-grandmother. She has been doing wearable art since 1973 and teaching on the national circuit since 1990. Eclectic fabric mixes, vibrant designs, and a keen sense of humor characterize Rachel’s work. 
While her garments and quilts can be whimsical, political or a personal statement it always reflects her love of traditional quilt making. She has done many one-woman shows around the country and her work has been featured in various gallery shows, magazines such as Threads, and “The Quilting Quarterly” on HGTV’s Simply Quilts. 

Barbara McCraw

 

Barbara McCraw is a retired Medical Technologist now working as a fiber artist. She has sixteen years of experience, teaches classes, and lectures with her partner, Teresa Sherling. Her works have been shown in local and national galleries and universities. She is a multiple ribbon winner in the Masters Category at Dallas Quilt Shows, and her quilts have been juried into the American and International Quilt Shows. She was the subject of a CBS human interest story, featured in several newspaper stories, and recently featured in a documentary created by the University of North Texas Radio and Film department. 

"Three Wishes" quilt 

 

"Leslie Rose" quilt: 

 

“The Gospel Truth” & “Piano Dancing” 2 of her art coats that will be part of our exhibition as well... 

• Chosen for exhibit Kansas City African American Museum 

• Chosen for art exhibit at Tarrant County College, Texas 

Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney   

Visual Poet

 

Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney, a native of New Orleans, is a visual poet, came about her artistic happenings with daydreams, coloring books and doll houses creating contemporary quilted textile collages. Her works are in numerous exhibitions housed in both private & corporate collections including Oprah Winfrey, the Hon. William Jefferson Clinton, George H. Bush Sr., Bill Gates Sr., Drs Bill & Camille Cosby, Johnnetta Betsch Cole, Maya Angelou, Danny Glover, Baroness Valerie Amos & others. Her poem “Sing a Song for N’Awlins” will be in the 2011 release of the book "Hurricane Katrina: A Poetic Commemorative" by Miriam Chitiga (University Press). 

Jacquelyn’s popular If Jazz was a Color? Visual series have been featured at the American Jazz Museum, the Contemporary Art Center, Buttonwood Art Space, Kemper Gallery, Villa Treme Museum, Museum of Apparel, Textile & Interior Design; the River Road African American Museum and the Autry Museum of Western Heritage among others. A variety of periodicals & books have highlighted Ms. Mooney's work such as Business Weekly, Emerge, More, New Orleans Magazine, Essence, Spirit in the Cloth, Black Threads, A Communion in the Spirit and others. She has enjoyed a number of corporate commissions including Exxon Mobile, Johnson Baby Products, Genentech, Food Lion & other. Ms. Mooney has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, the Bev Smith Show, Minority Business Report. She is a storyteller, published poet, lecturer & workshop presenter. 

 Improv @ Dat Sharp Eleven ©11

Steppin' Out on Dat High Note ©11

Invent What You can Imagine©

Sounds of the Men©

Kemper Gallery, Manhatten, Ks 

 

www.iiammoon.blogspot.com

Arianne King-Comer

 

 Indigo Artist 

Arianne King Comer, a BFA graduate of Howard University, has been an Artist in Residence on the Old Navy Base in North Charleston, SC since 06. 

In 1992, Arianne received the UN/USIS grant to study under the renowned Batik artist Nike Olyani Davis in Oshogbo Nigeria, where her passion for indigo manifested. 

She was owner of Ibile Indigo House on St Helena House '98-04. In 2007, she had the opportunity to join The Charleston Rhizome Collective to conduct a textile workshop in batik and indigo at the World Social Forum in Nairobi, Kenya. 

Arianne has also traveled to Istanbul, Turkey, where she designed boutique denim wear for Mavi Jeans. 

In 1999, she was featured in the PBS documentary, "Messengers of the Spirit," and in 2003 was featured in an Indigo Art segment on HGTV's "Country Style," which is still in syndication. 

Arianne is an art consultant, lecturer, teacher, and textile artist. 

 

Arianne's batik quilt 

 

Adebayo Agbelekale 

 

I.B.Bayo 

Born in Osogbo, Osun State, Nigeria, the ninth generation of a traditional weaving family, Bayo [pronounced Bio] learned his trade at an early age from generations of cloth artisans. Affectionately known as IBB. 

Bayo adapts his reverse appliqué and quilting techniques to American styled jackets and vests. He combines the hand woven; hand dyed, and embroidered fabrics made by his family in Nigeria with other fabrics to create the uniquely designed clothing in his I.B.Bayo line. He also teaches Nigerian Batik and Reverse Appliqué workshops, and gives presentations on his family history showing clothing that spans from past generations to modern creations. 

 

Website address: www.ibbayo.com/bio.html 

Go with it.. Grow with it.. Glow & BE it!

"Don't make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and do them so well that people can't take their eyes off you. All the other tangible rewards will come as a result".~ Maya Angelou 

 

Ordinary Day 

By Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney©03 

On an ordinary day, I am still extraordinary. 

On an ordinary day, I can rock the world! 

How magnificent it is to be alive, to breathe, to be genuinely real! 

Dazzle the worlds with you smile be as brilliant as you want! 

On an ordinary day, may your life be spectacular! 

For it only last for a moment. 

Drink plenty from Maisha Maji (life’s waters) until you are full. 

And dare to dream, to be bold and to be fearless with love! 

On an ordinary night that trails behind an ordinary day… 

Look up and behold a shooting star, so impressive… 

As it streaks across a blackened sky just being so breath taking-ingly spectacular… 

That millions of stars could only stand still and applaud 

You be that way… 

And on any ordinary day, be as extraordinary as you dare… 

(How wonderfully made you are!) 

Your vision statement can be so impressive… 

When you can see what can be accomplish on an ordinary day. 

All rights reserved JHM 7-25-03© 

 

So what is IT? 

IT is what you are. 

Not when you get there or how you will get there, simply being "it"...YOU. 

You here on many of the entertainment show when they refer to the "It Girl", the WOMAN that happens to be "hot" by Hollywood standards that supposedly every woman in American & beyond wants to be or at least nearby "it" . And that changes according to whomever has the most aggressive publicist that generates enough of a buzz that people start paying attention almost like being drawn by a magnet or like a moth to a light bulb. 

Once upon a time that was called charisma & you had it or you didn't. And one did not need a publicist to create it for you! 

 

Super Moon shot at Campbell River,British Columbia 2011

Just see, that Super moon the other night did not have to do anything other then what it was suppose to do.. GLOW. And did its job so well that millions could not take their eyes off of it. 

You do that... 

Some people are charismatic by nature, some almost to a fault and when not used for good can cause grave harm..(Think Manson, Jim Jones,Hitler etc). 

Others are personable,charismatic and likable. Think Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela, former POTUS: John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton,the late Dr. Martin Luther King, John Lennon & Michael Jackson; the sitting POTUS Barack Obama. 

We may never in our lives achieve what they have accomplished but each of us in our own way and in our own space can have IT. 

"IT" can be cultivated and refined. 

But one must step up, shape & cultivate and then just gather all those moths to your fire! Think you are worth it? Of course you are and I bet there is someone somewhere who thinks so too. 

In fact centuries ago, someone gave up His life for you, because you are just that loved & worth it. 

 

Like an Eagle 

By Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney ©01 

Just like an eagle… 

He’s got His eye on me. 

Peering through galaxies… 

And canopies of stars, sky & moons. 

To observe with great love… 

And wisely discreet. 

As I stumble and falter… 

Sometimes rejoicing with victory sweet! 

“And the angels shout in applause!” 

And He will swoop down… 

With breath taking speed. 

Just like an eagle when her minnows. 

Does not take wing. 

That the Father will pull you back with accurate precision. 

When you tumble… 

Or fumble. 

At the most inopportune time. 

Just like an eagle… 

Protecting her brood on hidden crags. 

And pushes you out… 

So you would not lag. 

And with seraphs & cherubs… 

Surrounding His majestic throne. 

He peers intently… 

Keeping watch 

On you… 

And you… 

(And me)... 

We are so free! 

“And the angels shout in applause! 

When a prodigal child… 

Is embraced in His dazzling large arms. 

Note the gray haired ones… 

Stepping in dignity into cocooning, watery baptismal pool. 

And a warring couple surrenders… 

Basking instead in the light of His heart’s smile. 

The protective stance… 

For the ones weeping inside with no seepage… 

Showering down up to the skies. 

A woman’s loss that was like being at end’s beginning. 

Allowing the wind to carry back her tears to He. 

Like an eagle… 

He sees. 

Peering through the galaxies. 

And He actively cares for thee. 

Look! All around ye… 

See the evidence of Him holding you up! 

And up! 

And up! 

So you would and did… 

Fly like an eagle. 

All rights reserved JHM Rhapsody in Muse ©11-17-01