Essay - American Artists 1990 American Since 1990 by the Early 1990's...

American Artists 1990

***** since 1990

By the early *****'s, John Rozelle had earned critical acclaim in The New York Times and the New Art Examiner for his expertise in comb*****ing colorful layers of acrylic paint ***** collage to create a distinct form of nonrepresentational mixed-media art (Mercer pp). His technique is inspired by h***** African heritage and says, it "reflects the appropriation of textural surfaces one encounters w*****h sacred objects that have been consecrated with sacrificial offerings" (***** pp).

***** work is exhibited nationally and can be found in ***** collections of museums, *****cluding the Studio Museum in Harlem, ***** California Afro-American Museum in Los Angeles, and the ***** American History and Cultural ***** in Philadelphia, and corporations including AT&T, Ralston Purina Group and Citibank (Mercer *****). Jan Garden Castro, critic for the Riverfront Times, wrote of a 1995 exhibit, "*****... crafts work with its own integrity, meaning, design and textures. His worldly yet personal drawings have the ease ***** draftsmanship one find from da Vinci to de Kooning, but resolutely grounded in an Afrocentric social conscience..." (John pp). Jeff Daniel, critic for the St Louis Post-dispatch, wrote, "His *****tricate **********, products of a fertile imagination and a skilled h***** a*****eal to us not because they are from the mind of a black artist; they appeal to us solely on the grounds ***** *****y come from a gifted artist..." (John pp).

Rozelle's "Arrangements and Compositions," a collection of site-specific installation and objects, is a project that he began in the spring of 2000 in response ***** Leroi Jones and Amiri Baraka's book, "Blues People" (John pp). ***** intent was to v*****ually re-present some of the same emotions that ***** theoretically the 'blues,' such as Love, Joy ***** Pain, Celebration and Remembrance, and Sex (John pp). He began with small, mixed media collages, ********** box constructions, drawings, found objects and freestanding assemblages (John *****).

Rozelle's interests include the development of various African-American cultural traditions, ***** ***** which can be traced directly back to West Afri***** societies, while o*****rs are amalgamations of traditions and the conditions of ***** meeting of *****ern European cultures and African peoples in the ***** World (John pp). And many are specific to the United States and the territories in the Caribbean and Central America (***** pp). Rozelle says that most of the typical spiritual practices having to do with birth, puberty, death, and other life events are from various ethnic groups in West Africa and represent themselves as symbols ***** the objects he makes (John pp). The box constructions comprise the majority of these objects, and at first he used found **********, then he started constructing his own (John *****). To date, t*****re are more than seventy objects in various stages, ranging from sketches with dimensions and materials to pieces near completion, and several have audio components (John pp). Rozelle's ***** can be seen at johnrozelle.com.

When Marla Baggetta moved to Oregon in 1993, she w***** so taken by the beauty of Oregon's rural landscapes that