INSIGHT: Healing

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Issue 57 | www.fokus.org


INSIGHT: HEALING Atiba T. Edwards // Founder & Chief Curator

Atiba is an engineer focused on making and connecting creative people through moments so that they can impact their own world.

Jozi Zwerdling // Curator

Jozi is an artist enabler, educator and organizer who loves the INSIGHT project as a means of re-imagining, linking and documenting selves, stories and worlds.

Shani Cohen // Curator

Shani is a Brooklyn based writer who believes in uniting our diverse communities through art and the power of words.

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Ashleigh Rae Staton Bloom Where Planted Uzo Njoku Us Anduin Gabriel Vaid Overcome Cristy C. Road Next World Haile Bennett Unearthed Jamiah Calvin Body Ariella Elovic CHEEKY Mansi Maheshwari I’m Not Broken Trepinning Blue Moon Jenná Wallace Shine On

Cheryl Lee Bowers // Curator

Cheryl is a Brooklyn based visual artist who believes photography and art is her freedom. “Visual Art is all about revelation, communication and celebration.”

Jordan Kifer // Curator

Jordan is a writer focused on creating art that invites conversation and inspires larger cultural impact.

INSIGHT Magazine showcases and archives emerging contemporary artists from all art disciplines. FOKUS produces this magazine to provide insight into people who are creating art, traditional and non-traditional, in their own way.

INSIGHT: HEALING

Cover Next World Excerpt by Cristy C. Road

Contributing Artists:

Haile Bennett • Jamiah Calvin • Ariella Elovic • Mansi Maheshwari • Uzo Njoku • Ashleigh Rae Staton • Trepinning • Ashleigh Rae Staton Anduin Gabriel Vaid • Jenná Wallace

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Questions, comments and contributions can be sent to insightsubmit@gmail.com. To view past issues of INSIGHT, visit www.fokus.org/insight. Copyright © 2019. INSIGHT (ISSN 2164-7771) is a publication of FOKUS, Inc. All rights reserved on entire contents. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.

Photography

Visual Art

Creative Writing

Articles


INSIGHT: Healing

BLOOMING WHERE PLANTED

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Ashleigh Rae Staton

When a plant flowers or bears fruit it is a sign of reaching a pinnacle or a turning point i its development. Blooming Where Planted is a series of portraits made in an attempt to represent inner potential and the cyclical nature of existence. This cycle requires unlearning, relearning and healing. 4 | www.fokus.org

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Ashleigh Rae Staton is a photographer living and working in New York. She picked up a camera in high school and has been shooting ever since. ashraephoto.com 10 | www.fokus.org

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US

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Uzo Njoku

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Uzo Njoku is a visual artist working with oil paint, acrylic, and elements of collage. She was born in Lagos, Nigeria, and moved to the United States at the age of 7. As a student at the University of Virginia, she is working towards her BA in studio art and preparing for graduate school. She focuses on Black women who, in both African and American societies, are made to feel small or in the background. By using shadow to add depth and juxtaposing these women’s skin with bright colors, Uzo pushes the women to the forefront of their narratives. uzoart.com 14 | www.fokus.org

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OVERCOME

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Anduin Gabriel Vaid

The compositions, through their exposition of incomplete limbs or missing anatomy, allude to an injury, be it mental or physical. In opposition, the figures’ positioning and postures indicate a strength and healing, as they continue forth past their physical challenge, overcoming the adversity life has brought them. Vaid is a native New Yorker, currently living and working in Brooklyn. His work has been featured across America in gallery and home alike; abroad in Canada, England, France, and Italy; and for such notable brands as Gucci, H&M, Calvin Klein, Kettle One, Hilton, Jaguar and Land Rover, Cartier, and Crown Royal. anduinvaid.com 16 | www.fokus.org

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NEXT WORLD

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Cristy C. Road

The Next World Tarot deck is focused on smashing systemic oppression, owning our truths, being accountable to the people and places that support us, and taking back a connection to our body that may have been lost through trauma or societal brainwashing. The NEXT WORLD TAROT is a visual spectacle of both the battle cry and the reconnection, between outcasts and their criminalized identities. 24 | www.fokus.org

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UNEARTHED

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Haile Bennett

Cristy C. Road is a Cuban-American artist, writer, and musician based in Brooklyn, NY. Her art and music tackles mental health, sexuality, cultural identity, punk rock, and thriving in that broken body. croadcore.org 26 | www.fokus.org

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The pieces included in Unearthed essentially chronicle my journey of spirituality, creativity, and healing over the past 2 years. Each piece was inspired by personal reflection, meditations, and influential moments that served as major catalysts for my healing. In fact, the use of art/the creative process for healing was the intention behind this art series. These pieces are a series of masks created with plaster molds of myself. Each is decorated to represent personal insights or an aspect of my personality (Shadow self, connection to Divine, etc.) that I have actively worked to integrate throughout my journey. Through this process, I unearthed truths about myself, became more of my true self, and removed many of the masks that I wear daily. Haile Bennett is a creator, educator, entrepreneur, wellness advocate, and student at Columbia University’s Spirituality Mind Body Institute. As a scholar, she has explored art, critical communication, storytelling, and media literacy education as tools of self-exploration, resistance, and advancement. Above all things, Haile believes that everyone should be comfortable in their own skin, free to express their truth, and have access to the resources needed to thrive. It is this impassioned principle that Haile aims to channel in all her work. unearthingwellness.com 28 | www.fokus.org

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BODY

Jamiah Calvin

Jamiah “Miah� Calvin is a visual artist from the West side of Chicago. Miah received a BFA with an emphasis on painting from Northern Illinois University. miahart340.wixsite.com/jamiahcalvin 30 | www.fokus.org

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CHEEKY

Ariella Elovic

CHEEKY was created out of the desire to fill a very large gap in our culture: a lack of honest conversation surrounding the humanness of female bodies. In its place are unrealistic expectations regarding the shape/smell the female body should take — its inner character, too. Through illustrating and exploring my own relationship to my body, I’ve begun to reclaim those bits of myself I grew up trying to hide. I hope to empower my audience to find their own path towards self-love, and find healing through connection. Ariella Elovic is an NYC-based illustrator and founder of CHEEKY: a platform in which she illustrates her relationship to her body, and her process in reclaiming it. She holds a BFA in Communication Design from Washington University in St. Louis. Ariella is currently writing her first graphic memoir, CHEEKY, to be published in 2020 with Bloomsbury. ariellaelovic.com 32 | www.fokus.org

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I’M NOT BROKEN

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Mansi Maheshwari

Everyday we wake up, go to work, mess up a little and then remain stressed until we forget about it. We do these little things in life everyday that help us cope with our stressed selves. So maybe talking to your dog or reading an old book or even cooking a meal may be the part of your day which is just for your soul, which needs to relax, which needs to heal. To be healed, you need not be broken. Mansi is a 20 year old, knitwear design student who has found her passion for illustrations and sees herself, one day, collaborating both to bring something noble. 34 | www.fokus.org

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Walter T. Lacy III. aka Soul Emcee Detroit, is a poet and spoken word artist and an underground Hip-Hop performer. Walter was born and raised in Detroit, MI. He is a passionate artist with love for his city. blacknomadpoetrydetroit.wordpress.com 36 | www.fokus.org

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BLUE MOON Trepinning

SHINE ON

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JennĂĄ Wallace

lue Moon features a pale visage peeking through a fragmented opening that takes a crescent moon-like shape. In that moon-like shape is the symbolism of the phases we all go through between darker times to our happier times over and over again. It’s such a human thing to live lives going through hardships, but in healing we find new joys. Trepinning is an artist in the St.Paul, MN that portrays the floating world of fantasy in her body of works. Her art also reflects her affinity for video games, comics, and the Art Nouveau aesthetic. ellengriffinillustration.com 38 | www.fokus.org

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CLEAN (YOUR) WOUNDS

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Sara MF

Jenná Wallace is not afraid to be BOLD! Living by this creed has made her limitless, creating Glow Society LLC to support artistic expression and growth. These themes are apparent in her art with its bold colors and inspirational themes. Overcoming obstacles is a source of power and light. She believes if you follow the light you will GLOW!

Daughter of artists and granddaughter of art lovers, Sara’s been raised between canvas, artbooks and the museums and studied Fine Arts. Her works are inspired by Primitive and Romanic arts. My work connects with the theme because, as it is written, to me healing is some sort of individual and collective “ritual”. And it’s something that I’ve learnt with the years and. “Time heals.”

GlowsocietyLLC.shop

behance.net/saramarf24e6

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Thank You for reading INSIGHT: Healing Read more issues @ www.fokus.org/insight

The theme for the next issue is: RESISTANCE


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