How far would you go for love?

Photo: The Loving family - Grey Villet

I wanted to time this post to coincide with the International Center of Photography's exhibit of Grey Villet's photos of The Loving family but I blew it. The exhibit closed earlier this week. But given the recent vote in North Carolina to ban gay marriage, sharing the story of the Loving family became more relevant than ever.

"Forty-five years ago, sixteen states still prohibited interracial marriage. Then, in 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court considered the case of Richard Perry Loving, a white man, and his wife, Mildred Loving, a woman of African American and Native American descent, who had been arrested for miscegenation nine years earlier in Virginia. The Lovings were not active in the Civil Rights movement but their tenacious legal battle to justify their marriage changed history when the Supreme Court unanimously declared Virginia's anti-miscegenation law—and all race-based marriage bans—unconstitutional. LIFE magazine photographer Grey Villet's intimate images were uncovered by director Nancy Buirski during the making of The Loving Story..." (source)

Although the ICP exhibit in now closed, its related documentary film is still available on HBO GO. While watching it I found myself wondering what I would have done in a similar situation. My husband and I are not an exact match either (age and religious differences). He tells me I give up too easily and sometimes he's right.

How far would you go to fight for something you believe in? How far would you go to fight for love?

SCENE/ART/BOOK: Rejoice!!

"Rejoice" by Vicksburg, MS artist H.C. Porter seems to sum up how at least 50+ million folks are feeling this morning!!

H.C. Porter's mixed-media paintings begin as black and white portraits. Using a printing technique called serigraphy, Porter screens her photographs onto paper and begins painting. It is an unusual process but it's one that reflects a way of life. Beneath the vibrant colors are the black and white images that begin each piece.

Porter takes this process to the next level with her extensive documentary project, BACKYARDS AND BEYOND, which combines mixed media visual art with audio allowing each image itself to tell the story of Mississippians affected by Hurricane Katrina. “Amazingly, my time on the Coast has revealed that many people throughout the United States have no idea that Mississippi was affected by Hurricane Katrina,” states H.C. Porter, “much less that our entire Coastline has been annihilated. People’s lives have been altered for generations. This is not the Great Depression or The Dust Bowl Days, but it is Hurricane Katrina, a part of our nation’s history that unfortunately landed head strong into every single Coastal community of Mississippi. I am simply a vessel through which the story is being conveyed. It is about the faces and emotions and words of those I am documenting. This Exhibition will be their stories …our story … Backyards and Beyond … a story that must be told for a very long time.”

Porter is currently on tour throughout the south to promote the exhibit's companion fine art coffee table book.

SCENE: GO VOTE!!!!

Image from Yee-Haw Industries: Yee-Haw Industries has been covering America with unique, art-like products since 1996. Partners Kevin Bradley & Julie Belcher opened up shop from a back-40 barn in Corbin, Kentucky, with salvaged, antique equipment previously put to rust. Their vibrant, folk art, wood cut prints of country music's classic stars, such as Hank Williams, Sr. and Loretta Lynn, caught eyes and told stories. Handmade posters featured stranger-than-fiction characters, like ass-whooping grocer Cas Walker and daredevil icon Evel Kenevil. Soon, modern music acts, including Steve Earle, Buddy Guy, Trey Anastasio, Lucinda Williams and Southern Culture on the Skids began commissioning promotional posters and album art.

In 1998, having outgrown the bluegrass barn, Yee-Haw moved to a 100+-year-old building on Gay Street in historic downtown Knoxville (just a few doors down from where Hank Sr. was last seen alive). They began offering tours of the Yee-Haw studio in action and mainstreet store to sell their wares.

Shout out to Scott Peek from Standard Deluxe for the tip!!

ART/SCENE: OBEY = VOTE!

South Carolina native Shepard Fairey continues to "Rock The Vote" with a series of video postcards created in mid-October in his Los Angeles studio and in New York. The video postcards will begin circulating virally today (10/22) and will feature Jack Black, Joaquin Phoenix, and Saul Williams, as well as Fairey's eclectic mix of talented friends whom have their own significant community. Think: pro-skateboarders, owners of popular clothing companies, infamous street artists, snowboarders, singers of goth bands, drum n bass DJ’s, authors, famed tattoo artists, fashion models, renowned architects, web-celebs, museum quality photographers…the cultural tastemakers - be they hipsters, outsiders, misfits or squares - who are brimming with HOPEand FIRED UP to get a message across: WE NEED AMERICA TO VOTE EARLY!

Shepard Fairey is a contemporary artist, graphic designer and illustrator who emerged from the skateboarding scene and became known initially for his "André the Giant Has a Posse" sticker campaign. The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston calls him one of today's best known and most influential street artists. He usually omits his first name. (source)

Fairey has an exhibit up until December 6 at Irvine Contemporary in Washington, DC, his second monograph, E Pluribus Venom, was recently published by Gingko Press, and the Boston Institute for Contemporary Art is planning a retrospective exhibition of Fairey's work for February, 2009.