Black Artists & Studios

∆ Lorna Simpson | Photographer, Painter, Collagist, Filmmaker, Muva of Black Conceptual Art 

∆ Toyin Odutola | Illustrator, Draftswoman, Queen of Ink, Ms. Selfie, Mudcloth Lovah 

∆ Robert Pruitt | Afrofuturist, Illustrator, Brown Paper Man, Charcoal King, Mr. Hair Did, Cosmic Child 

∆ Ellen Gallagher | Laser Focused, Ms. Paper-Cutter, Collagist, Painter, Wig Aficionada 

∆ Kerry James Marshall | Mr. Black Aesthetic, Profound Colorist, Painter

∆ Zadie Smith | Novelist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Editor...

∆ Photographer | Sebastian Kim [pic 2]

                Zadie Smith’s 10 Rules of Writing

When still a child, make sure you read a lot of books. Spend more time doing this than anything else.

When an adult, try to read your own work as a stranger would read it, or even better, as an enemy would.

Don’t romanticise your ‘vocation’. You can either write good sentences or you can’t. There is no ‘writer’s lifestyle’. All that matters is what you leave on the page.

Avoid your weaknesses. But do this without telling yourself that the things you can’t do aren’t worth doing. Don’t mask self-doubt with contempt.

Leave a decent space of time between writing something and editing it.

Avoid cliques, gangs, groups. The presence of a crowd won’t make your writing any better than it is.

Work on a computer that is disconnected from the ­internet.

Protect the time and space in which you write. Keep everybody away from it, even the people who are most important to you.

Don’t confuse honours with achievement.

∆ Wangechi Mutu | Collagist, Afrofuturist, Warrior Woman

∆ Mickalene Thomas | "Like A Rhinestone Cowgirl," Textile + Pattern Fanatic, 70's wanderluster, Painter, Collagist, Mixed Media Aficionada