“What I seek is an element of uncensored, emotional surprise, beyond multicultural reality.” – Francelise Dawkins
Spring Street Gallery is proud to share LANDING NEW LIGHT, works by Francelise Dawkins with our local community and region.
Originally from Paris, she first studied Fiber Arts at the Art League School of Indianapolis before moving to NY, where she developed her meditative concept for interior designs in textile collages. She has since exhibited or taught at the American Craft Museum in NYC, the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, the New Orleans Museum of Art, the NY State Museum in Albany, NY, and other renowned local and national venues. She has been creating for close to 50 years.
Dawkins is a member of Black Dimensions in Art, Inc., an organization in New York’s Capital Region whose mission is to educate the public about the unique contributions of artists of the African Diaspora, and to encourage the youth in the practice, application, and appreciation of the arts.
All works are for sale and a portion of the proceeds will benefit Reverend Michael D. Bell, MDIV of Pine Grove Community Church for community work in Saratoga Springs.
As part of the leadership of the NYS Poor People’s Campaign, Reverend Bell has successfully co-organized the Elmira/Eastern Region of the NYS Campaign. He organized a trade association for minority contractors in Rochester, led two redresses of the Rochester City School District and Eastman Kodak minority employee abuse issue, while also working for one of the nation’s largest financial services businesses for 30 years and 35. As a pastor, community organizer, and activist, Rev. Bell was nominated to participate in Oxford University’s Round Table, the Rhodes Scholar program in 2007. Presently, Rev. Bell sits on several boards, including the Harriet Tubman Home, Inc. Board, the Multicultural Board of Northeastern Seminary, the Saratoga Springs and NYS PPC, and several ministerial groups. Rev. Bell takes great pride as a family man and community advocate. Nothing else is more important.
About the Artist
Artist Statement
Once displayed in smart groupings in the Spring Street Gallery space, my old and newer collages appear to reveal more of their inner light.
In my childhood, at the boarding house of the Maison des Enfants des Arts in France, a three-dimensional art object made me aware of the vibrational presence of light, time and space in a piece of art. Every day, for eleven years, I would touch or look closely at this five-inch diameter multi-faceted ridge-cut crystal ball, mounted in a dark space, on top of the first newel post of a large, antique staircase. When the three-minute light timer switch of the entrance way was pressed, the sculpted crystal ball’s complex luminosity spread fully.
At the heart of my five-decade exploration of the visual arts is a desire to reproduce some of the refracting light qualities of that ridge-cut glass ball through my textile collages.
Now that my studios are in a sanctuary-like environment, where stain-glass windows launch fresh rainbows on my walls, I am revisiting this relationship with light, landing new possibilities within my art.
Click here for Francelise Dawkins Website