Black History Month -- Titus Kaphar, Artist

Titus Kaphar (1976 -     )

American contemporary painter and filmmaker

whose work reconfigures and regenerates

art history to include African-American subjects.

Look at his absolutely stunning work of art

entitled Enough About You (2016) --

The following is a quotation from Titus Kaphar

(found here) explaining this painting's purpose

and the erasure of black lives that it seeks to reverse --

"Enough About You wasn’t a commission. At the time Yale was having these discussions, or attempting to, about a number of different race issues. There was this painting, which showed Elihu Yale with two other white men signing some document, and this young black boy on the side who was serving them—he had a steel collar and a lock around his neck. And so that painting is something that the university owns and it was challenging. 

When I first saw the original painting, I began to do some research on that little boy. I could find everything I wanted about every other detail in the painting, but there was nothing about him. No history. And so I wanted to find a way to imagine a life for this young man that the historical painting had never made space for in the composition: his desires, dreams, family, thoughts, hopes. Those things were never subjects that the original artist wanted the viewer to contemplate. In order to reframe the discussion, I decided to physically take action to quiet [and crumple] the side of the painting that we’ve been talking about for a very long time and turn up the volume on this kid’s story. And that’s the reason why I started that painting."

Yes, turn up the volume!

Wall-to-Wall Idiots

Monday Murals -- Homage to Curling

I'm taking part today in

Monday Murals hosted by Sami.

In honour of the Gold Medal in Men's Curling

and the Bronze Medal in Women's Curling won

by Canada in the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics --

Here's a mural celebrating curling that is painted

on the Jasper Place Curling Club in

my city of Edmonton, Alberta.

It was created by local artist Jill Stanton.

[Photo from the internet]

The mural depicts the evolution of curling brooms

from the sport's original corn brooms

up to today's modern push brooms.

[Closeup photos © Debra She Who Seeks, 2022]

Art Supplies Chit-Chat

[A link party about art issues hosted by

Nicole of DVArtist, Art, Food and Everyday Things]

Nicole asked me to share some info

about the art supplies I used in these

recent light-and-shadow pieces

of Winter Soldier and Silhouette Cat.

[Art & photos of art © Debra She Who Seeks, 2026]

In both cases, I used black Stonehenge paper.

This versatile art paper is 100% cotton, 

typically 140 lb hot press or cold press,

neutral pH, acid and chlorine free.

I buy it at a local art store in a large 22" x 30" sheet

which typically costs about $10 - $12 (CAD).

Then I fold and rip the sheet into six 10" x 11" individual pieces.

Stonehenge comes in several colours, and is great

for a variety of art applications. I use it for

watercolours, pen and ink, and coloured pencils.

Because the paper has quite a bit of "tooth,"

it can support a lot of layering which is a

necessity for coloured pencils art, in particular.

Black Stonehenge paper has a very dark side

and a slightly less dark side. The very dark side

is the best to work on, so it's important to

check which side is which before starting.

The pen I used is the Uni-ball Signo Broad 1.0 mm

White Gel Ink pen, which costs about $6 (CAD).

It has the exceptionally bright and opaque

white ink needed to stand out boldly on black paper.

On Winter Soldier, I also used a little bit of

Sakura Pen-touch 1.0 mm fine point white marker

(about the same price) --

I used it sparingly as an underlay on his back and front,

and on the more indistinct part of his tactical gear strap.

The Pen-touch white is not as bright and looks greyish

on the black paper compared to the Uni-ball Signo Broad.

Stonehenge paper and both of these pens are available on Amazon. 

If going this route, however, I would order pads of Stonehenge paper

 rather than sheets, simply for ease and safety of delivery.

A Day To Celebrate Alright

Friday Face OFF -- Rembrandt's "Young Lion Resting"

For today's Friday Face OFF link party

of art featuring faces, hosted by Nicole of

DVArtist, Art, Food and Everyday Things --

Last month, blogging buddy Jim of The Road to Parnassus 

emailed me a copy of Rembrandt's drawing entitled

"Young Lion Resting" and suggested I might want

to try my hand at drawing it. 

The original was about to be auctioned at Sotheby's

with all net proceeds being donated to

Panthera, a charitable organization devoted to

conservation of the world's 40 species of

wild cats and their ecosystems.

At the beginning of February, it sold for $17.9 million USD,

setting a new record for a drawing by Rembrandt.

For me, the most intriguing part of the drawing

is the young lion's head, so I cropped the photo

and made that my subject.

Here's my version -- I'm pleased with

the drawing itself, but less so with my

light and shadow work.

[Freehand drawing on brown kraft paper

done directly in black ink pen, white ink pen,

and black ink wash with brush]

The one thing I'm certain of, though,

is that no one is going to give ME 

$17.9 million for it, hahahahahaha!

[Art & photo of art © Debra She Who Seeks, 2026]

Lesbians Lead The Way, Of Course!

And it just so happens that today

in Women's Hockey at the

Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics 2026 --

Canada is playing the USA for the Gold Medal!

🇨🇦  GO, CANADA!!!  🇨🇦

Update --

Silver Medal for Team Canada

Congrats, Team USA