Creative Crush Wednesday: Nakeya Brown
So I decided to continue my creative crush Wednesdays! I ran across the top left hand photo on Pinterest and immediately went to place of nostalgia. My grandmother on my Dad's side used to be a beautician before moving to another profession, and even to this day you can find an old roller set in her house. She also has a salon chair hair dryer in the living room that I used to laugh at until I started washing my hair and realized its better to sit under the dryer... and why not used the salon dryer in your grandmothers living room? I decided to check out the artist behind the photo and ran across the site of Nakeya Brown. Her work has been exhibited at the McKenna Museum of African American Art, Woman Made Gallery, Vivid Solutions Gallery, and Mason Gross Gallery. Along with exhibitions her work has been published and she's been a recipient of a few endowments. So in conclusion, Nakeya been working!
The photos are from two of her collections: Hair Stories Untold and If Nostalgia Were Colored Brown. Both series have a common theme of black feminine spaces of self/hair care and identity.
I ran across an article where Nakeya quoted:
“I made this work around a time when I went natural, my peers were going natural, and I became a mother to a young daughter. I started to reflect on my hair stories and felt an urge to incorporate those memories and practices into my work. It’s important because the work is a place where discussion about body image, race, gender, and tradition can take place in a way that uplifts, reflects, and hopefully pushes thought forward.”
I can relate to every single photo. From having my ends dipped after getting box braids to getting my hair pressed with a pressing comb (which I did last weekend).
I have a love for pastel colors and still life images, if my Pinterest isn't obvious enough. So along with its nostaligia its pretty to look at. I defintely need a print or 3 for my apartment. To check out more of Nakeya's work you can check out her website or Instagram. Happy Wednesday!