What I See: M. Saffell Gardner x Cherise Morris
M. Saffell Gardner, The Rona Blues, acrylic on un-stretched canvas (6x23.5’)
“ Cherise’s work inspired me through its timeless spiritual connection with water.”
Painter and sculptor, M. Saffell Gardner penned the beginning of poem as well as the painting above, both appropriately entitled “The Rona Blues” in response to Cherise’s work-in-progress.
We are in the cascade of the Corona virus.
An invisible agent that has changed the way
we interact with family and friends for the
foreseeable future. The Rona Blues is a
vision of life we have known ever changing
like ocean currents crossing the Atlantic.
However, the orange spark of life remains
and the human will to persevere into the future.
What I See is a curated project aimed at creating conversation between artists during a moment of unprecedented isolation. Kresge Arts in Detroit invited fellowship and Gilda Award recipients to create new work inspired by and in response to the works in progress recently shared by their colleagues. In highlighting the connections and mutual inspiration produced through these collaborations, it is abundantly clear how creativity radiates and can deepen existing community networks and lead to new connections. This project is a new addition to our efforts to resource and activate the arts and culture community of Detroit, of which those of us on staff are proudly a part. What I See logo by Asukile Gardner.
Art by its nature is pure exchange
We look and we marvel. We hear and we heal.
We read and we wonder.
Rarely do we know; do we see what the creator
first saw, or the hope that they in turn entrust
to the eyes and minds of others.
That conversation between source and subject is
as rich and worthy, and mysterious as the end
creation. This is art’s constant invitation: to see
and see again, until we see. Sometimes ourselves.
Sometimes our world, sometimes into realms
unknown.
A more raw and wondrous window has yet to
exist. Until one does, may art, and those who answer
its call, continue to do what only they can — making the unseen seen in ways once unimagined.
— Nichole M. Christian, Kresge Arts in Detroit 2020