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Knowledge Artist, Verneda Lights : Week of July 20, 2009
Greetings Fellow Artists! Welcome to Artists2Artists Knowledge Feature. My name is Verneda Lights and I live in the Greater Atlanta, Georgia area. I not only live in the South, I am of the South, and I love being a Southern Black woman. Being raised in the Carolina Low Country, the middle child of 7 children born to a Marine Corps father and housewife/ teacher mother, I grew up speaking the dialect known as “Gullah” as well as the king’s english. I am the descendent of West African slaves, White, French, Spanish settlers, and American Indians who inhabited the Low Country area as early as the 15th Century. Some of my ancestors were healers, writers, and artists. We even have a family name derived from the spanish word “escribir” (to write). My family is known for being highly expressive, and aggressive, and have been known to “hurt folk” who rubbed them the wrong way.
At the age of 3, my mother taught me how to read by allowing me to create verbal captions for wordless cartoons (like Henry) in the newspaper. It was also at this age that I told my mother I was going to be a doctor. I had life threatening childhood asthma, which caused me to miss many days at school. My mother gave me reading and math lessons so that I wouldn’t fall behind in schools. My brothers and sister saw to it that I had all my homework assignments. When I was 9 years old I decided I would be a writer as well, and I started to write free style verses. Poetry became a passion, and I developed a lifelong love of reading and learning.
I am a child of the Civil Rights Movement. I remember not being able to go the the library, and having to sit in the balcony at the movies. I remember Martin Luther King Jr., Malcomb X, and John F. Kennedy as if they were still alive. I remember all too well when and how they died. I was educated at Robert Smalls Elementary School. My teachers were kind, highly literate, inspiring individuals who allowed me to assert myself and navigate mentally and spiritually through math, sciences, and literature. In 8th grade, I was sent to the formerly all white Beaufort Junior High, where I got along with my classmates and excelled in my school work. High School was not a problem. As my teacher, Pat Conroy (yes, THE Pat Conroy) wrote in my high school yearbook, I delighted in my role as “top cat.” I graduated from Beaufort High in 1970 with a GPA of 4.4 (The advanced classes I took in English and French, counted 5.0 points). I left the South for the first time in 1970 to attend Bryn Mawr College.
My skills and reputation as a poet expanded Bryn Mawr. I majored in History and premed studies. Graduated with Honors in 1974. Started medical school at The University of Pennsylvania. I continued to write and give poetry readings. Married to a local Philadelphia jazz musician, and started my own poetry performance unit called “Rikki Lights & The Gilliam Brothers Band.” The band was an all male five piece unit. The group also employed 5 dancers, choreographer, lighting specialist, and roadie. We performed in concert venues from NYC to DC. Performing provided extra money for me to purchase all my medical school books. I was determined to own all my books. That way, no one could deny me the right to hold or read them. I always studied at home, refusing to cultivate any dependence upon the library. Just in case the librarian was racist. All through high school, college, and medical school, I considered myself a wordsmith and performance artist. There were pictures in my head, but at this point poetry was my brush. I painted words and sent them spinning into the air for the audience to catch. It was big fun, and I enjoyed myself utterly. Performance poetry and medicine seemed like the most natural thing in the world for me to do, because I considered medicine to be an art. Words & music are potent medicines.
Following medical school I completed a 3 year residency in Internal Medicine. I opened my own medical center and practiced both traditional allopathic and alternative medicine. The patients were extremely ill. For over 20 years I saw patients in my office, made rounds at the hospital, managed pre and post operative and ICU care, and was on call almost every night. I stopped writing poetry because there was no longer enough time for me to be me.
I left the practice of medicine in 1999 in order to re educate myself and move further along in developing my identity as an artist. At the time the only arts I considered as my own were poetry, performance, and singing. I took a course in molecular biology at Princeton. Went back to Bryn Mawr and learned how to speak Spanish. I started to become computer literate, and began to renew relationships with family members.
Fast forward to September 11, 2001. The terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center, damaged the Pentagon, and murdered the passengers of flight 93 left me speechless. I was speechless in part because I had seen the disintegration of the twin towers numerous times in a recurrent dream that had plagued me since childhood. The clouds of dust and people running from obvious peril as if emerging from a furnace was a nightmare that I had come to call “The World Chaos Dream.” My worst nightmare had been a premonition, and I was lost for words.
Agitation and restlessness continued day and night. I would sit for hours in front of the computer, dissecting it, determined to become fluent in its use. Then I stumbled upon a small program called “Paint.” I opened it simply because I had recently come to know that you clicked on a icon to see what it was supposed to do. Well, Paint opened up, and I saw many small boxes of color arranged in a palette. Then click, more colors, some of which I had never seen before. Exploring these colors calmed me in a way that was decidedly pharmaceutical in onset. Wondering if colors were somehow an endorphin trigger and serotonin release factor, I became determined to make “color therapy” a part of my daily routine. When I learned that 24 bit true color gives a palette of 16 million unique colors my scientific mind was ecstatic.
I clicked on the blue e, like a hitch hiker sticking out a thumb, and landed in Oz. The door to the Emerald City was a program called Paint Shop Pro 3. I downloaded this program using a dial up connection; which meant I had to wait all night for the download to complete. I read everything I could come across about computer graphics programs. I downloaded PhotoShop3, Dreamweaver 3, and went color and webpage crazy. I prayed while staring at the electronic canvas, and with mouse in hand I merged with the software programs and out came “Beauty for ASHES: A 911 Art Memorial.” A selection of visualized grief and healing, the exhibit was published on the Internet in late September, 2001. I called my site, e-graphx digital fine art gallery, and registered for the domain www.e-graphx.com. The art I created with just the use of computer graphics programs is called pure digital fine art. If images are imported into the computer and used in the image, then it becomes mixed media. I now own a Mac laptop loaded with Adobe Creative Suite CS4. Time flies when you're having fun.
I am very fond of digital fine art because it allows me to economize on space, and I don’t have to worry about irritating chemicals, and brush cleaning. I also enjoy working with my hands, doing works on paper and canvas. When creating in 3D space, I tend to "organify" my canvas, working to texturize the surface, until I sense that I have imbued it with my thoughts and feelings. Layer, texture, layer, sling paint, texture, paint, etc is a simplified way to describe my process of art creation.
Since the first computer based “Aha” moment, I have enrolled in fine art classes in order to develop mastery over more graphics programs, web authoring software, as well as brick and mortar art tools. I have also started to take photographs. I prefer drawing over painting.
One of my favorite actions while creating any art work whether digital or traditional, is to merge with the canvas as if it is a parallel universe. I look within and around inside the canvas to see what it is. The image will declare itself, at which point I strive to maintain image integrity. With traditional art, I sling color around, turn the canvas upside down, place it across from where I lay my head at night, and watch the sun rise and set upon it. Watching the rising and setting of the sun across the color patterns tells me what the image is. I mark it out with chalk and fill in the rest. The digital pieces pretty much work the same way. Splash. splash, color, color, stare (meditate on Scriptures is a more precise description) until the light sculpture reveals itself. I work until I feel the work is complete, then I give it a name.
Click on this link to see slide show: http://cid-c8540da9fe306a32.skydrive.live.com/play.aspx/Verneda%20%20Lights/world%7C_invisible%7C_4%7C_adj2%7C_wm%7C_72dpi%7C_eff%7C_vlights.tif?ref=2
At the age of 3, my mother taught me how to read by allowing me to create verbal captions for wordless cartoons (like Henry) in the newspaper. It was also at this age that I told my mother I was going to be a doctor. I had life threatening childhood asthma, which caused me to miss many days at school. My mother gave me reading and math lessons so that I wouldn’t fall behind in schools. My brothers and sister saw to it that I had all my homework assignments. When I was 9 years old I decided I would be a writer as well, and I started to write free style verses. Poetry became a passion, and I developed a lifelong love of reading and learning.
I am a child of the Civil Rights Movement. I remember not being able to go the the library, and having to sit in the balcony at the movies. I remember Martin Luther King Jr., Malcomb X, and John F. Kennedy as if they were still alive. I remember all too well when and how they died. I was educated at Robert Smalls Elementary School. My teachers were kind, highly literate, inspiring individuals who allowed me to assert myself and navigate mentally and spiritually through math, sciences, and literature. In 8th grade, I was sent to the formerly all white Beaufort Junior High, where I got along with my classmates and excelled in my school work. High School was not a problem. As my teacher, Pat Conroy (yes, THE Pat Conroy) wrote in my high school yearbook, I delighted in my role as “top cat.” I graduated from Beaufort High in 1970 with a GPA of 4.4 (The advanced classes I took in English and French, counted 5.0 points). I left the South for the first time in 1970 to attend Bryn Mawr College.
My skills and reputation as a poet expanded Bryn Mawr. I majored in History and premed studies. Graduated with Honors in 1974. Started medical school at The University of Pennsylvania. I continued to write and give poetry readings. Married to a local Philadelphia jazz musician, and started my own poetry performance unit called “Rikki Lights & The Gilliam Brothers Band.” The band was an all male five piece unit. The group also employed 5 dancers, choreographer, lighting specialist, and roadie. We performed in concert venues from NYC to DC. Performing provided extra money for me to purchase all my medical school books. I was determined to own all my books. That way, no one could deny me the right to hold or read them. I always studied at home, refusing to cultivate any dependence upon the library. Just in case the librarian was racist. All through high school, college, and medical school, I considered myself a wordsmith and performance artist. There were pictures in my head, but at this point poetry was my brush. I painted words and sent them spinning into the air for the audience to catch. It was big fun, and I enjoyed myself utterly. Performance poetry and medicine seemed like the most natural thing in the world for me to do, because I considered medicine to be an art. Words & music are potent medicines.
Following medical school I completed a 3 year residency in Internal Medicine. I opened my own medical center and practiced both traditional allopathic and alternative medicine. The patients were extremely ill. For over 20 years I saw patients in my office, made rounds at the hospital, managed pre and post operative and ICU care, and was on call almost every night. I stopped writing poetry because there was no longer enough time for me to be me.
I left the practice of medicine in 1999 in order to re educate myself and move further along in developing my identity as an artist. At the time the only arts I considered as my own were poetry, performance, and singing. I took a course in molecular biology at Princeton. Went back to Bryn Mawr and learned how to speak Spanish. I started to become computer literate, and began to renew relationships with family members.
Fast forward to September 11, 2001. The terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center, damaged the Pentagon, and murdered the passengers of flight 93 left me speechless. I was speechless in part because I had seen the disintegration of the twin towers numerous times in a recurrent dream that had plagued me since childhood. The clouds of dust and people running from obvious peril as if emerging from a furnace was a nightmare that I had come to call “The World Chaos Dream.” My worst nightmare had been a premonition, and I was lost for words.
Agitation and restlessness continued day and night. I would sit for hours in front of the computer, dissecting it, determined to become fluent in its use. Then I stumbled upon a small program called “Paint.” I opened it simply because I had recently come to know that you clicked on a icon to see what it was supposed to do. Well, Paint opened up, and I saw many small boxes of color arranged in a palette. Then click, more colors, some of which I had never seen before. Exploring these colors calmed me in a way that was decidedly pharmaceutical in onset. Wondering if colors were somehow an endorphin trigger and serotonin release factor, I became determined to make “color therapy” a part of my daily routine. When I learned that 24 bit true color gives a palette of 16 million unique colors my scientific mind was ecstatic.
I clicked on the blue e, like a hitch hiker sticking out a thumb, and landed in Oz. The door to the Emerald City was a program called Paint Shop Pro 3. I downloaded this program using a dial up connection; which meant I had to wait all night for the download to complete. I read everything I could come across about computer graphics programs. I downloaded PhotoShop3, Dreamweaver 3, and went color and webpage crazy. I prayed while staring at the electronic canvas, and with mouse in hand I merged with the software programs and out came “Beauty for ASHES: A 911 Art Memorial.” A selection of visualized grief and healing, the exhibit was published on the Internet in late September, 2001. I called my site, e-graphx digital fine art gallery, and registered for the domain www.e-graphx.com. The art I created with just the use of computer graphics programs is called pure digital fine art. If images are imported into the computer and used in the image, then it becomes mixed media. I now own a Mac laptop loaded with Adobe Creative Suite CS4. Time flies when you're having fun.
I am very fond of digital fine art because it allows me to economize on space, and I don’t have to worry about irritating chemicals, and brush cleaning. I also enjoy working with my hands, doing works on paper and canvas. When creating in 3D space, I tend to "organify" my canvas, working to texturize the surface, until I sense that I have imbued it with my thoughts and feelings. Layer, texture, layer, sling paint, texture, paint, etc is a simplified way to describe my process of art creation.
Since the first computer based “Aha” moment, I have enrolled in fine art classes in order to develop mastery over more graphics programs, web authoring software, as well as brick and mortar art tools. I have also started to take photographs. I prefer drawing over painting.
One of my favorite actions while creating any art work whether digital or traditional, is to merge with the canvas as if it is a parallel universe. I look within and around inside the canvas to see what it is. The image will declare itself, at which point I strive to maintain image integrity. With traditional art, I sling color around, turn the canvas upside down, place it across from where I lay my head at night, and watch the sun rise and set upon it. Watching the rising and setting of the sun across the color patterns tells me what the image is. I mark it out with chalk and fill in the rest. The digital pieces pretty much work the same way. Splash. splash, color, color, stare (meditate on Scriptures is a more precise description) until the light sculpture reveals itself. I work until I feel the work is complete, then I give it a name.
Click on this link to see slide show: http://cid-c8540da9fe306a32.skydrive.live.com/play.aspx/Verneda%20%20Lights/world%7C_invisible%7C_4%7C_adj2%7C_wm%7C_72dpi%7C_eff%7C_vlights.tif?ref=2
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lamp_stair2_vlights.jpg, 56 KB -
dreamcycle.jpg, 33 KB
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Moroccan.Mosaic.jpg, 79 KB
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Verneda Lights on
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Every artist, regardless of media of expression, will have to be knowledgeable about Internet marketing. A large part of internet marketing is image presentation. Flickr, Twit Pix, World Wide Arts Resources, Office Live, and personal web sites are some of the web formats for image presentations. All of the arenas for image presentation demand image or file preparation. Self education about image preparation will save the artist time and money.
Becoming familiar with graphic design programs such as PhotoShop and Paint Shop Pro grants the artist autonomy in image preparation. Both programs confer additional image protection by having a watermark feature. Programs such as Digimarc can be purchased online. Digimarc allows the artist to embed his or her unique digital watermark to prevent image theft and manipulation. Both programs can be downloaded for a free trial.
If you do not already own a graphic design program, I strongly recommend that you download a free trial of PhotoShop or Paint Shop Pro and take it for a spin. Photo Shop will work in Mac or PCs, but Paint Shop Pro can only function in a PC. Here are a few steps to get you started on getting your art work ready for presentation on the web.
1. Make sure you check system requirements for space etc, before downloading the program.
2. Activate your software after it is downloaded.
3. Scan or otherwise import your photo or art image into the computer program.
4. Scan at 300 dpi, save as a tiff file
5. Select auto levels in PShop, and automatic photo correction in Paint Shop Pro. This will automatically adjust some of the color and levels of light.
6. Sharpen or despeckle (decrease noise) to taste.
7. Decrease image size to 72 dpi, and adjust the size by inches or pixels to desired dimensions.
8. Save as .jpeg or .jpg
I welcome your questions. -
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Permalink Reply by Coleen Ryan-Rivera on
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I am amazed at all of your accomplishments.You have so much wisdom!!! Thank you so much for shaing it with us. I am just getting my feet wet with internet marketing.My web site is under construction as we speak. I am trying to decide if I should have pay pal on the site. Or is that too tacky?
I also just found a program in my pc that i was unaware of. Picture It. Startedto play around with it ,and I've gotten some great images from it.
Love your Moroccan Mosaic
Coleen Ryan-River -
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Ryan, you have "Picture It", which is great. If you use it consistently, you will rather quickly graduate to Paint Shop Pro 12 (When I think of how many incarnations of this program I have witnessed, I am amazed at how quickly time passes.). Corel bought the program from Jasc, which originally developed it. Paint Shop Pro has many features that will allow you to be more creative with your digital contributions to your art work.
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Hi Ryan. Thank you for taking the time to read and respond to the knowledge artist post. Congratulations for starting the development of your website. Paypal is not tacky. It gets you paid quickly. Having added security for your website would further credibility. Get a sticker from BBB Online, and examine what Verisign or Thawte can do to further add security to your email. Most folk don't understand how easy it is for a non secure email account to be hacked. When your talking numbers and payments, that's the last thing you want.
Also, beware getting emails asking for user name, past words, or banking/ credit card information: Often this is a nefarious individual or organization who wants to trick you into giving them information that will allow them to abuse your Pay Pal information. This is called phishing. To avoid being entrapped via diversion to non authentic Paypal or other site, never click on links inside the email. Instead open another browser window, copy and paste the url into the web address window. Make sure the web address reads Https://www.paypal.com The "s" in the Https stands for "secure". This lets you know that secure socket layering is operative, which protects you from having your information stolen.
Keep in mind that Paypal would never ask you for personal information or passwords.
Please go to World Wide Arts Resources (www.wwar.com) to see how they have the payment options arranged on the web page. You may also want to get a free account there. It will help your ratings in Google. If you are not involved with Twitter or Facebook, please do so ASAP. Social media is a necessary part of increasing your profile on the Internet.
Thanx for your question. -
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Thank you so much for all the info. Was not aware of the all sercurity issues connected to the website. I am on Facebook And Twitter . As well as a number of other web sites for artists.
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Ryan, it is very good that you are already connected with Facebook and Twitter. Twitter and Bing have created a new business entity called "Bing Tweet" where they will mine the data in tweets, and use it for enhanced search engine efficacy and relevance. If you use key words in your tweets, the spiders will pick that up and integrate your tweet based data into the overall knowledge activity of the web.
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Permalink Reply by Cyndy Carstens on
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Hello Verneda,
Your incredible life has led you to create incredible work. Thank you for sharing with all of us.
Cyndy Carstens -
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You are more than welcome, Cyndy. It is my pleasure to live, learn, teach, and share.
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Permalink Reply by Slone Fries on
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Wow...I am at a loss for words...I have yet to see your art but what an amazing woman you are! My Husband always tells me I don't know what the rest of the country is like, especially the south (he comes from back east and spent time in the south). I have traveled the world but not my own country, how sad. Was it in your personality to be this amazing strong and secure women or did you ever have to face adversity? racism? (I grew up in the most politically correct town in America on the central coast of California-tree hugger-they passed one of the first laws against smoking it restaurants, I didn't know about smoking in restaurants until I went to visit back east 10 years ago and they asked us at a restaurant "smoking or non-smoking", I turned to my husband and said "I thought they only smoked in restaurants in Europe!) You have lead such an amazing life. Your last name seems to describe you as a person...a light, a beacon of strength and compassion, someone who shot for the stars but landed on her own planet, surrounded by her own stars. There are so many questions I would love to ask you as a person it is hard to see beyond that at the moment and focus on art, you truly are amazing.
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Your work is beautiful, what type of medium did you use for the lamp/stairs? Your other two pieces are very lovely, I especially like the Moroccan one!
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Thanx Sloane. Lamp/ Stair (actually called "Rainy Day") is a digital photograph. My photos are intended to capture what I "see", which is usually a unification of multiple dimensions that actually present in real time, but which others tend to ignore. Moroccan Mosaic is a ceiling design that I made when furiously fusing with my software.
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Well Sloane, the South is just wonderful: great to see, and a hoot to live. In many ways I have lived a charmed life, but I have also suffered (although I think my suffering was designed by God to make the "wine" of my life & lessons more rich). Racism, is endemic to American life, and I've seen my share. I don't take it lightly, and I have learned to push back: hard both as a woman and as an African American. God has blessed me immensely, and I believe that the best way to receive a blessing is to be a blessing to others. It really is more blessed to give than to receive. Many of my life choices were made simply because I wanted to give something to whatever situation was at hand. Simple choices though, can lead one to some very very interesting people, places, and pathways.
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