Family!

You may have noticed that the shop has been on an extended hiatus this time.

While it wasn’t planned I will definitely say that it was necessary to take that time and reflect on what I was doing and what my goals were in doing any of this. 

When I first started Lucy St. I did so with two intentions. The first was to build a more sustainable practice for myself as an artist and the second was to fill what I saw was a need for more representation in consumer goods. 

“Why wait for someone else to sell my work?’ and “Why wait for someone else to champion Black art?” were the questions that served as the motivating force behind what I was doing. 

While this is still the case, the idea has evolved in such a way that it made me realized I was reluctant to answer the “What is Lucy St. question in any definitive way because I was still learning about it as I went along. Sometimes ideas take on a life of their own and refuse simple definitions. I’d say this is one of those times.

So what have I learned?

Well, I know now that Lucy St. isn’t just a business.

It is an artwork. A performance piece that relies on the collaboration and participation of my community in order to thrive.

Lucy St.  is a method of curating. A thematic concept that can unite seemingly unrelated artforms into a multi-vocal presentation of “culture”. 

Lucy St. is memory and archive. Preserving culture and allowing it to be experienced long after the neighborhoods that housed it are gentrified out of existence.

And, yes. It is a business as well. One that I am in no rush to make “bigger” and will grow naturally at my own pace. 

I named this business after the street that ran through the community that I grew up in. It was a place where the community congregated to celebrate and to live their day to day lives. Everything happened on Lucy St…..

BUT there were some things that never got a chance to happen on Lucy St….Things the community needed and lacked. 

In a way, Lucy St. is a  celebration of “the mundane” and all of the things that make up Black existence, that you had to have experienced to know about.

In a different way, it is also a way for me to re-imagine what my community may have been like if it was allowed to thrive.

I have more to say on the subject but this will do for now.

Even as I type, I can feel new ideas forming.  We will see where that takes us next. 

I love you, family.

-Friday

Before I start with the diary entry, let me address the elephant in the room. If you’ve read the posts before this one, you’ll know that I dropped the little “notebook” paper aesthetic. Besides being a pain in the hind-quarters to keep up, people were having trouble reading what I’d written and that’s an issue because I want what I’m doing to be understood. It was cute, but ultimately useless, so I decided to change it. 

There’s no shame in making a good decision after the fact! It’s called growth. Now, let’s move forward.

Heyyyyyyy y’all!

The shop is back from a month-long hiatus and with special treats. Literally.

I think it’s pretty obvious that I’m in love with how this particular cake necklace turned out. It’s all chocolatey and looks real enough to eat. I can’t help it, I posted it everywhere. smh. 

Thanksgiving is coming up and though many Black families do not subscribe to traditional notions of this holiday’s origins, we DO take that time given to us to reflect on our lives, thank God and the ancestors for keeping us this far, and we get together to celebrate, life, love and family. A huge part of that celebration is the FOOD. I would not be alone in saying some of us dream about November all year long.

When thinking of a way to celebrate everything that makes a Black holiday what it is, I decided to focus specifically on Thanksgiving dinner, and all the side dishes that set it off.

Everyone knows Black Thanksgiving is about the SIDES and the DESSERTS. Yes, we make bomb Turkey. I’ve had it fried, baked, jerked and whatever else you like.  The true iconic staples of a Black Holiday meal are the side dishes like Mac and Cheese, Collard Greens, Cornbread, etc. etc. etc. The list goes on and on.

In honor of this, I hand-made these pieces with all the love and care that it takes to prepare a real Thanksgiving meal. All together, the objects equal one lovely Thanksgiving meal.

Rest assured, as a Master of Fine Arts and a mother of two, I am certified to bring the heat both ways. 

Each of these babies took me 3 weeks to make and I still have more to finish. It was worth it to bring them into existence though.

The special thing about these objects is that there is only one of each, so much like a real Black holiday meal, if you snooze you lose. 

All of the jewelry pieces are signed and come with certificates of authenticity. Like everything I make here, they are an official part of my portfolio as an artist. Which means that if you purchase one, take good care of it. 

With that being said, I don’t think I took a single progress pic while making these. That is unusual, even for me. I’ll do better about that.

I’ll try to update this post in the coming weeks with more images of the works in progress.

For now, enjoy the tasty look of the finished objects in the shop, take the “Black Thanksgiving” Quiz, share it with family and friends and be sure to check back weekly for new additions!

Have a suggestion for a dish I missed? Leave a comment below!

Love y’all.