Viewing the paintings of Mickalene Thomas should be on your to do list this weekend.
The first Saturday of each month, The Brooklyn Museum hosts its Target First Saturdays event. Each event has a theme and includes free admission to the museum after 5 pm. This month’s theme is 1970s to celebrate the exhibit of painter, Mickalene Thomas. See a full schedule of the First Saturdays events, here.
My family and I had the pleasure of seeing Mickalene Thomas’ work last Saturday at the Brooklyn Museum. Thomas is a painter, whose work features a twist on African-American images from the 1970s. Her technique is to take photos and then transform those images into wood paintings adorned with rhinestones. In her exhibit, “Origin of the Universe” she reinterprets paintings from artists that include Romare Bearden, Gustave Courbet and others. Mickalene Thomas’ work was also inspired by her mother’s photos from the 1970s. She has a strong message of empowerment, which illustrates the beauty of African-American women. The images she presents are rarely seen in the art world. Kudos to the Brooklyn Museum for highlighting the work of this dynamic artist.
Photos and more information is on the Brooklyn Museum website. I highly encourage you to see the paintings in-person, because the rhinestone features are not easy to see on photographs. The exhibit began on September 28, 2012 and ends on January 20, 2013.
Enjoy!
JT
Double Dutch 
Don’t miss the fabulous arktorws of the famous Rose Mary Mandrell, who displays her colorful narrative and unique introspective works at W.C. Mercantile in GLORIOUS Nav o’leans Sota! You might catch a glimpse of Rosie as she paints that day Rose Mary also has a gallery of her artwork at Westwick Antiques on Washington Avenue near the Navasota DQ. Painting is born of nature—or, to speak more correctly, we will say it is the grandchild of nature; for all visible things are produced by nature, and these her children have given birth to painting. Hence we may justly call it the grandchild of nature and related to God. Leonardo Da Vinci