Exhibition will be on display in City Hall August 9 through October 31, 2024

Mayor Kenson Siver and the Southfield Public Arts Commission will host the Visions of Excellence: Unveiled opening reception and public art exhibition on Thursday, August 15, from 6-8 p.m. featuring 13 Michigan-based artists at the Southfield City Hall Main Lobby, 26000 Evergreen Road. The event is free and open to the public.  

The exhibition of work will be on display in the main lobby of Southfield City Hall until October 31 featuring Inez Brown, Elle Cabot, Darin Darby, Bakpak Durden, Lori Ellsworth, Larry Green, Raphael Hornbuckle, Gregory Johnson, Darnell Kendricks, David MacIntosh, Shirley Woodson Reid, Jocelyn Rainey, and Ellen Stone. 

The Southfield Public Arts Commission curates new exhibits of local artists’ work on a quarterly basis. This special exhibition, featuring 15 uniquely diverse artists, is a first for Southfield. “This initiative is something the Commission has envisioned as a way to network, promote diversity and inclusion, engage with the community, and support local artists,” said Delores Flagg, Chairperson of the Southfield Public Arts Commission. “We recognize the abundance of talented artists in Southfield and the metro area. They just need a platform, and we are providing them with a showcase for their work. We understand the importance of highlighting art and artists. It’s a win-win situation for everyone.”

Raphael Hornbuckle

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/causeandaffectgallery
Hornbuckle’s interest in art stared at the age of five. As a child, he overheard his mother bragging about a piece of art that he did to her neighbors which greatly inspired him and from that praise alone, Hornbuckle wanted to do more and do better. Hornbuckle is a self-taught artist who picked up techniques and tips from other artists. His greatest gift is the ability to observe and mimic whatever he sees and to create from his own imagination. Hornbuckle has work from a range of art mediums which includes pottery, scripture, graphite, acrylics and watercolor. Over the past 4 years Hornbuckle has fallen in love with colored pencils, discovering all the wonderful things one can do with it and he has not worked with another media since. The greatest reward he gets for his artwork is not monetary, but the excitement he sees on others faces.

Darin Darby

Website: https://ddarbyart.com/
Darin Darby was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He is a self-taught visual artist. He began by drawing comic book characters with pencils. In his early twenties he expanded his art to include colored pencils, charcoal, pastels and acrylic paint. In 2014, he created a new art technique, which he trademarked Laypuzzim (layered puzzled image). Laypuzzim art is created by cutting textured card stock paper, mat board, leather, or wood. Each individual color of the artwork is cut out by hand, layered, and puzzled together to create an image using negative space. Most of Darin’s current artwork is inspired by his childhood memories, biblical themes, thought provoking messages, and uncredited historical black figures. He is passionate about creating artwork that has a message and sparks meaningful conversations. He continues to reinvent himself by experimenting with different materials and textiles. Darin is excited about his future as an artist as he continues to create his Laypuzzim artwork technique.

Ellen Stone

Painting came to her after a forty year plus psychotherapy career. Minus any formal art training, she paints from her id state and edits with her ego state, regression in the service of the ego, according to Freud’s definition of creativity.  Picasso said it another way. “It took me for years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.”  Stone’s paintings portray images from our “collective unconscious.” Stone does not plan; she paints.  She does not paint with a message in mind. She likes being in the nowhere zone of freedom that art affords her. 

Larry Green

Green's artistic accomplishments are numerous and impressive. He has a BA of Science in Fine Arts from Wayne State University in Detroit Michigan and a background in fine arts, illustration and graphic communications from Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts, now known as CCS, the College of Creative Studies. After school, Green landed a job with the General Motors corporation, first as a welder, but later became a graphic artist and technical illustrator for the Corporation. For over 45 years, Green’s skills of illustrating safety placards became a standard for the corporation. After Green retired from General Motors, he became a real artist. Green says “As an artist, I try to connect with the viewer, not just the visual composition, but pulling him or her emotionally into my artwork”.

Inez Brown

Website: https://www.imagesthroughmyeyes.com/
Brown is a proud product of Detroit Public schools. Born and raised in the City of Detroit, after graduating from Northwestern high school in the late 1960's, Brown attended the Society of Arts and Crafts, now known as Center for Creative Studies. To this day, she continues her love of art. Although she attended the College of Creative Studies in the early 1970’s, she considers herself largely self-taught. Of all the mediums, she enjoys working with charcoal the most because of its honest and direct approach. Brown believes that when working with charcoal it is important for her to be confident in her technique. Brown believes charcoal requires great discipline, yet it allows her to improvise and experiment. Because of the intricate details in many of her pieces, they are often viewed best up close. However, she strives to allow her work to be viewed equally from across a room with the same effect.

Bakpak Durden

Website: https://www.bakpakdurden.com/
Bakpak Durden is an Artist, Alchemist and Mystic from Detroit. Through extensive research, introspective examination, and an anti-disciplinary approach, Durden fuses narrative and visual elements of the Baroque and Afro-Surrealist movements to create deconstructed cinematic experiences exploring human consciousness and Spiritual Existence. Durden is best known for their paintings depicting subjects in transitional states, with their large-scale murals emphasizing a connection to the surrounding communities. Durden’s work has most recently been exhibited at Cranbrook Art Museum, Muskegon Museum of Art, The Stamps Art Gallery, and The Scarab Club, among others. Durden currently lives and works in Detroit, MI. As a painter, muralist, illustrator, writer, and photographer, Durden combines their talents to craft immersive experiences that challenge the traditional media of filmmaking. Durden’s work prioritizes accessibility and liberation, providing space for greater insight into the human experience and engendering empathy.

Lori Ellsworth

From a life marked by foster care, running away, early work, domestic violence, and cancer, one constant for Ellsworth has been her love of creating art. She is a freehand artist, embracing the freedom inherent in the term. Her training is unconventional, painting emotions that resonate with the universal human experience. Living and working in the picturesque state of Michigan, Ellsworth draws inspiration from its natural beauty and its people. She primarily works with oil and acrylic paints, mediums that allow her to explore her creativity and bring her visions to life. Ellsworth is attracted to various styles, continually experimenting and pushing the boundaries of contemporary art, while her love for classical art remains at her core. Through her art, she aims to connect with others and evoke emotions in a world that often feels detached. Painting is her passion, and she is grateful to share it with the world.

Elle Cabot

Website: www.ellecabot.art
It has been said that only love endures. And the work of Elle Cabot echoes that sentiment. Each piece is a love letter that begins with her great passions: ancestry and fashion design. Cabot’s parents lived in Japan, and collected art there, thus laying the groundwork for her earliest artistic influences. Assigned male at birth, Cabot grew up with a deep fascination with the chasm between one’s inner life and what we are forced to present to the world. Self-adornment, and that it can serve as armor, married her affinity for the Edo-period Japanese art adorning the walls of the family home. With a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, she continues her practice to explore ancestral memory and other themes of the African Diaspora, particularly notions of nonlinear time in precolonial African cosmologies. The stars once guided her forebears to freedom. And they still hold that promise.

Gregory Johnson

A native of Ludowici, Georgia, Johnson was reared in Detroit, Michigan. He has taught in Detroit Public Schools, as an art instructor for the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and part-time Humanities Professor at Wayne County Community College District. He is currently a Reading Interventionist for New Paradigm for Education. Johnson’s work reflects the environment and the culture in which he was reared. His preferred mediums are watercolor, colored pencils and oil paint. Although primarily a painter, Johnson also renders linoleum block prints and sculptures. His work reveals a high degree of realism and an appreciation for the environment in which he lives. His work has been shown nationally and locally.

Darnell Kendricks

Kendricks is a multi-disciplinary visionary artist who employs unique approach to create captivating artworks that he aims to inspire engaging emotion. He calls his creation process a spiritual practice as he combines collage, acrylic, and cloth on canvas, inviting viewers to immerse themselves in the colors and textures. He believes art is a necessary gift to create the world we desire to live in.  As a visual artist, Kendricks embraces the profound responsibility to explore and share his imaginative visions, inspiring others to do the same. His work aims to evoke emotion, provoke thought, and invite other perspectives, creating a universal resonance. Through his art, Kendricks seeks to connect deeply with viewers, inviting them to explore the Soulfulness of life.

Shirley Woodson-Reid

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shirleywoodsonartist/
Shirley Woodson-Reid is an artist, curator and collector, having received her BFA and MA from Wayne State University and graduate studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. “Paintings are my diaries; drawings are my prose; collage is my poetry; assemblages are my dialogue,” notes artist, educator, arts advocate, and 2021 Kresge Eminent Artist, Woodson-Reid. Across six decades and parallel to her accomplishments as an artist, Woodson has also been an exceptionally dedicated and influential educator, arts advocate, and institution builder. Woodson-Reid has lived a life dedicated to uplifting the beauty of Black art. Fine arts paintings, collage, portraits, and figurative paintings depict her life, the environment, and African American history. She is a MacDowell Colony and ConFaba Fellow, and held art residencies at the Fabric Workshop and Museum, as well as the Brandywine Printmaking Workshop and Archives in Philadelphia.

David McIntosh

David McIntosh has been an artist since childhood, always drawing on any available surface. He also had an intense interest in cars, leading him to a career in car design. He never stopped exploring art when not working, and has tried many different styles. McIntosh is mostly self-taught. In design and art, his inspiration could come from seeing something interesting that would inspire him, to responding creatively to a specific project or brand specifications. Beginning with watercolor landscapes in High School, McIntosh eventually preferred doing more abstract art, beginning with collage compositions and color fields. He considers many of his explorations as “experiments”, and tries different techniques. His “Archon” series of works are grid based, hard-edge designs in variations of monochromatic color schemes, inspired by his interest in architecture and iconic works of art. His latest style exploration called “Nature Graphics” began by observing the shapes formed by tree structures, seen clearly in winter. The natural organic shapes are living structures, and when clarified with a checkered pattern of values, very decorative. For years McIntosh worked with a theory he called Structure and Chaos, the opposition of hard linear shapes contrasting with freely brushed patterns. He still continues this way of designing.

Jocelyn Rainey

Jocelyn Rainey holds a PhD in Ethical and Creative Leadership. She received a BFA from the College of Creative Studies and a Masters of Arts in painting from Wayne State University. Her studies in painting, sculpture, and mixed media have deeply influenced her current art practice. As a colorist, Rainey transforms painted found fibers into sculptural forms through wrapping, tying, and knotting. Her works on canvas are further enriched with layers of paint, collage, and the incorporation of found objects, resulting in vibrant and textured surfaces.