An Artist talk with current Exhibiting artist J Michael Walker, in conversation with writer, poet, and educator Gerda Govine. It is such an Honor to host JMichael Walker in his Solo Exhibition Intersectionality Matters at Matter Studio Gallery. J Michael Walker is an LA-based multi-disciplinary artist working in painting, drawing, photography, and digital media. His work confronts issues of erasure, misrepresentation, and fetishization, through portraiture that illuminates the spiritual essence of marginalized people, minority women.
J Michael was born in Little Rock Arkansas, under segregation, and raised during the Civil Rights Era: Exposing inequality, promoting inclusion, and social justice have guided his life and driven his artwork. Walker’s art presents the women whose permission and trust he’s been gifted. Along with a deep awareness of his responsibility to represent these individuals with honor and truth, and with his intention to bring awareness and focus to the prevailing inequality and social bias’ that are still prevalent throughout our world, Walker creates his portraits in order to capture the beauty, the dignity, and the spirit of the universal feminine. His work inspires us to take pause and contemplate how each one of us have and hold value, sharing experiences, in order to bend the path towards justice and harmony, acceptance, unity and inclusivity.
Gerda Govine, speaking about her works, “I began writing poetry to cope with the death of my daughter Dorie, my youngest adult daughter. Luis told me to write, and he would take care of the rest which included book design, translation, artwork, printing, and publishing. In 2012 my first poetry collection, “Oh, Where is My Candle Hat?” in English and Spanish, was published in Tijuana, B.C., with a CD in both languages. Followed up in 2015 with “Alterations | Thread Light Through Eye of Storm,” published in Pasadena, California; in 2016 “Future Awakes in Mouth of NOW,” Editions du Cygne (Swan World) Paris, France; and in 2018 “Poetry Within Reach in Unexpected Places,” Public Address and California Center for the Arts, Escondido, California; and 2023, “Ballet of Ingredients,” published by Editions du Cygne (Swan World) Paris, France. In 2023, my next book, “Had to Tell,” is a work-in-progress.
In 2016, my poetry life took off like a rocket. The City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division called and asked me to create a poetry component for the National Endowment for the Arts Grant that consisted of 12 components, for example, singing, dance, art, music, and plays. I selected 9 Pasadena-based poets and created a four-week lunch series at the Pasadena Senior Center in downtown. We read at, for example at Alkebulan Center, Altadena Library, A. & M. Hovsepian School, Altadena Library, Avenue 50 Studio, City of Pasadena, Escondido, and El Cajon City Council meetings, Huntington Gardens, Laemmle Theatre, Mariposa Art Space Tijuana, B.C., Mexico, John Muir High School, Pasadena Libraries, and Vromans Book Store. The Pasadena Rose Poets were selected as Poets-in-Residence in 2022 for the Pasadena Public Library. I was fortunate and pleased to edit the “Pasadena Rose Poets Collection 2019 Reflection. Resistance. Reckoning. Resurrection” and “Pasadena Rose Poets Poetry Collection 2022 Not So Perfect Storm.”
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