Marion Coleman - - Visions from the Past/Visions of the Future

Marion Coleman - Visions from the Past/Visions of the Future

[ARTIST BACKGROUND] Marion Coleman is a textile artist and emerging public artist whose art explores themes of history, particularly women’s history, cultural traditions, and real or imagined stories. She is particularly interested in the challenges and rewards facing people of the African Diaspora. Coleman refers to her pictorial textile pieces as story quilts and utilizes dramatic color and representational imagery. Working and living in Castro Valley, she is recognized in the Bay Area for her textile artwork and is represented in collections throughout the East Bay and included in the collection of the City of Richmond. Marion Coleman received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from the University of California, Riverside and a Master of Science Degree from California State University, Hayward.

[PROPOSED ARTWORK] Marion Coleman proposes a segmented art mural of four narrative stories that she will initially quilt, then using photography of the images transfer to 30” by 30” porcelain enamel panels. Each will tell the story of themes familiar to long-time residents of the Bayview Hunters Point community:
• At Your Service honors the legacy of the African American Pullman Porters.
• Not Always a Rosie features women at the Shipyard making cotton grommets used to make the submarines tight.
• What’s a Honey Bee? features Shipyard female workers playing softball on this integrated athletic team that was formed well before Jackie Robinson played professional baseball.
• For the Sake of a Child features a central figure of a child planting a tree in front of a home in the housing projects.
This is the first public art commission for an exterior site awarded to Coleman.

[ARTIST INSPIRATION] Coleman was inspired by the history of the lives of the people who lived in Bayview Hunters Point and the Shipyard. The migration of African Americans is well documented as community ancestors came to the San Francisco Bay area seeking better opportunities for themselves and their families.  Although African Americans faced obstacles while seeking employment and housing equity they persevered. Coleman presents a small portion of life from the past as points for thought for future generations.

[YOUTH INVOLVEMENT] Youth will be lead by artist Marion Coleman in a story-telling workshop where the youth will illustrate their own personal stories and create pictorial postcards using simple textile methods.