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META: Book IX

2011-03-10T22:27:00.001-08:00

page 98

When the axe came to the forest the trees said the handle is one of us.

(lino cut)

page 99

Songlines.

(collage, acrylic and ink)

META: Book IX

2011-03-10T21:28:00.001-08:00

page 100
The Down Beats.
(collage, ink and acrylic)

" No obsession can justify its existence except by perpetual and repeated self-affirmation."
-Simone de Beauvoir

page 101
The poetics of invisibility.
(collage, ink and acrylic)

" Invisibility, let me explain, gives one a slightly different sense of time, you're never quite on the beat. Sometimes you're ahead and sometimes behind. Instead of the swift and imperceptible flowing of time, you are aware of its nodes, those points where time stands still or from which it leaps ahead. And you slip into the breaks and look around."

-Ralph Ellison

META: Book IX

2011-03-10T21:08:00.001-08:00

page 96 and page 97
Flying Dutchman.
(collage, ink and china marker)

META:Book IX

2010-11-04T20:33:00.000-07:00

Book IX
page 95
The Dreaming.
(collage, lino cut, gold leaf, acrylic, ink and marker)

META:Book VIII

2010-11-03T18:12:00.001-07:00

page 94
...but every queen is a handmaiden of death
(collage, acrylic, ink, lino cut and marker)

This is the last page of Book VIII.

META: Book VIII

2010-11-02T20:14:00.000-07:00

page 91(above)
The Ritual.
(collage, gold leaf, acrylic, color pencil, marker and ink)

page 92(above)
In the beginning...
(collage, acrylic and ink)

page 93(above)
To be born.
(collage, acrylic, color pencil, marker and ink)

META: Book VIII

2010-10-19T22:13:00.000-07:00

page 88(above)
Mother Mary.
(collage, ink, marker and acrylic)

page 89 (above)
Before the fall.
(collage, acrylic, ink and marker)

page 90 (above)
Queenship.
(collage, ink, acrylic and marker)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_bees

META: Book VII

2010-09-20T20:47:00.000-07:00

page 83(above)
You must go through this.
(collage, acrylic, ink & graphite)

page 84 & 85
The awareness of death...
(collage, acrylic, ink & graphite)

page 86 (left)
Undo...

page 87 (right)
This dying star.
(collage, thread, acrylic, ink & graphite)

META: Book VII

2010-09-17T19:33:00.000-07:00

page 81(above)
Prism perfect
(collage, acrylic, ink and crayon)

page 82 (below)
Trust me
(collage, acrylic, ink and marker)

META: Book VII

2010-09-17T19:12:00.000-07:00

page 78(above)
Darker my love
(collage, acrylic, color pencil, marker and ink)

page 79(below)
Queen of borrowed light
(collage, gesso, ink and marker)

page 80 (above)
Some call it pride
(collage, acrylic, crayon and ink)

Works in Progress: Punk & Politics

2010-09-14T22:22:00.001-07:00

The Ladies Love Cool James.
oil on canvas.
This is a portrait in progress of Iggy Pop. I get a love buzz when I paint James Osterberg.

Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton work in progress.

Work in progress: Killers of the State

2010-08-24T21:48:00.000-07:00

Condoleezza Rice's earring is a skull and cross bones. I'm painting an American flag pin on her jacket. Hillary Clinton's visible earring is the world.
Condoleezza Rice's exploits are common knowledge and much discussed, but Hillary Clinton's greatest crimes seem to be her marriage to former president Bill Clinton and that she's a woman. These women are helping and have helped to expand the American frontier and both have aided in the stripping of our civil liberties. Hillary Clinton voted for the Patriot Act in 2001 and it's renewal in 2006. Her political tactics and choices receive less attention. Let's judge these civil servants based on their politics and not their personal lives or gender.

Work in progress: The Ladies Love Cool James...

2010-08-22T21:48:00.000-07:00

" The Ladies Love Cool James "
oil on canvas
15 in. x 30 in.

This is part of the "PyschoPop" series that as of now includes portraits of David Bowie, Nancy Spungen and Lou Reed.
I'm still in the under painting stage with this one. These paintings are portraits of pop culture icons that defied gender roles and were pivotal to the punk music scene. Disco mystics, Dum Dum Boys and Space Oddities.

(left to right)
Miss Nancy if You're Nasty.
Oil on canvas paper

PyschoPop!
oil on wood

Hot Tramp, I Love you so.
Oil on board

The portrait of Lou Reed can be viewed at http://www.myspace.com/milacharleston

Work in progress: Condoleezza & Hillary

2010-08-22T21:39:00.000-07:00

Killer Bitches: a feminist project

2010-07-17T15:31:00.000-07:00

Killer Bitches is a series of oil paintings that I started in December 2009. It is reported that 1 out of 6 serial killers is female. As a society we overlook the woman as a killer. We assume that when women kill that it comes from an emotional place or perhaps the woman was battered and it was self defense. Frequently postpartum depression or hormonal imbalances are considered the cause of why women kill. What we as a society often forget or dismiss is that women can and do kill for the same reasons men do. We forget that women are equally capable of anything a man can do.

The Countess Elizabeth Bathory.
Oil on wood
approx. 3 ft. x 2 ft.

Countess Elizabeth Bathory (1560-1614) is one of the most prolific female serial killers of all time.

After her husband's death, she and four collaborators were accused of torturing and killing hundreds of girls and young women, with one witness attributing to them over 600 victims, though the number for which they were convicted was 80.^[1] Elizabeth herself was neither tried nor convicted. In 1610, however, she was imprisoned in the Csejte Castle, where she remained bricked in a set of rooms until her death four years later.

Later writings about the case have led to legendary accounts of the Countess bathing in the blood of virgins in order to retain her youth and subsequently also to comparisons with Vlad III the Impaler of Wallachia, on whom the fictional Count Dracula is partly based, and to modern nicknames of the Blood Countess and Countess Dracula.

Work in progress: Killers of the State

2010-07-15T16:43:00.000-07:00

Killers of the State.
(oil on masonite board)

I started this painting of Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton Sunday, July 11th. This is my second painting of Condoleezza and my first of Hillary. As of now I'm working on the under painting which tends to take me a while with oil paint. I'm mostly focused on temperature and tonal values at this stage. It just so happens that I fell into a red, white and blue color scheme.
The first Condoleezza Rice portrait is below.

In Conde We Trust. (acrylic and collage on board)
2005.

Artist, Robbie Conal told me the collage was unnecessary. Robbie Conal was wrong. If you read the text (I encourage you to do so) then you see how very necessary it is. We often skim over or over look the truth. Our leaders rely on our mental laziness to achieve many of their corrupt goals.
Wake up and read between the lines.

META: Book VI

2010-06-23T20:33:00.001-07:00

page 76 (above)
Learn to swim
(collage, crayon, ink and marker)

page 77 (below)
We are mostly water
(collage, ink and acrylic)

This is the end of Book VI.

META: Book VI

2010-06-06T21:21:00.001-07:00

page 73

Our Father.
(collage, acrylic and ink)

page 74.
I Am Ready for the Fall.
(collage, ink, acrylic and marker)

page 75.
There is more to Eden.
(collage, acrylic and ink)

META: Book VI

2010-06-05T22:07:00.000-07:00

page 71...

page 71 (interior).

Refuge. (collage, ink, marker and gesso)

page 72.
A Path with no Heart.
(collage, acrylic and ink)

META : Book VI

2010-06-04T22:35:00.001-07:00

page 69. I Am Not From Your Tribe.
(collage, acrylic, ink and lino block)

page 70. Native Tongue.
(collage, ink and color pencil)

page 71. Every Road. Every Path.
(collage, acrylic, ink and folded paper)

META : Book VI

2010-06-04T22:22:00.000-07:00

page 67. the Messenger. (collage, acrylic and ink)

page 68. the Light Traveler. (collage, acrylic, pencil and ink)

META : Book VI

2010-01-01T03:25:00.000-08:00

(left to right)
page 64
If I'm so evil...
(collage, acrylic, ink and marker)

page 65
Judgement.
(collage, acrylic, ink and pastel)

page 66
Wasteland.
(collage, acrylic, ink and marker)

META : Book V

2009-12-15T19:55:00.000-08:00

page 62
Learn to Swim.
(collage, ink, color pencil and marker)

page 63
Cellular Memory.
(collage, color pencil, acrylic, ink and marker)

This is the conclusion of Book V.

META : Book V

2009-12-13T12:15:00.000-08:00

Page 59
Paper Doll.
(collage, ink and marker)

page 60
It Was All Just A Dream.
(collage, ink, color pencil, marker and acrylic)

page 61
Frame x Frame.
(collage, acrylic and ink)

META : Book V

2009-12-02T19:19:00.001-08:00

page 57
Even The Wind...
(collage, ink and marker)

page 58
Honeybee Sacrifice
(collage, ink and marker)

META : Book V

2009-12-01T18:17:00.000-08:00

page 55
Notes from the Dreaming
(collage, acrylic, color pencil, ink and marker)

page 56
This Side of Paradise
(collage, acrylic and string)

Book V is fairly brief and pertains to dream and memory.

META : Book IV

2009-11-26T16:41:00.001-08:00

page 53
In The Garden
(collage, ink, color pencil and marker)

page 54
I Did No Crime
(collage, acrylic, ink, marker and pastel)

Book IV depicts death, mourning, and 4th dimensional transitions. It is the introduction of Lilith into the narrative. It is the continuation of Eve and Persephone. It begins with a pyschopomp and ends with Lilith.

META : Book IV

2009-11-26T16:27:00.001-08:00

page 51
Of War and Weaving
(collage, ink, acrylic, white china marker and string)

page 52
Forgive Us Our Trespasses
(collage and acrylic)

" Of War and Weaving " is a reference to the Egyptian goddess Nit (Neith). Much of META makes reference to a number of women in history, myth and folklore.

META : Book IV

2009-11-14T17:58:00.000-08:00

page 48
As Above, So Below (collage, acrylic and ink)

page 49
Tightrope Walkers (collage, ink and marker)

page 50
Past. Present. Future. (collage, ink and acrylic)

In Australian Aboriginal mythology, The Dreaming or Altjeringa (also called the Dreamtime) is a sacred 'once upon a time' time out of time in which ancestral Totemic Spirit Beings formed The Creation.
The expression 'Dreamtime' is most often used to refer to the 'time before time', or 'the time of the creation of all things', while 'Dreaming' is often used to refer to an individual's or group's set of beliefs or spirituality.
http://www.crystalinks.com/dreamtime.html

META : Book IV

2009-11-13T20:16:00.000-08:00

If Book III is a love song, then Book IV is a song of mourning.

(top to bottom)
1.) Omens. (collage, acrylic, ink and white charcoal)

2.) We Won the Battle. (collage, acrylic, ink and white charcoal)

3.) Electromagnetic Fields. (collage, acrylic, ink and white charcoal)

4.) Reflections. (collage, acrylic, ink and color pencil)

The electromagnetic field is a physical field produced by electrically charged objects. It affects the behavior of charged objects in the vicinity of the field. Light is the electromagnetic field in a certain frequency range. At lower frequencies the electromagnetic field may be radio waves or infrared light, while at higher frequencies it may be UV light or x-rays, among others.

The electromagnetic field extends indefinitely throughout space and describes the electromagnetic interaction. It is one of the four fundamental forces of nature (the others are gravitation, the weak interaction, and the strong interaction). The field propagates by electromagnetic radiation; in order of increasing energy (decreasing wavelength) electromagnetic radiation comprises: radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays.

META : Book IV

2009-11-13T19:53:00.000-08:00

page 42 (above)
Ghost, Ghost ( collage and acrylic)

page 43
In Between the Moon and You ( collage, ink, an acrylic)

META
a book of ontology
by Mila Charleston

the study of Being and existence including the definition and classification of entities ( a distinct, separate existence that need not be material), the nature of their properties, and the nature of change
'...things are going to change my dear...'

pragmatic statements without subtext or weight. simple obvious truths

private revelations, visions, dreams, meditation, prayer, ecstasy, mystics, seers (1. The Awakening 2. Purgatory 3. Illumination 4. Dark night 5. Transcendental ) dimensional reality shifts

Being insofar as being goes_ being in terms of being. Causality, substance, species, elements, relation, interaction and finitude.

Artist Book

2009-10-18T23:45:00.001-07:00

1.) Watch the Weather Change
(collage and mixed media )

2.) When the storm hit...
( graphite and acrylic )

3.) To Be Cast Out
( collage, ink and acrylic )

4.) To Be Cast Below
( collage, ink and acrylic )

That is the conclusion of Book III.

Michelle O.

2009-10-16T00:25:00.000-07:00

" Michelle O. "
Lino cut
4 x 6 inches

I do not care what Michelle Obama is wearing. I do care that the position of the first lady is that of a glorified house wife and apparently fashion icon. Way to set an example! Ladies, we too, can parlay those degrees and careers into unpaid positions as the First Lady! If Michelle Obama really wants to make a difference, she'll demand a paycheck. Otherwise she's just riding the coat tails of her husband and that does nothing to empower women.

Book III...

2009-10-02T16:21:00.001-07:00

1.) Some times my heart gets in the way.
(collage and mixed media)

2.) A Sacrificial Offering
(collage and mixed media)

3.) Your Shade Lingers
(collage, ink and acrylic)

4.) ...At His Feet
(collage and mixed media)

META: Book III

2009-10-01T01:00:00.000-07:00

1.) the Bee-sides
(collage, ink and charcoal)

2. Mother Mary
( collage and mixed media)

Every image evolved over the course of the year. While I was creating a new collage on a blank page, I was going forward or backward and adding and subtracting from pages. This book has been a very personal experience for me. It is very much a visual narrative and you can start anywhere in the book and land on a story. I am especially fond of Book III. I regard it as a love song made with scissors and glue.

Artist Book : META

2009-09-29T17:57:00.000-07:00

1.)Songlines
(collage, ink and marker)

2.) I Think I'll Stay Awhile...
(collage, ink and acrylic)

Songlines, also called Dreaming tracks by Indigenous Australians, are an ancient cultural concept and motif perpetuated through oral lore and singing and other storytelling modalities such as dance and painting. Songlines are an intricate series of song cycles that identify landmarks and subtle tracking mechanisms for navigation. Each songline has a particular direction or vector, and walking the wrong way along a songline may be sacrilegious act, as at, for example, climbing up Uluru when the correct direction is down. For the Aborigine all land is sacred and alive. Their ancestors gave life in singing, gave them life through song, and dwell in the land still. The songs must be continually sung to keep the land "alive". In singing they preserve the land/story/dreaming of their ancestors, and recreate it in their oneness of past, present and future.

Artist Book : META

2009-09-29T17:36:00.000-07:00

1.) PsychoPomp
(collage, ink and acrylic)

2.) Laws Will Be Broken
(collage, ink and acrylic)

3.) If You Lose Your Ship...
(collage and ink)

4.) Navigation
(collage, ink and acrylic)

META: Book II

2009-09-29T00:18:00.000-07:00

1.) If There Is A Way To Find You...
( collage, ink, acrylic and marker)

2.) The Witching Hour
( collage, ink, acrylic and color pencil)

3.) Free Fall
( collage and ink )

4.) Some People Still Fear Large Bodies of Water.
( collage, ink and charcoal )

Artist Book

2009-09-28T15:03:00.000-07:00

The conclusion of Meta: Book One...

1.) Gatekeeper
(collage, ink and acrylic)

2.) The Handle Is One of Us
(collage and ink)

3.) WITNESS
(collage)

Hand bound editions of my artist book are available in soft cover and hard cover. I'm a skilled bookbinder, so please contact me if you are interested in purchasing an edition of META or any of the books included in META.

Artist Book

2009-09-28T14:43:00.001-07:00

1.) Upon The Event Horizon...
(collage, ink and marker)

2.) The Dreaming
(collage and mixed media)

3.) Revolution #1
(collage and acrylic)

4.) Only The Messenger
(collage, ink and acrylic)

Artist Book

2009-09-25T01:47:00.001-07:00

1.) There is no ram caught in the thicket.
(collage, ink, graphite)

2.) The Call
(collage and ink)

3.) A List of Secrets, Warnings and General Advice
( collage and ink )

Government and religion

2009-09-24T00:15:00.000-07:00

1.) " Oil Food Water "
Lino Cut
8x11

We are in the midst of a food war. It's a war that has been waged against the people of the world. It is a war that is in the interest of large corporations, such as Monsanto. Genetically modified food, hormones and antibiotics in our meat, high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oil, soybean oil, and enriched flour. We our being poisoned and it is government sanctioned. Our water is polluted, so we buy bottled water. That's more plastic to poison the earth, more oil to be drilled. This is the systematic poisoning of the masses.

2.) " Christ Love "
Lino Cut
3x5

Religion has done more harm to the world then good. We rape, torture, and kill in the name of God. We use the good book to justify the indignities we inflict onto the world.

Artist Book

2009-09-23T20:10:00.000-07:00

1.) A Book of Ontology
(collage and ink )
2.) META
(collage, ink, and crayon)
3.) TIME
(collage and ink)

META
1.transcending, encompassing
2.pertaining to a level above or beyond
AN ONTOLOGICAL EXPERIMENT

Artist Book

2009-09-22T20:36:00.000-07:00

META...
Take anything in the world and look at it as something that is.
To clarify the notions by which we ( I ) understand the world ( existence, objecthood, property, space, time, causality, possibility). Or the relations these things bear to one another.

1. Tell Me Do You Feel That?
(collage, ink, acrylic)
2. Horror is the Future.
(collage and ink)

3. To Natives It Is The Way of The Law.
(collage and ink)
4. When The Axe Came To The Forest...
(collage and ink)

These are the first few pages of the artist book that I have been working in and on for over a year now. There are over 100 pages of collage and mixed media art pieces that string together to form a non-linear narrative.

Corporate Democrat

2009-07-10T22:35:00.000-07:00

Untitled work in progress.
Graphite on paper.

" If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend." - Abraham Lincoln.

General Order # 3

2009-06-19T14:48:00.000-07:00

" The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere."

Happy Juneteenth.

" I Am Not From Your Tribe " oil on canvas

A few months ago I started a series of three self portraits. This is the second in the series. It's 2009 and I wonder why my people are still treated as second class citizens in a nation that our descendants built. To be clear, I am angry. This series is a war cry. Assimilation stripped us of our native tongue and our rituals. We lost our culture and took on that of White America's. Their religion, their customs, so forth and so on. I am an American, a Texan and a black woman, but I am not from your tribe.

Mr. and Mrs. Davies : a portrait

2009-03-01T14:52:00.000-08:00

Portrait of a Married Couple: Chris and Lisa
(oil on canvas)

Cannibal Culture!!!

2009-01-30T20:28:00.000-08:00

816 S. La Brea, upstairs. Open Bar. Art, music, and good times. Bring a friend and spread the word.

Nancy (work in progress)

2009-01-14T14:44:00.000-08:00

Read And I Don't Want to Live This Life by Deborah Spungen. There is always another side to a story. Demonized women is an issue I continually gravitate to. I think Nancy deserves a different perspective.

Miss Nancy if you're Nasty.( oil and ink on canvas paper )

when I was a young girl...

2009-01-04T17:35:00.000-08:00

#81. (oil on wood)
" No obsession can justify its continued existence except by perpetual and repeated self-affirmation " Simone De Beauvoir.

Bombs!!

2009-01-04T16:17:00.000-08:00

The Love Song of J. Robert Oppenheimer (acrylic and collage)

" If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one. " Oppenheimer quoted the Bhagavad Gita in reference to the Trinity test. " Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."

ghost, ghost, my favorite ghost

2008-12-22T17:02:00.001-08:00

The beginning of an oil painting of Bob Dylan circa Blonde on Blonde. Once I dreamed that Dylan was sitting on a bench amidst an indigo color field singing 'Nowhere Man' by the Beatles. Since that dream, I've made prints, painting, and a few drawings. Dylan's face is a face I never seem to tire of. Bobby D., I love thee.

Made with love, made with glue

2008-12-15T17:00:00.000-08:00

Peresphone ate pomegranate seeds and was cast down.
" I would let your darkness invade me"
, in times of darkness why not call upon the bringer of light. A daughter. A sister. A lover. The Queen of borrowed light. The brightest reflection.

Till the honey spread itself too thin

2008-12-14T22:27:00.000-08:00

Scarlet Spectrum (acrylic and fabric on board)

Tori Amos. Songbird. Myth-maker. One of my favorite musicians.

2008-12-12T16:48:00.000-08:00

" In the Beginning... " (acrylic on linen with beads)
" Lest We Forget " ( acrylic on linen with collage)
" Maya Angelou " ( acrylic on linen with collage)
My favorite line from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is, " If growing up is painful for the Southern Black girl, being aware of her displacement is the rust on the razor that threatens the throat."

Barack Obama (work in progress)

2008-12-12T16:34:00.000-08:00

" Obama Nation " (acrylic)

the B-sides ( works in progress)

2008-12-12T16:14:00.000-08:00

They belong to a series of 8 acrylic and oil paintings of Jean Harlow, Bette Davis, Norma Shearer, and Joan Crawford.
(top to bottom) "Honey B." (oil),

"Dearest Joan" (oil), "How to Make a Pro Blush" (oil),

"If I'm so Evil...." (oil),

" Hallowed Heart" (acrylic).

Mothers. Lovers. Sisters.

Others. " We're all busy little bees, full of sting, making honey day and night, aren't we honey?", Bette Davis said that. These are the Bee-Sides.

Sweet Lou & Diamond David

2008-12-12T16:06:00.001-08:00

" Sweet Lou" Oil and Charcoal on wood
" Diamond David" Oil and Charcoal on illustration board

I've been listening to Magic & Loss, a lot. And Coney Island Baby. Guess I felt compelled to paint Lou Reed the elder. I had this desire to work with pinks and candy reds......hence Diamond David.