Category Archives: Uncategorized
My Baltimore Workbook, Gloria Garrett
Gloria Garrett, Quilt Block
Monument Quilt square is a 8’x8’ fabric and sharpie marker piece created in 2018 by Gloria Garrett, FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, and Anonymous Artists from Councilwoman Rita R. Church Community Center in Clifton Park. The quilt is divided into four quadrants, with a variety of colorful fabrics. Garrett’s is in the bottom left quadrant. It has a solid red background with a large rectangle in the center with thin stripes of white and light pink. Laid over top of the striped fabric in the center is white lacy fabric made up of large flowers, thin stems, and small leaves. The leaves have been painted over with dark green that speckles the fabric but allows the white to still peek through. The flowers are painted with smudges of color such as red, purple, blue, and yellow. Outside of the rectangle on the solid red background, there are white speckles scattered throughout. In the four corners there are small white rectangles with block letters in sharpie and thin lines of blue paint on the border. They each say (from top left to bottom right): “You,” “Are,” “Not,” “Alone.” In the center above and below the piece of rectangular fabric there are large letters that are painted on in overlapping blue, green, and yellow pigments. They say (From top center left to bottom center right): “You are loved and beautiful.” The upper left quilt has a solid, black background with a bright red fabric square in the center. Within the red square, there is handwritten text in large blue painted letters which says (from top to bottom): “Stop the violence. God is love.” The words are flanked by two hearts painted on in the same blue. Throughout the square are faint speckles of yellow and white. Flanking the middle red square on the left and right are a variety of bright, colorful, patterned pieces of fabric. The upper right quilt has a solid, cream background with a red square of solid fabric in the center. Within the square are three words painted in yellow, blue, and red that say (from top to bottom): “Love doesn’t hurt.” On the edges of the square there are six flowers cut out of floral fabric. The red square is flanked by two pieces of fabric- the one on the left is light pink and white striped and the one on the right is bright off-white. The bottom right quilt has a patterned fabric background composed of small green and yellow squares. In the center is a red square of fabric. At the top of the square is the word “Believe!” in bright yellow letters. In the center of the square are a series of hand painted pink and yellow flowers. Below the flowers are the words “Jesus is always around!” with squiggle shapes, all of which is painted in bright yellow.
Video: Monument Quilt History Series, Gloria Garrett
Gloria Garrett, Needlepoints
Gloria Garrett
Row one, from top left to right:
Mom and Son is a makeup and paper drawing measuring 8.5 by 11 inches, featuring two figures- a young boy with a light brown complexion, brown hair, a blue shirt, and green pants, and a woman with a lighter complexion in a red and white patterned outfit with a red hat. They are on a grassy field with autumn colored trees in the background. The figures are both smiling with closed mouths, and appear to be in motion, the mother holding the son and seemingly swinging him from side to side. The texture appears rough and the work lacks sharp, dark lines, making the image appear softer and almost blurred. In the bottom left corner, a small signature is written in black, uppercase letters spelling “GLO.”
Spring Garden is a makeup on paper drawing that measures 8.5 by 11 inches. It features a mix of red flowers, a large white and red flower on the right, green stems, and a faint butterfly with brown wings near the center. The background is silvery and almost reflective. The texture is thick and the brushstrokes are expressive.
African Baskets is a makeup on paper drawing measuring 8.5 by 11 inches. Both figures are holding large baskets on their heads, with the one on the right faceless and the one on the left’s face is covered by their arm. The woman on the left has a medium brown complexion and is wearing an orangeish yellow robe that is off the shoulder and has dark hair up in a bun, while the man on the right has a dark brown complexion is dressed in a dark green and brown robe that exposes most of his chest and is draped over his right shoulder. The woman is turned away in profile. The man’s basket is filled with bright but indistinct produce, and he is facing forward. The background is done in bright green, yellow, and brown, suggesting an outdoor setting with trees and bushes around them. The brushstrokes are thick and expressive, with the man outlined in soft black lines.
Row two, from center left to right:
Rise and Shine Collage is 8.5×11 inches in size and uses collage, makeup, paper, and photocopies to create a colorful, hand-painted piece of art divided into four panels, each with a motivational message. The text is somewhat rough and painted in different colors. The panels say: Top Left: “RISE AND SHINE,” Top Right: “REACH FOR THE STARS,” with a small star and person shapes above the words. Middle across both panels: “Promote Peace,” Bottom Left: “Smile Within” with a smiling face illustration. Bottom right: “Seek the Light.” Along the bottom on a dark strip, it says “BE BOLD,” “Listen for Song,” and “BE KIND.” The texture is thick and appears oily and slightly shiny.
Peace and Joy is a painting 12×12 in size using makeup and cardboard of a man in profile, facing right and looking up at the sky, taking up the foreground, middle, and background with medium brown skin and curly black hair, wearing a red headband with red circles. The background features a colorful arc resembling a rainbow that starts behind the person’s head and curves forward into the foreground of the piece. The figure is dressed in red and gold tones, and the painting style is textured and expressive, with visible brush strokes. There is an almost oily texture to the piece, with parts of the cardboard coming through under the thinner layers. The bottom right corner has a small signature in capital letters spelling “G L O.” The person is smiling slightly and appears calm, giving the viewer the same sense.
Be Joyful Collage is 8.5 x 11 inches in size and is made up of collage, makeup, paper, and photocopies. It is a colorful, textured artwork divided into four sections with positive messages. The top left section reads “BE Joyful,” and the top right has a heart with “GOD IS LOVE” inside. The middle blue and yellow band reads “Count Blessings.” The bottom left heart-shaped area says “Believe in Miracles,” and the bottom right says “Listen for the song.” Along the bottom, it reads “Sparkle With Joy.” The texture appears thick with a blotting technique used to create a blended backdrop in a variety of pinks, greens, yellows, blues, and reds. The words are almost all outlined with white, with “count blessings” and “sparkle with joy” outlined in a dark blue.
Row three, from bottom left to center right:
Daughters of Africa is a makeup on paper drawing measuring 8.5 by 11 inches, picturing four people against a soft, orange background. Each person is depicted with distinctive facial features and clothing. The person on the left has a lighter tan complexion and is bald, wearing large yellow hoop earrings and a headwrap, and a colorful almost coiled neck piece. The person in the center is looking to the side, with a medium brown complexion and short, cropped brown hair. She is wearing an off the shoulder light blue gray robe that is tied at her left shoulder. The woman on the right is in profile, and only their face and neck can be seen. They have a medium brown complexion and blurred facial features. The woman on the far right is looking head on and has a medium brown complexion. She is wearing a large ornamental collar and a colorful headdress and medium sized gold hooped earrings. The drawing is vibrant, with an expressive style and thick texture, using orange, brown, yellow, and blue tones. All four of the women seem close and in community with each other.
A Fruit Market is a rectangular artwork that is 8.5×11 inches in size using paper and makeup. It features four abstract, roughly painted female figures. The figures are gathered around several woven, brown baskets filled with colorful foods. The scene uses vibrant colors, such as reds, greens, blues, and yellows, with thick, raised brush strokes that give a three-dimensional, almost sculpted effect. The women are all wearing bright colors and have wide, open mouthed smiles. The two on the left have lighter brown complexions, and the two to the right have medium brown complexions. The scene is joyful and communal.
“Orientation”: Meaning in Memory and the Immediate Surrounding
This is a long exposure from April 23 to May 21, 2025 at The Stamp Gallery | University of Maryland, College Park | Written by Jasjot Kaur Gill
Imagine extracting two decades of your life from your memory into a set of photographs. What would remain? A few clear shots of joy or pain, emptiness or vague fragments? Years reduced to colors and shapes, objects, repetitive paths? Fleeting moments preserved, while others slip through entirely?
Jeffrey Hampshire’s Orientation, from the ‘This is a Long Exposure’ exhibition at STAMP Gallery, asks how do we carry memory, from the past and present, and still moments through time? How do we remember the places we pass through every day on our walk back and forth from work to home, and what do those visuals say about our relationships with our natural surroundings, space, ourselves, and our story?
Orientation is an evocative visual journal created from the artist Jeffrey’s own daily journey from home to work, college, still moments captured in between, caught by the attention of the eye. In the series of small photographs lined up in rows, some moments are subconsciously registered by being on a repetitive path, others a new experience releasing dopamine while some a connection to the past. Each photograph documents a pause—a glance, a texture, a corner of his workspace, a moment of peace and silence in nature, or a still object of the world that caught his attention. And yet, as a whole, the series of photographs refuses to be purely documentary, placed in a jumbled manner with no direct connection to a timeline. These are not moments captured for the sake of memory, echoes of one’s values and perception of the immediate surroundings, residues and questions. Jeffrey arranges the photographs intuitively, allowing opaque and transparent layers, visual disruptions, and blank spaces to guide our experience through the installation.
These photographs reflect the unnoticed, and noticed in our lives: the cluttered stairwells, the roads and signage, the plain sky silently watching over, the voice echoing through the pipes, wires and roads, the trees seen at a quick glance, a delay to work by the fallen tree. And yet, through repetition and scale, these “insignificant” still moments become portals to the viewer’s perception. As you view these photographs you ponder upon moments that don’t register at first but linger in the subconscious.
In an age where headphones filter out atmospheric sound and our commutes blur into our subconscious memory, Orientation is an alternative: a meditation on the act of seeing, seeing differently, seeing through time and space, seeing in different dimensions. It asks us how we interact with natural and man-made environments, how we disregard, how we dismiss—and how even forgotten, unnoticed visuals may hold space and meaning, appearing on our memory board.
Some images seem wiped out of existence, while others faded and abstract—reflecting the way memory functions. Do we really recall that morning sky, or just the feeling of having been late? Do we remember the street corner, or only the stress tied to it? Do we remember the conversation we had on the side of the road, or was it a made up memory, a moment from the past perhaps? We walk the same paths each day, yet something always changes. Do we even realise this, the weather, our thoughts, a detour from a construction zone we didn’t expect. The duality captured through the tension between routine and change makes the viewer wonder, and look more closely.
Standing in front of this piece, I found myself thinking, I believe I have some similar images stored in my photographic memory. Who else has walked this road? Do our memories overlap and what are they thinking as they walk through it? It is a strange thought perhaps, but strangely comforting to know how connected we are with others in the environment around us, if only to pause and pay more attention.
In Orientation, the artist Jeffrey Hampshire gives a layered, intuitive, form to that memory and invites us to reconsider the invisible architecture of our lives. To listen, to see, and maybe to remember with a renewed perspective.
Jeffery Hampshire and Julia Reising’s work is included in This is a long exposure at The Stamp Gallery of the University of Maryland, College Park, from April 23 to May 21. For more information on these artists, find them at https://www.instagram.com/j.hampshire_art/ and https://www.juliareising.com. For more information on This is a long exposure and related events, visit https://stamp.umd.edu/centers/stamp_gallery.
Unlocking Stories Beyond: The Open Narratives of Schroeder Cherry’s Mixed Media Art
Written by Jasjot Kaur
How do unwanted objects, sign language, and keys become a language that transcends the frames of an artwork, inviting reflection on personal stories? Schroeder Cherry’s art is not about prescribing a single narrative but about offering an open-ended conversation that resonates with those willing to pause, observe, and engage. His work speaks beyond the African diaspora, inviting all viewers to find meaning within the layers of repurposed materials, folklore, and memory.
Cherry’s mixed-media assemblages on wood embrace storytelling inspired by travel, history, and real and reimagined events. His pieces hold multiple interpretations. Cherry’s use of sign language and alphabet, spelling out specific words that connect to the work’s title, acts as both a riddle and a guide, nudging viewers toward understanding the arts concept without dictating what they should see. The harmony of pictorial and materials makes his art into a language medium that transcends words, across the stories of the African diaspora allowing each individual to bring their own lived experiences and an opportunity to learn from another.
One of the most striking elements in Cherry’s art is using keys. They symbolize access—both the power to lock and to unlock. “Everybody I know has at least one key they’ve had for more than a year and don’t know what it belongs to,” Cherry reflects. A key, seemingly insignificant in isolation, gains new life within his compositions, provoking curiosity and introspection. Keys are one of those overlooked items that are a part of our everyday lives, but we do not realize their importance unless we lose it. It prompts the question: What doors, both literal and metaphorical, have we left locked or forgotten? What memories remain suppressed but, if lost, would trouble us? What stories, memories, and emotions, though left behind in the past, still haunt us?
His mixed media art encourages a slow engagement—something rare in a fast-paced world—and urges viewers to pause, observe, and reflect. Recently, I witnessed a family with young children embodying this philosophy. While looking at the Adam and Eve Enter the Garden 2024 piece, the parents encouraged their children to share what they saw and thought and how they might create something similar. The kids gravitated toward the colors, the recognizable objects like shells and the sparkle of the beads, and the sense of playfulness—all of which sparked curiosity and storytelling. One kid said it reminded them of upcycling, to which the parents suggested working on something similar at home. The parents realized they had lost touch with the arts and crafts activities they used to enjoy in their home garage—a special way they bonded with their children. Found materials in Cherry’s art serve as personal and collective memory touchstones. For one family, the shells and beads recalled childhood arts and crafts, summer beach days, and family traditions. The materials transcend as they may symbolize something deeply personal—an object tied to a specific moment or feeling.
By repurposing commonly found yet unused materials like wood, hardware, locks, and other household objects, Cherry creates sculptural paintings that feel introspective and transcend beyond the frames. There is a sense of familiarity yet mystery—a push and pull between the recognizable and the unknown. His background in puppetry and painting allows him to blur the lines between functional and non-functional forms, placing viewers at a crossroads. What is this material for? What is this story, and whose story is it? Do I have a role to play in it?
Cherry often receives keys from people who visit his exhibitions—an exchange of objects that carry unknown pasts. For those who stop to look closely, the sensory experience of his work can unlock memories, traumas, beliefs, and fears hidden within themselves. His boundless frames extend beyond the canvas, reaching many people who belong to the story, inviting them to add their chapters.
Everyone has a story—a unique, incomplete story—one that is constantly unfolding.
Next time you visit Schroeder Cherry’s exhibition, take a moment. Look closely. Ask questions. What stories will you uncover?
Schroeder Cherry’s work is included in Open Ended Narratives: at The Stamp Gallery of the University of Maryland, College Park, from February 18 to April 5, 2025. For more information on Schroeder Cherry’s work, visit https://bakerartist.org/portfolios/schroedercherry. For more information on Open Ended Narratives: and related events, visit https://stamp.umd.edu/centers/stamp_gallery.
The Sweetness of Liberation: Reclamation of the Watermelon as a Symbol of Autonomy in Schroeder Cherry’s Open Ended Narratives
Open Ended Narratives from February 18th to April 5th, 2025, at The Stamp Gallery | University of Maryland, College Park | Written by Rachel Schmid-James
Just as the cogs of a machine must fit together seamlessly to work, an exhibition must build and mesh into something greater than the individual pieces. In Schroeder Cherry’s current show, Open Ended Narratives, the themes emerge like threads, twisting together to create a fluid experience. While certain motifs show up consistently throughout pieces, the Baltimore-based artist is adamant that he has no interest in telling one story. “There is no one story; viewers bring their own experiences to each piece,” Cherry writes in his artist statement.
The idea that an artist has one message they are attempting to convey is simplistic and confining, as art can mean many things to different people. However, this is not to say that these thematic elements have no context outside of the viewer’s own. The image of the watermelon pops up more than seventeen times throughout the works displayed at the gallery. If the viewer has no knowledge of the historical context Cherry is referencing, the significance of the symbol may go unnoticed.
The watermelon stereotype first emerged in the Southern United States in the 1860s, shortly after the end of the Civil War and the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Former enslavers and Confederate sympathizers were flailing to combat the beginnings of the Reconstruction era, and observing that many formerly enslaved people were growing watermelons on their farms for profit, created a caricature to represent African Americans as immature and dirty. Over time this farce of a statement worked its way into generations of people, becoming a belief that many learned casually through subliminal messages. It appeared in caricatures on children’s television shows and other representations of minstrelsy. In contemporary history, politicians continue to push this stereotype among others to draw in racist supporters.
Unfortunately, the original meaning of the watermelon has become tainted with these narratives, but the African diaspora has worked to restore its original meaning in the community. Before white supremacists got their hands on the symbol of the watermelon, it stood as a message of liberation and autonomy for formerly enslaved individuals in the South. Cherry’s work reclaims the image, raising it into idolatry, a symbol of resistance, while also planting the seeds for a more positive interpretation of it for current and future Black children.
In Cherry’s piece Twins (Future Voter Series), the watermelon takes the form of the two young girls’ swimsuits. They stand with their arms around each other, beaming at an invisible camera. They are proud of their swimsuits, making no effort to hide and instead exuding excitement over being seen in them. While each viewer is invited to add their own details to these girls’ stories, it cannot be said that they yet understand the burden of the stereotype. They become a symbol of hope for the present, that we may someday completely filter out the muddled narrative created by hate, and return it to its revolutionary roots.
The question of divinity is also raised in Cherry’s wall sconce pieces, which depict Black figures as one of the holiest symbols in Christianity: angels. Combining this with the symbol of the watermelon, most notably in the piece Angel Sconce #11, Red Wings, which features the image prominently throughout. Angels are also a symbol with a racist past, often depicting the ideals of whiteness as divine and darker skin as evil. By synthesizing these broader motifs into a piece that seems to reach outward with its curling pieces and a serious face that stares back at you, Cherry continues to weave together strings that connect the ideas of the past and present to those of the future.
Through these works, Cherry takes the history of a harmful stereotype into his hands and melds it into a poetic emblem of joy for the African diaspora. These symbols contribute to the building of a foundation for the narratives that Cherry threads the needle for but never ties off the stitch.
Unlocking Narratives: Exploring Schroeder Cherry’s Barbershop Series
Written by Soeun Kim
While people are often drawn to noticeably ostentatious and obtrusive works that grab their attention right away, there is an undeniable pull toward the everyday familiar spaces and moments that feel deeply personal and universally relatable. Even from outside the Stamp Gallery, Schroeder Cherry’s exhibition Open Ended Narratives immediately captures the attention with its shimmering keys, locks, and metal elements. While Cherry intended to symbolize them as tools of access, these keys, reminiscent of Hansel and Gretel’s breadcrumb trail, acting as symbolic markers and guiding visitors through Cherry’s thought-provoking works. These objects invite the viewer to piece together a personal narrative, intertwining connections between seemingly disparate elements of the exhibition. Like unlocking hidden layers of meaning, these objects encourage visitors to follow the visual and thematic threads throughout the gallery.
Upon entering the exhibition space, visitors are immersed in an array of distinct themes and series from Cherry’s collection, with the Barber Shop Series standing out as a particularly compelling piece of the narrative puzzle. This series, rich in both visuality and concept, extends beyond the literal barbershop setting, opening conversations on broader social and political themes. Everyday objects, such as playing cards and mirrors, prompt viewers to pause, reflect, and construct their own interpretations. How do communal spaces, like barbershops and hair salons, serve as cultural hubs for storytelling, social bonding, and the exchange of perspectives? And how does Cherry establish such a personal connection with the viewer through his intricate use of found objects?
Cherry’s artistic philosophy resonates deeply with my own approach to design—drawing inspiration from the everyday, the familiar, and the overlooked. The Barber Shop Series especially evokes a sense of nostalgia, curiosity, and warmth. Through this series, Cherry highlights the role of the Black barbershops as more than grooming spaces. They are social sites where Black men are gathered to exchange ideas, discuss social issues and build connections among their community. These spaces serve as the cultural cornerstone that extend beyond the barbershop. Before moving to America in fifth grade, one of my most familiar routines was accompanying my grandmother to her hair salon appointments. There, under the warmth of perm heat machines, neighborhood women gathered to chat and exchange everything from small talk to the biggest gossip in town. Though I often didn’t understand the full scope of their conversations, I instinctively recognized the salon as more than a place for hairstyling. It was a social hub, a space for connection, conversation, and shared experiences, even among strangers. When I first encountered Barber Shop Series #35, Shoot, I felt as if a book in my mind had flipped open to a long-forgotten chapter of my life—young memories that had quietly lingered in the back of my mind. It’s remarkable how art has the power to resurrect moments we never consciously preserved, bringing buried memories back to the surface.
While we may never fully know all of the meanings these objects have for Cherry, what remains clear is his ability to guide viewers toward personal meaning-making. In exploring the Barber Shop Series, I found that my way of “unlocking the locks” was reconnecting with deep, formative memories—realizing just how much emotion and significance are embedded in the everyday. Through nostalgia, curiosity, and artistic deliberation, ordinary spaces become extraordinary, revealing new layers of personal and collective history.
Visit our Stamp Gallery and explore Cherry’s works firsthand. As you move through the exhibition, consider this: What is your key to the locks? What memories, emotions, or connections do these pieces unlock for you? Art has a way of revealing stories we may not have realized we carried—what story will you uncover?