About the Artist
Maya Freelon is an award-winning artist best known for her lively, colorful paper sculptures, made primarily from tissue paper. Her godmother, Maya Angelou, described her work as “visualizing the truth about the vulnerability and power of the human being."For the past decade, Freelon has experimented with familiar, inexpensive materials such as tissue paper and glue as part of her dedication to making “art that’s inclusive, art that’s accessible and art that builds bridges.” As the daughter of an architect father and jazz singing mother, she learned skill, focus, and wild improvisation, as well as art’s potential to make our everyday lives more joyful. She values venues and commissions that expose her work to large, diverse audiences, and believes an internet router is as deserving of artistic attention as a gallery wall.
In addition to museum exhibitions, she has produced work for Google and Cadillac, and the Smithsonian, as well as for hotels, healthcare facilities, and government embassies. Her art has a wide, popular appeal and been featured in Cosmopolitan Magazine, Ebony Magazine, the Washington Post, Huffington Post, and Modern Luxury Magazine.
Artist's Website
About the Work
Freelon discovered her favorite medium of tissue paper monoprint by a happy accident. While she was an art student she lived with her grandmother, Frances J. Pierce, and one day came across some tissue paper tucked away in the basem*nt. Influenced by her grandmother, who came from a family of sharecroppers ("who never got their fair share") and had been an elementary school teacher for thirty years, she never wasted anything. A water leak had caused the colors in the tissue paper to bleed."It was a metaphor for finding beauty in the simplest form, the fragility of life," reflects Freelon. It is also a way to honor her grandmother, who has been a constant source of inspiration and support, and whose favorite sayings often provide Freelon with the titles for her artwork.
Since that day, Freelon has mined the creative possibilities of tissue paper. It’s a choice guided by politics as well as aesthetics. When Freelon uses this humble material in the high art context of museums and galleries, she challenges paradigms of power and honors the creative potential of every member of a community. "I am because we are," she insists, and has worked with groups of people to create collaborative "tissue quilts" in homage to African American quilting bees. To create Begin/Again, Freelon started with vibrantly dyed tissue paper. While the tissue was still wet, it was pressed into an absorbent paper then spun on a pottery wheel, creating a visual vortex of braided colors.
From the Artist
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- 1media/MayaFreelon.gif2020-08-13T21:34:42+00:00Jessica Bocinskia602570e86f7a6936e40ab07e0fddca6eccf4e9bMaya FreelonJessica Bocinski3INTROsplash22912020-08-27T04:57:49+00:00Jessica Bocinskia602570e86f7a6936e40ab07e0fddca6eccf4e9b
- 12020-09-03T22:02:14+00:00AnonymousBig ArtChristine Benedict-Young1plain2020-09-03T22:02:14+00:00I absolutely love big bold public art. Thank you Maya and thank you Chapman for presenting this inspiring artist.Christine Benedict-Young
- 1media/Maya Freelon_thumb.jpg2020-08-28T19:12:53+00:00Begin/Again1Maya Freelon, Begin/Again, spinning tissue ink monoprint, 2018.
Purchased with funds from the Escalette Endowment.media/Maya Freelon.jpgplain2020-08-28T19:12:53+00:00 - 1media/Screen Shot 2020-08-28 at 12.14.08 PM_thumb.png2020-08-28T19:17:04+00:00Begin/Again (detail)1Maya Freelon, Begin/Again (detail), spinning tissue ink monoprint, 2018.
Purchased with funds from the Escalette Endowment.media/Screen Shot 2020-08-28 at 12.14.08 PM.pngplain2020-08-28T19:17:04+00:00 - 1media/Screen Shot 2020-08-28 at 12.14.20 PM_thumb.png2020-08-28T19:17:25+00:00Begin/Again (detail)1Maya Freelon, Begin/Again (detail), spinning tissue ink monoprint, 2018.
Purchased with funds from the Escalette Endowment.media/Screen Shot 2020-08-28 at 12.14.20 PM.pngplain2020-08-28T19:17:25+00:00 - 12020-08-13T17:50:21+00:00The Art of Daring - Cadillac - MAYA FREELON ASANTE1plain2020-08-13T17:50:21+00:00
- 1media/maya_press_thumb.jpg2020-08-13T17:55:30+00:00Maya Freelon1portraitmedia/maya_press.jpgplain2020-08-13T17:55:30+00:002018040613495820180406134958Chris Charles
- 12020-08-13T18:57:45+00:00OnHub Makers: Make Your Home Internet Look Like Your Home1Because Wi-Fi works best when your router isn't buried in a closet or tucked behind a bookcase, OnHub from TP-LINK was designed with an outer shell that's ...plain2020-08-13T18:57:45+00:00YouTubeGoogle2015-12-08T18:00:34ZJ9tsNfv5hyY
- 12020-08-13T21:42:02+00:00From the Artist: Maya Freelon Asante1Meet Maya Freelon Asante and hear her philosophy on art! She leads Threads of Africa festival attendees in creating tissue paper quilts. The resulting pieces ...plain2020-08-13T21:42:02+00:00YouTubeNorth Carolina Museum of Art2017-09-28T17:59:49ZNkJh1DPHEkE
- 12020-08-13T21:42:42+00:00Maya Freelon Asante in Madagascar1Documentary about award-winning visual artist Maya Freelon Asante and her "Ubuntu" installation at the US Embassy in Antananarvio, Madagascar. Directed ...plain2020-08-13T21:42:42+00:00YouTubeAFX812010-09-15T18:20:28Zsg4FYi7dC9Y
- 12020-08-13T21:44:47+00:00Art on Fire1Maya Freelon sets her artwork ablaze on Juneteenth, in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter Movement. Location - Vanhook Farm - Hurdle Mills, NC Artist ...plain2020-08-13T21:44:47+00:00YouTubeMaya Freelon2020-07-01T01:42:48Z-hPD-z3r3Fk
