Vashti Harrison: An Artist in Many Forms
Vashti Harrison
Vashti Harrison is an artist in many forms. She is a writer, illustrator, and filmmaker. She was born and raised in Onley, Virginia. Vashti currently resides in an apartment in Brooklyn, NY. She has attained her BA from the University of Virginia with a double major in Media Studies and Studio Art with concentrations in Film and Photography. Vashti furthered her education by receiving her MFA in Film and Video from California Institute of the Arts. At this time in her life, she began sneaking into classes that were held by people affiliated with Disney and Dreamworks. These experiences sparked a light within her, and motivated her to create the art she has up to this day.
Lived Experiences
Vashti Harrison grew up with a passion for drawing, but it was not until she took a trip to Trinidad (in her adult life) that she began to encompass her own flair on art. She came from a small town in Virginia, and she thought of herself as a homebody, but at the same time, she felt extremely driven to do well academically and in her field. Vashti got laid off at one point for how much she loved being home, but she took this opportunity to figure out what she wanted to do. Later on, she moved to Brooklyn in hopes to jump starting her career in illustration, which she did, but will always think of her home as Onley, Virgina. Vashti Harrison is a woman of color, who growing up, did not see characters that mirrored herself, or her lived experiences. Therefore, through her art, she illustrates characters who have unique curl patterns and melanin in their skin to represent the underrepresented. She would like to give little girls who are brown or black skinned the opportunity to see themselves in literature, to inspire them to have dreams of becoming something great, and the strength to love themselves- even though their skin or hair may be considered “different”.
Awards
Vashti Harrison won the 49th NAACP Image Awards in January of 2018. She is the 2016 winner of the Field Notes Official Selection of Best Documentary for her short film, Sixteen, at the Sydney World Film Festival.
Some of Her Works
The Illustration Process
Vashti Harrison, most of the time, digitally creates art using Photoshop on a Cintiq tablet or on the Ipad Pro on an app called Procreate. She enjoys taking a cinematographic approach to picture books. She loves beautiful images and elegant layouts. A reader may be drawn to her cinematographic art style that includes a lot of the texture (characters curl patterns, the silkiness of the characters skin, etc.). She also incorporates watercolor into some of her art, and the bright colors she uses are almost impossible to ignore. Readers can also be drawn the element of inclusivity. She depicts that all children can read her books, but her targeted population is children of color. Vashti Harrison wants children of color to recognize similarities between themselves and the characters of the books. Often times, the characters in her books learn a positive message about self-love, or provide information on successful and strong people of color in America’s history. Vashti Harrison gets inspired by a number of things, and will take a mental note of what something looks like, or will take a picture of it/write it down, to keep it as an idea later on. She has done challenges on social media such as completing an illustration a day, and has visited works of art for inspiration such as Vincent Van Gogh.
Watch the following YouTube clip to see how Vashti Harrison uses Procreate to sketch out her work when she’s on the go, or wants that authentic “pen-to-paper” feeling:
Why Vashti Harrison?
A better question to ask is- why not Vashti Harrison? Vashti Harrison is extremely relevant within the literacy classroom. Educational environments need to provide diverse literacy opportunities for all students, and Vashti Harrison can help schools do so. Vashti Harrison positively represents children of color in many of her illustrations. Incorporating books with Vashti Harrison as an illustrator can help students to see reading as mirrors, windows and sliding glass doors. It is essential for all students, and their lived experiences, to be represented within literature. This type of classroom practice will help all students to have a better understanding of the world.
https://www.vashtiharrison.com/about
One Way To Teach: Festivals of Color (Elementary School)
Step 1: Read the book aloud to the class. Think aloud as you are reading to promote critical thinking in students, and future discussion.
- When looking at the cover, say to yourself: “Wow the cover is so bright and colorful. I also see some beads in the corners and pretty patterns around the letters of ‘colors’. The title is “Festival of Colors”…I am not sure what that is.
- On the first page, say to yourself “Guavas and lotuses ripen or bloom once Spring is about to arrive… it looks like the author is trying to tell us that Spring is about to begin. I also see that the Festival of Colors is from the Indian culture, and is also known as ‘Holi’. Let me keep reading to find out more about ‘Holi’.”
- On page six, say to yourself: “I wonder why they are collecting so many flowers. I notice the author keeps pointing out the colors of the flowers so that must be important”.
- On page eleven, say to yourself: “I notice all of the people in the pictures are carrying the colored powder they made from the beautiful flowers… I wonder what they are about to do”
- On page thirteen, say to yourself: “When the character’s are saying “Holi, Hai!” it reminds me of when my family comes over on Christmas day and say “Merry Christmas!” Everyone looks like they are smiling in this picture… it looks like they are very happy”.
- After reading the last page of the book, turn to the students and ask them to turn and talk to their elbow partners and discuss if they celebrate Holi or if they know of anyone who does.
Step 2: Show students real-life pictures of Holi, and prompt the class to share discussions they had with their elbow partners. What did they already know? What did they learn? Do they celebrate Holi?
https://player.fm/series/global-fighters/holi-festival-of-colors (podcast)
Step 3: Provide students with a list of festivals or holidays from around the world. Explain they will be researching one of them for the next few weeks and will create a digital movie (visual-photographs, videos, audio- music, podcasts) from their findings that will be presented to the class. Ask them to pick a festival or holiday that they do not celebrate or have not heard of. Explain to students that they may find a festival or holiday of their interest as well.
Step 4: Provide them with the supports necessary to create a digital movie such as explaining how to use specific software, providing examples of what the end result may look like, allotting class time to use the computer to conduct research and begin creating their movie, etc.
Step 5: Have students present their digital movies. Engage in discussion after each movie so students can share any ideas that popped into their head, and things they may have learned about.
This book would pair well with What Do You Celebrate? Holidays and Festivals Around the World by Whitney Stewart and Christiane Engel. This book could easily (and should) be paired with a social studies lesson on India. By reading this book, and thinking-aloud, students will begin to carry this skill to all subjects. Thinking-aloud will help for them to become critical readers.
References
Abari , Tonya. “Vashti Harrison’s Children’s Books As Mirrors, Windows, & Sliding Glass Doors.” Romper, 23 Sept. 2019, http://www.romper.com/p/vashti-harrisons-childrens-books-as-mirrors-windows-sliding-glass-doors-18790824.
Harrison, Vashti. “Vashti Harrison.” 2017, http://www.vashtiharrison.com/.
Russo, Maria. “Vashti Harrison Lets the Light In.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 14 Oct. 2019, http://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/14/books/vashti-harrison-sulwe-brooklyn-studio.html.
Cliché Busting!
- Time heals all wounds –> Time allows for you to fix the things that have become broken inside of you.
- Don’t cry over spilt milk –> Don’t allow the little things to consume you.
- Head over heels in love –> A type of love never felt before.
- What goes around comes around –> Every action has a reaction.
- Actions speak louder than words –> Words are the intentions people have of doing, but actions show that the words they speak have truth behind them.
- Every cloud has a silver lining –>There is happiness to be found in every moment.
- Every rose has its thorn –> No one has the ability to be perfect.
- Easy come, easy go –> Never try to force people to stay in your life, if they would like to leave, their purpose in your life has already been served.
- Good things come to those who wait à Patience is a virtue.
- Avoid like the plague –> To refuse something coming into your life as it will only bring negative energy.
- Beggars can’t be choosers –> Be thankful for what others offer you, as you could have been offered nothing at all.
- Dark before the dawn –> Every ending forms a new beginning.
- Free as a bird –> Living life free spirited.
- Hold your tongue –> Think before you speak as it may come back to haunt you.
- No pain, no gain –> In order to succeed, you have to risk failure.
- Plenty of fish in the sea –> Just because one partner did not work out for you, does not mean the millions of other people will not either.
- Seize the day –> Every day is a new beginning.
New York, New York
New York City is like no other. When you are native to this place, it is your concrete playground, full of caution tape, flashing man symbols, and lights that never seem to dim because day and night do not exist. You know have the power to be anyone you desire to be- whether it’s the successful, and stereotypical, business women walking down 5th Ave with a luxurious black fur coat on that compliments her fair skin tone and contrasts her pure white Louis Vuitton purse, or the artsy man from Brooklyn that has purple hair and wears black ripped jeans and an oversized shirt, waiting to come up through his latest hit. You know the norms. You also know how to be different. You basically know the rules and ropes of this treeless jungle like how to walk with a purpose because that slow pace walk will give you death stares like you have never seen before or how to simply not get your purse stolen, or to pick and choose which homeless person to give or not to give a dollar to. If you are not native to New York City and aresimply just a tourist, you may not know of the freedom that comes along with it in terms of style, attitude, etc. The beauty to this city is, you can be anyone you have ever wanted to be because frankly nobody judges- the people who reside here have seen it all between the homeless pregnant woman asking for spare change all the way up to the magazine publisher who does not even look their way because they are too prestigious. So in this fast pace world, be your raw self. Wear the purse that makes you feel like a badass, or wear no purse at all to have your hands free and strut down the streets like the model you are. Keep your face forward. Do not look at anyone in the eyes to greet them- that is weird. Only stop if you may get hit by a car, even then you may not stop. But definitely do NOT be the tourist that holds the map up to the sky to see where they are. Natives will laugh. Use your phone GPS and look like you know what you are doing. All in all, forget the look you want to evoke to everyone, and just try to take in every bit of the city. Take in a deep breath of the well-polluted air and find what interests you most, whether it be the craziness of grand central, or the street art in Queens. Find the city you. Discover how modern they are. Engulf it and take it home. Take in the ideas of sexual freedom, women empowerment, etc., and see how diverse the city is and how diversity such as this can change your city. Open your mind. Explore new horizons. Eat good food. But when you come to the city, do not change to appease what you think the city woman or man is like. You must be you, because the city is beautiful off of uniqueness, not similarity. New York City is like no other.
How a Local Coffee Shop Can Speak for Someone
As the man across from me types away, I notice that something must be lingering in his mind; he was going through a routine of body movements. His eyebrows tighten close together, and waves form on his forehead. His jaw moves to the right, stopping at each tooth along the way and then back to the left. His eyes look at towards the sky for long periods of time as if he is baffled like the sky is now green. His foot performs a tap dance each time he has a new thought come to mind. Was he stressing about his job, his family-his wife? With each few words he types, his lungs widen as he takes in a huge wind of air, then blowing it out as if he has to release some toxins in his body. His fist naturally swings up to his chin each time he is thinking about what more to research or what other ideas he can maybe explore. I can imagine each gear turning in his mind, making a squeaking noise as he tries to liven up his body and mind from a long night of work. As each gear connects, the movement begins to go faster and faster. His hand slowly goes back to the key board as he is onto something- an idea of what to do for his job, how to help his family, etc. As I reflect upon myself, I notice that I am also doing a tap dance, however in a different rhythm. My left hand is glued to my iced coffee, and my right hand rests on the keyboard- each finger moves up one by one as I glance across the room at this man. With each sentence, I look towards the buildings outside the coffee shop, trying to make each sentence perfectly worded, grammatically correct. I then take a break every so often, to go on my phone, check my social media. I specifically go on Snapchat, and as I face the camera towards myself, I can only notice how tired I look when I first wake up. The shadows under my eyes grow more and more evident as I stare at them. I can distinctly notice the purpley-blue rainbow that resides under my eyes, almost like they are a water paint canvas of the nighttime sky when the sun is setting. When I look drained and I look at myself in the mirror, or in this case, at my phone camera, seeing myself is like a dart on a dart board- it is very difficult to ignore or not look at the bags that consume my eyes, or my skin that has been dulled by the grey Cortland skies. But as I stray from the dart, I can notice my blue eyes that can cause people to get lost in them, as if they are laying down in the grass on a night in the summertime, and they cannot help but stare at the stars. Or my skin that is soft like butter. As I reflect upon how I act, compare to the man I watch on this gloomy Cortland day, it presents to me the concept of the outward manifestation of stress.
My Proposal
- The central idea I will be researching is the topic of racism and how the ideologies of racism differ between various generations.
- Interviews, Articles, Online Research (statistics, etc.)
- I am planning on researching this because it is something I feel very strongly about, and I believe growing up in this generation was a huge part of it. For example, when I listen to the ideologies of many things from my parent’s perspective, we differ extremely on viewpoints.
The Flower in the Distance
One can say, after falling in and out of love– love is like a sunflower. Picture when you were 15 years old, and how badly you longed for the most popular boy or girl in your class, or the one that sat all the way on the other side of the classroom from you. Think about how much time you spent staring at them, thinking about how every part of them was beauty to your eye. You start to picture moments you can spend with them such as valentine’s day or simply going to the movies with them and how cute you would be together. This is like looking at the sunflower on the packet of seeds. You admire how beautiful it is, how its yellow petals give off such a positive radiance, and how it would not be possible to walk by and not notice it. You see how strong the stem is to be able to hold the flower up that tall, yet still have it standing straight up towards the sky. Someone like myself is taken back to the time when I was 8 years old and I would take the time to plant the sunflower seed with my dad, and each day give it my time to help it grow into its potential- the way each day you spend gazing at that individual. Love is like a sunflower, how each day when you see your crush, you have to put in the effort to begin a relationship with them, the way you would have to take the time to water the little seed. As the relationship begins to develop, you become excited and eager to see what it could become, this is the stem of the plant as you are waiting to see the beautiful sunflower begin to sprout. And when you finally get close enough to your crush, and they ask you out on a date or to be in a relationship with them, that is flower. It is the outcome that you were wishing for all this time. However, even though the flower has bloomed and it is now as alluring as you expected, you still must put forth the time and effort into it that you have from the beginning. You must make time for that individual daily, making sure they are happy- and sometimes putting their happiness before yourself because you love them that much. This is the watering of the flower, if you are sure to nourish its roots each day, it will remain healthy and lively, but if you go days (or months) without doing so, it will become dull and will begin to die. This is the part when you fall out of love. Although the flower turned out to be everything you expected, you might have noticed the beauty in other people- or in other flowers. Maybe a sunflower was perfect for you at the time, and you put forth all of your energy into it to have it, but then you discovered new flowers such as a daisy or a rose. These flowers derived your attention from the sunflower, because personally they were more attractive to your eye, or that they were a more fulfilling person to your life. So the next time you fall in love, think love is like a sunflower- it might not be the “end all be all”, or it may be, it all depends on you as the person, and what fulfills your soul the most. Because if you are in love with the sunflower, your eyes will never look twice at the wildflower in the distance.
What’s Next?
In continuing my Creative Non-fiction draft, I would like to focus more on what I took away from what I experienced at Alton B. Elementary school. I want to write more about how I look at things now, and how this little 10 year-old-girl made me open my mind to new perspectives. I want to show the distinct contrast from how I grew up and my experiences at my elementary school in comparison to hers. I would also like to embody this little girl more to help support my argument of why I realized so much from just sitting down and chatting with her for a few minutes.
Moments That Last a Lifetime
As she turned the corner and began to come down the stairs, I began to see her cobalt blue dress that perfectly contrasted her long blonde hair. She was no longer my little girl- she was a young lady. I started to tear up a bit at the fact that my baby was now a senior in high school, and is about to leave her mother and I. I remember so vividly when she used to play dress up, and would run around with a pink tutu on and pink sparkly heels to go along with it. It seems like only yesterday that I could pick her up and she held onto me like I was her entire world- I’m not sure if anything will ever beat that feeling. As she makes it to the bottom of the stairs, she hugs me and laughs, softly saying “Dad you better not cry, it’s only prom”. I sniffle a bit and say “you look beautiful” and she replies “thanks dad!”.
I then have a flashback of when I used to drive her to her softball tournaments every weekend. I was her sidekick and she was mine. I would make a corny joke and would look over to my right to see her head back giggling, saying how much of a loser I am. We would play and sing to music and when we made it to the softball field, all that mattered was how she did, regardless if they won or loss. But every time I took her to softball, she would always leave the car quickly, scrambling for all her stuff to be to the minute on time for practice, but would never forget to say “thanks dad! Love you!”.
I glance over and see her with her new boyfriend, taking pictures. I start to think of how much she deserves from a man, and if he is worthy of her time. She is so intelligent, beautiful, bubbly –she has everything going for her. Although I wonder about how genuine he is, I know she has good judgment, and would come to me about anything. As I take each picture, I see how happy she is; her blue eyes were glistening and her big smile radiated throughout the entire room. But for Alyson, prom is like any other day in the way that everyday she is happy-regardless of how many bad things happen to her, she will always find the good. And for all of this combined, in my eyes, I have no idea how I created such a perfect human being. As we are about to bring her and her date to the limo, I put my arm around her and we take one last picture together. I begin to tear up again, and she hugs me once more. She whispers in my ear “I will always be your little girl”.
Shitty First Drafts
When writing first drafts, I start out my process by writing a short outline. In this outline, I state what the main purpose of each paragraph will be and just gather some ideas of what my thesis statement will be. I always write in the morning when I first wake up and have a fresh caramel iced coffee. I usually have some music playing in the background and have someone sitting next to me to chat with periodically through this process. I frequently mention my thoughts to my friends and try to get some feedback from them. I prefer writing on weekends when I have the whole day to get my ideas onto paper, however, I am a huge procrastinator and sometimes am forced to write the paper the night before its due.
Expectations of ENG 306
With having the privilege of leniency in the future of this course, I am most interested in focusing on closely analyzing poetry and realistic fiction works. In the past, I have taken a class on the Native American culture and I found the novels to be extremely intriguing; learning about a foreign way of life opened my mind and that alone made it a course I came to love. I have also taken an ENG course on Irish poetry that I was surprised to become so fond of. The symbols and imagery used in this culture during 18 and 19th century was so engaging to learn about because it also gave insight to the occurrences of that era. In ENG 306, I would like to write non-fictional pieces because it is what is most natural to me. I think that writing about personal experiences is far easier than creating a realistic, yet stimulating fictional work.
Alyson's Writing Space 