sculptures as strategic. She refers to the exteriors as armor and matches the motif of that armor to her model. Turner titled her exhibition of those carved coil vessels, Negritude or Attitude. Kara Walker and Hank Willis Thomas are both inspirations for her work. Turner interprets and expands her art practice through her awareness of work by other contemporary artists. Recently, at a major national conference, she made an effort to meet Judi Tavill, a ceramicist she admires. Afterwards, Turner learned that Tavill — this artist whom she had felt a thrill and some fear to meet — had integrated elements of her ceramic carving into her own practice, a great and unexpected compliment. Turner has thought quite a bit about the differences between making and sharing 2 dimensional versus 3 dimensional works of art: “For a period of time while I was a student at Truman, I was creating so much ceramic work that my professor was a little annoyed that the kiln was perpetually full of my stuff. I realize
now that I was having a reaction against the 2 dimensional assignments I was required to complete. Me and the pencil just weren’t working. I used to feel like two different people when I moved from 2 dimensional to 3 dimensional artworks. I’ve now found themes that are clear constants in my work: femininity, strength, cultural misnomers regarding black women. These things were showing up in all of my work -showing up differently, but always there.” She has since submitted artworks to printmaking exhibits and embraces 2D media without the acute ache to shape structure into clay. The push-pull of art materials somewhat parallels her battle between professional interests: psychology and ceramics. After the long battle she realized the war was unnecessary and she could embrace both her scientific, practical mind that enjoys datadriven research and her urge to knead earth and fire it into new forms. Today, Turner attends Pratt Institute in New York City. She’s working toward a
masters degree in art therapy and creativity development. She also works as an art handler at the C24 Gallery in Chelsea and is the first creative arts therapy intern at Mount Sinai Hospital. Her embrace of 2 dimensional art forms is a necessity in that work. She considers the soothing or inspiring, expressive or overwhelming qualities of the materials she offers patients. Sometimes that means watercolor, other times charcoal. Helping the patient connect to the media is part of the process in her work with them. At this point, Nala Turner has something to offer as advice to those pursuing art careers and those mentoring emerging artists. Expertise and hard work alone do not get a growing collection of artworks onto walls or into galleries. And art school often does not include instruction on how to exhibit work. Drumming up confidence to ask for leads from those a step ahead has taken Turner to where she is now. Were she in charge of curating art school coursework, she’d include access to resources that direct student artists toward opportunities to enter the fray.
RACHEL LEBO AND THE SOCIOLOGY OF ARCHITECTURE Since the beginning of her experience as an MFA student in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University (WashU), Rachel Lebo’s artistic practice has increasingly investigated the extent to which architectural space defines identity and shapes individual experience. In other words, Lebo’s practice is centered on the sociology of architecture: the study of the built environment and how designed spaces act as a visual expression of social structures.
Delmar Divide, a racial and socioeconomic dividing line between North and South St. Louis. This division was made stark after the city passed a residential segregation ordinance in 1916 that effectively sequestered African-American St. Louisans to neighborhoods north of Delmar Boulevard. It was the first referendum in the nation that ensured racial segregation through housing.
As a result of this ordinance, the racial makeup of neighborhoods directly north of the divide continues to be 99% African American. In addition, the median annual income of those living in that area falls below the federal poverty line. Only 5% of city residents who live north of the divide obtain a bachelor’s degree, as opposed to the 70% who live directly south of the divide. Life expectancy, infant mortality
Lebo’s interest in this broad-ranging albeit qualitative heuristic allows her to investigate the relationship of architecture to multiple identity markers, including race, gender, sexual orientation, class and disability. Which spaces are accessible — and to whom? How do these spaces actively determine the trajectory of a person’s life? These are questions Lebo seeks to explore in her work. A city like St. Louis, a place where the built environment determines much about a person’s life, is certainly an appropriate site for Lebo’s artistic inquiry. St. Louisans might be especially aware of the built environment’s intersection with race due to the enduring presence of what is often referred to as the
Rachel Lebo, Saturate (photo credit: Lacy Murphy) COMMUNITY VOICES
SPRING 2019 ALLTHEARTSTL.COM 14
COMMUNITY VOICES
By Lacy Murphy
