Art House (2)

By Howard "Sergio" Tucker

A festive night, with a cold late November hawk blowing as herald of the holidays….the gallery is warm,

Colors beam the joyful, spiritual, playful Caribbean,

Bright sun drenched yellows, earthy hearty molasses browns, orange sunset fire reds, rainforest lush tropic greens, ocean tranquil turquoise blues…

Culturally uplifting and stimulating visual mix of styles and moods, Haitian, Latin and African,

Tonight's theme, music, fills the room with visual cords of color, complex and bright, jumps off the canvass right into your soul.

Marvel the time and talent; this is sensory jazz, elongated faces like improvised notes held in space so smooth with blue, deep and mellow,

Imagine islanders dancing in cane fields, to heavy rhythms of the congas like puppets, arms and legs bent at awkward angles, yet free and light, no gravity to interfere with their grace and form,

Faces serious, each dancer, their world, each dance, a meaning, from joy, to sorrow intermingling, combining, catching your eye reaching past your reason pulling at the strings of emotions

Yes we play an urban symphony as we sip wine, gently brushing by each other in that oh so polite social single dance to get noticed and seen, adding another layer, that underlying beat, that quickening pulse, that song you can't get out of your head, that personal soundtrack playing…

As I take in the bountiful hues, our women, winking, wandering ….admiring …masterpieces in their own right,

Intelligent and appreciative bright brown eyes, hair, stylishly long, short or braided, all part of the human medium, mingling, mixing and manipulating my senses,

I am among the strong stately brothers…cloaked in dark, mysterious, majestic black of art house chic, sporting a splash, vibrant color.

The resurgence, the Renaissance of the Philly art house…my canvass, our people… the places, the sights, the sounds, the music, the perfume, the cologne, the dresses, the suits, the furs…my tapestry.