Baker Artist Portfolios

I am a multidiscipline artist, and for purposes of this portfolio creation opportunity I am narrowly limiting my focus to visual arts, and within that discipline solely to my current interest (and interest of the last 9 years) of being an "alternative" labyrinth blueprints designer and labyrinth painter, using blueprint paper as my primary surface and the cheapest permanent wide tip markers available, although I have often mixed in pencil, ink pens, crayons, watercolors, etc. The project is rooted in Baltimore City's history and events impacting the heart, soul, and character of this city, starting with the killing of Freddie Carlos Gray, Jr. by police on April 12, 2015. Background context: I had only intended to design one alternative labyrinth, to be landscaped in the side yard of the three yard area around the corner house I owned at that time (1300 Sherwood Ave. in the 21239 zip code area). While that landscape production never happened, much to my disappointment, what manifested over time was an evolutionary production of over 36 painted versions of at least 16 different blueprinted designs. That evolutionary production was largely influenced by a random mix of Baltimore City residents and strangers, including the current police commissioner of Baltimore as well as a young black man, MKO, and current dear friend, arrested for a murder he did not commit, kept in detention for almost 2 years, sometimes in solitary, and was finally released without explanation and all charges erased. For MKO and others in his situation, I designed a labyrinth blueprint that could be printed on a postcard, easily memorized, and then walked for however man y times was needed in a 6' x 9' cell. The one labyrinth blueprint I have that could not be easily landscaped or hardscape or painted on large canvas to be walked is a finger labyrinth (to be walked with one's index finger) I call my Forgiveness labyrinth. It has 7 linked paths traveling to the center, not just one unlinked one, with each path having 70 "finger steps" designed into it, 70 X 7 being the number of times the Christian Bible says we should forgive our forgivable brothers and sisters. I have used copies of that with some success at several sip-and-paint events I facilitated. All of my labyrinths except the Forgiveness one are created as 3 or 5 circuit labyrinths, and all have not just one goal point at which to stop (i.e., the center) but 12, with two word phrases capturing the essence of the meanings of the 12 Steps of all Anonymous self-healing programs in the world associated at each of those 12 "Stop-And-Reflect" points. Each year since I first started, I used the painting of different designs in different palettes as a deeply self-healing exploration of colors, both individually and in the context of adjacent colors. I'll stop here for now in my bio, until after I go through my decision-making to curate a subset of my labyrinths for display here. I am so excited to have found this virtual space! Oh, and I am uploading my resume, even though it shows little of any of my creative endeavors, and only shows how I managed too navigate, survive, and support my own life as an autistic savant in a social world totally non-affirming and adverse to most neurodivergent people; not only that, but due to the stressors that accompany aging as an autistic woman my expected life span was age 54, and I will be Turing 70 in November. I am blessed. :)