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Willa Jones | Substack

Listening to the bouyant and joyous Brazilian singer (and anthropologist) Dona Onete's music is to feel an awakening blast or surge of joy. Her album, which my husband bought while we were in Brazil, evokes a party very particular to Brazil - a vibrancy so bright and easy and normal to exist in the everyday - not reserved for special occasions or celebrations (or Carnivale!)- with beaches booming with sound, and dancing and playing on the beach, day and night, and musicians strumming in restaurants aside people eating. I listen to her album when I'm already in the mood to dance, but also to scoop me out of a slump- and this kind of loud shock of rhythm, can bring in a sense of Brazil, and real happiness, into my living room, even within stagnant or dark times. Her voice booms, and makes you dance and can drown everything else out for a bit, and just might make your day better, which feels like something we all may need right now. I highly recommend you listen to her album - Banzeiro- I've included the Spotify link below!When I saw Dona's face on these albums- beautiful and warm, emitting a kindness and confidence- with a smile that can't help make you smile (photos of her below!), I knew I had to paint her. What came out was a bit of a mess of color (which I don't feel does justice to her beauty, but hope that some of her joyous essence came through)- a blend of shades of blue that are on the album, of photos of her sitting in a boat, on the ocean.In Bahia, Brazil, where I stayed and travelled with my husband 2 years ago, the ocean, and tributes to it- or actually the goddess, or orixá, of it, is everywhere. Walking alongside the highway, or the main streets of Salvador, the ocean is right there- waves crashing into mist. In Rio, the beaches are dense with people on any given day, as men weave their way walking through the sand selling beer, lounge chairs, various massages, with music blasting. (They often take a seat on their cooler by you and talk for a long time while making their pitch, sometimes kindly giving something for free before eventually moving along.) There are statues of Iemanjá (Yeh-mahn-jah), the goddess (or orixá) of the ocean throughout the city (pictured below)- who is the most worshipped goddess throughout the country. She is seen in paintings that cover the walls of restaurants throughout restaurants, and there are hotels with whole rooms dedicated to her, painted blue in her honor. In Bahia, the ocean is not taken for granted. You can find a note below (that is just barely skimming the surface) on Brazil's Yoruba religion.But back to Dona Onete- when I looked her up, I was amazed by what I found (though I want to find more!) - she had her debut album at 73 years old, after joining a local band in her 60s (she is now 85), though she has been singing and researching rhythms and dances of her hometown of Igarapé-Miri in Brazil for a lifetime. But not only is she this amazing singer and musician, but an anthropologist and researcher - she conducted research into rhythms, dances and traditions of the region she is from- Igarapé-Mir, and she teaches history and amazonian studies. In her music- she developed a genre- carimbó chamegado, which the Variety article below, announcing a feature film coming out about her, described as "a music genre traditional of Para, the Northern Brazilian state located in the Amazon Rainforest region."Below are photos and interviews with her, an album and music video, along with my portraits.

Dona Onete- Singer, Anthropologist & Activist

This board would provide a peak behind the scenes of my thinking and creating, Playbook is also perfect for creating a digital mood board of portraits and artists who inspire me, as I venture to capture people myself! This would be a helpful tool in itself for me - to add art I'd like to draw from, a reminder of new approaches to try! I'd love to share Playbook's great use as a Mood Board with others too. Below is just the beginning of the portraits and artists who I draw inspiration from; Aliza Nisenbaum, Lorna Simpson, Jordan Casteel, Bisa Butler, Alice Neel, Tove Jansson, Wangari Mathenge. In my Playbook, I would also provide their bios, links to more of their work, and these artists themselves could be subjects for me to paint as well!Another interactive element could be for viewers to add in their recommendations for artists to look into, or to contribute what artists inspire them!

Mood Board: Inspiration from Other Artists

I first discovered Agnès Varda in the whimsical, beautiful documentary Faces Places, in which Varda roadtrips across small towns France with the photographer and muralist J.R., and together they meet people in different villages, and capture them in large scale portraits. As a lover of portraits and characters, I was hooked.I had heard of Varda, a well-known and loved French Director, but hadn't seen her work. And though I make films myself, I don't have a great knowledge of film history. When I watched Varda's (and I have many more to! Am trying to access more that seem unavialble online) - it was a revelation; so personal and relatable, while being artful and wacky. They are almost always quirky, emotional depictions often of women in difficult situations, captured in their everyday life, and portraits of their intimate relationships - as mothers, lovers, neighbors, and more. The voice of her films, like her own voice, is open and funny, empathetic and bold, all at once.She started as a photographer; "“I put fliers up in my bakery, my butcher, maybe twenty shops nearby… I just gave my neighbors a little flier. And some people came. Among my neighbors, I must say, there was the painter Hans Hartung and the [legendary photographer] Brassai, who lived on the next street. I took a portrait of Brassai on film, later.”I invite you to explore some of her films, her photographs, and words of wisdom, as an artist and feminist who went after exactly what she wanted to make, even when she didn't have the resources for it- and continued throughout her long life (she passed at 90, in 2019); she was the oldest person to be nominated for a competitive Academy Award and the first female director to receive an honorary Oscar. And throughout her life and afterwards, inspired so many, including myself!

Agnès Varda- Filmmaker, Photographer, Feminist

This board outlines the actionable plan and timeline of my project over the course of the 30 days #imagineWithPlaybook cohort.

Step 2: Plan & Timeline

A Platform of Portraits on Playbook: I would love to create a platform - a digital gallery and interactive archive of artists and activists, filled with multimedia resources about them and their work-- an online, accessible, mosaic of their art and lives. This would be an artful and deeply researched Playbook where people can view and explore portraits of women who have been influential artists, writers, directors, activists, and more - from women who are largely little-known, to those who are famous, but have a unique and amazing body of work and perspective that is not fully known or celebrated.The online gallery piece features an array of my painted and drawn portraits, and then unfolds into a multimedia exhibit about the person I've illustrated, drawing from my experience and skills as a researcher and documentary producer who has captured a range of stories and lives. This project will create a foundation for what could be a beautiful and vast website, database, app or eventually book.Please see my notes below on the potential for this project's impact (to both educate and inspire), to create and capture community, what my personal growth would entail, as well as the portraits I've started here, and would continue to create within 30 days!<ul><li>Each portrait will include;<ul><li>My painting or drawing (What started as a love of painting faces, turned into collections on the person!)</li><li>A short piece of writing I've composed on them and why I find them inspiring</li><li>Links to an interviews with them, so that people can engage with them visually and auditory</li><li>Interesting and inspiring quotes by the person</li><li>Articles that cover the lives of these amazing artists or activists, that viewers can dig into</li><li>Links to lead the viewer to discover their work- whether that's their artwork, writing, films, musicPlaybook is the perfect format for this - I haven't seen this kind of archive or interactive site that I'm dreaming up - and I think Playbook is the perfect place for its creation. I see this Playbook as having the aesthetics of an interactive gallery-- a way to look through beautiful images and art online, outside of the confines and overwhelm of social media. The stories that I tell and that the artists themselves do, through the interviews, articles and more that I include, will make the platform engaging, accessible and informative-- and people can dive as deep as they'd like to learn about these women. With the mood board quality of Playbook, these boards on each women will be like a mosaic of their artwork and lives.</li></ul></li></ul>

Willa Jones' Project Proposal: A Playbook of Portraits

I learned about Loretta J. Ross while reading a book for a birth doula training I'm taking (let me know if you or someone you know is in need of any pregnancy or birth related support!). In an essay by Ross that was about a theoretical framework of reproductive justice, with great history into the movement, I was also moved by her powerful and emotional writing within it, and how she shared her own life story which embodies the need for reproductive justice in America (really exemplifying how the personal truly is political and how we need to hear the stories of real ways people's lives are changed as a result of policies). More on that below, along with her life, her amazing words of wisdom, and some organizations that are important to know about and help support, especially right now!What is reproductive justice? Well in 1994, Loretta J. Ross, along with 11 other Black women activists, developed this concept that expands "reproductive rights," to include the many factors that impact and shape what choices and rights women have -- from housing security and poverty, to violence-- aspects of life and our culture that don't begin at pregnancy. As she put it (check out the interviews below!), "By splicing together "social justice" and "reproductive rights" we arrived as human rights based framework. Every human has right to not have a child, to have the children they want to have (to have control over conditions of birth, the right to raise children in safe and healthy and environments. This brings in gun violence and safe schools - issues that are nonbiological that do effect reproductive politics. And then was added - bodily autonomy, gender identity, and sexual pleasure. Goes beyond focusing on abortion. It includes everybody."Ross’ activism and advocacy is also shaped by her experience as a survivor of sexual violence and reproductive injustice. When Ross was 11 years-old, she was raped by a stranger. At 15 years-old, she was a victim of incest by a relative and unable to have an abortion, she gave birth to her son in 1969. As she put it, she went from being a "scared pregnant teenager, to being a teen mom." At 23 years-old, Ross was a <a href="https://www.smith.edu/libraries/libs/ssc/vof/transcripts/Ross.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">victim </a>of forced sterilization, after using Dalkon Shield, an intrauterine contraceptive device (IUD). She was one of the first people to win a lawsuit against A.H. Robins Company, the manufacturer of Dalkon Shield.&nbsp;In 1996 she created the National Center for Human Rights Education, a training and resource center for grassroots activists aimed at applying a human rights analysis to injustices in the U.S. In January 2005, she became National Coordinator of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective, a growing network of Native American, Latina, African American, Asian American and other women of color groups. SisterSong’s mission is to connect reproductive rights to human rights.She has co-written three books on reproductive justice: <a href="https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/917-undivided-rights" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice</a>; <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520288201/reproductive-justice" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Reproductive Justice: An Introduction</a>; and <a href="https://www.feministpress.org/books-n-z/radical-reproductive-justice" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">Radical Reproductive Justice: Foundations, Theory, Practice, Critique</a>. Her current book, Calling in the Calling Out Culture

Loretta J. Ross- Reproductive Justice Activist & Writer

Madhur Jaffrey began cooking and writing as a way to pay the bills and support herself and her young daughters, while acting (and she had an amazing acting career) - and truly introduced Indian food to the West --educating people about the cuisine’s incredible and diverse complexities.She taught herself to cook with just her mother's recipes, and ended up sharing Indian cooking with millions in the West, making it more accessible through her own TV show-- and through the 30 cookbooks she's written, some of which she also illustrated herself.I loved listening to interviews with her while painting - her wit, humor and great storytelling comes through - about growing up in India, and working in Hollywood in the 60s, and the food she loves cooking and eating.I invite you to explore the articles that delve into her colorful life story, her vibrant and clear recipes, and the videos of her that influenced not only cooking and eating in America, but the way Americans would learn and talk about food.

Madhur Jaffrey- Groundbreaking Cookbook Author & Actor

In The Little Virtues, she writes with a subtle wit and humor in essays that span the mundane and the existential— about her need to write, wearing shitty shoes, bad food in England, how starkly different she and her husband were, and how children should be raised … which is really about living in general (to value and teach not caution but courage, not thrift, but generosity, “not a desire for success but a desire to be and to know”) -- while isolation and fear and deep loss seep through in spare moments. She wrote while living through the second World War and fascism, in the midst of horror and grief (her husband was killed after being tortured by Nazi police). And yet, her writing feels rooted in the everyday, in depictions of deep and strange friendships and crazy family arguments, and is somehow timeless and relatable. If you’d like some thoughtful company/musings/wisdom, you should give this gem of a book (just over 100 pages!) a read.

Natalia Ginzburg - Writer & Novelist, Amidst the Holocaust

CREATIVE PATH / EXPERIENCEI've worked for years as a documentary producer- developing and producing series for PBS, CNN, Netflix and Hulu. The projects that I work on explore the stories of individuals and communities - from history and unfolding today - that are rarely told - in a range of formats; from animated short films about unsung women in history, to investigative documentary series that explore rarely-covered issues affecting communities across the country and around the world.For the past 5 years, I've also been capturing people I’m captivated by - on subways, in streets, as well as in films and art, through drawn and painted portraits, as a self-taught portrait artist - simply using ink, marker, and gouache paint.This love for drawing portraits seeped outside subway cars to strangers seen on road trips and journeys outside the country-- and to capturing neighbors in my neighborhood of Ridgewood, Queens, NY. I wanted to create portraits of the people who stuck with me for the stories they shared; the owner of a bed and breakfast in a coal mining town in Colorado, a couple selling textiles they made on a corner in Mexico City, a capoeira teacher in Salvador, Brazil.Recently, I've created portraits based on artists, activists, actors, directors, characters who inspire me - from those who are little-known, to very famous. While painting or drawing, I seek to learn more about them-- gathering photos, interviews with them, links to their own body of work -- and so, the portraits, which often end up being more surreal takes on their faces and selves, ended up also echoing my work in documentary; researching, developing stories around them and an archive - and have always wanted to share more.I haven't been able to share my art, or these women I'm inspired by, beyond a few instagram or substack posts, and one community art show, and I'd love to broaden my reach, continue my research, and capture more and more incredible women, while inviting my community and other communities into the conversation and journey of discovering them. At the same time, I hope to refine my skills in creating digital spaces, sharing and promoting my work, and the work of others.MY DREAMI would love to have the opportunity to take my art more seriously-- to have concentrated time to create portraits of people who inspire me, to share them and their stories more widely-- along with their own words, voices, ideas and artwork. I know that through my skills as a storyteller though producing a range of documentaries, as well as a researcher, and lover of learning about people- their lives and their work- and my unique painting and drawing style, I can bring these faces, and the lives, art, and ideas behind them, to life! I'm excited to find a potential canvas for this through Playbook!

My Past Work & Creative Path

This board outlines all the important details of my project – everything from the concept and vision to the budget breakdown. Please see the "Sneak Peeks of Potential Portraits" (of the women captured below) under my Project Proposal for the beginning of how a profile/portrait/board in the Playbook of Portraits could look!

Step 1: Details & Budget

See below for sub-boards that are the beginnings of what I'd like to include in my portraits; a portrait I've painted or drawn, along with photographs of the person, a short piece of writing on how I discovered them or how they inspire me, videos or interviews of them speaking about their work, links to their work itself, so that people can keep exploring and have their own experience with the artist or activist!Below are sub-boards on Brazilian singer and anthropologist Donna Onete, reproductive justice activist Loretta J. Ross, filmmaker Agnès Varda, actor and cookbook writer extraordinare Madhur Jaffrey, writer Natalia Ginzburg, Please click on the portraits below to see the boards / portrait pages for them!

Portrait Pages!

IMPACT - Discover and Learn in New WaysPeople are hungry to learn about people outside of their communities, or those who've made a great impact within them, and also to discover art-- to find new films, shows, music, books, exhibits, and activists to follow -- and outside of social media. This could be a personal, interesting, and beautiful platform, where people can scroll through the profiles and work at their will, to learn and be inspired.EDUCATE<ul><li>The Emmy nominated documentary series, UNLADYLIKE2020 (I included a note on in my "Past Work") that I helped to produce ended up reaching over 8 million viewers, and the unique interactive website I helped to create for it, was utilized by thousands of educators and students, especially throughout the pandemic.<ul><li>I'd love to use my experience of conducting rigorous research, and then crafting profiles on little-known women on an interactive website - to create a platform (Playbook!) that shares profiles of women in our contemporary culture- that allows for a range of people to access it, and engage with these women's wide body of work.</li></ul></li><li>Like the interactive website for Unladylike2020, this could be a tool that can be used by educators and students to explore- but also could be used by anyone who is curious about artists and activists, or loves portraits or illustrations. As we've all found, having digital ways of learning is especially useful and engaging now, as remote learning becomes more common -- and I hope this could serve as a platform for inspiration and information.</li></ul>PORTRAITS TO INSPIRELearning about the stories of people's lives, who have persevered through great challenges and have created incredible change in the world or art for their communities, can open eyes and inspire. This playbook can bridge the gap between the experience of scrolling social media to follow figures people admire or want to learn more about -- without gaining knowledge or engaging in a meaningful way - and reading a biography, which doesn't allow for engaging with visuals or audio.This Playbook will draw on many senses and interests; seeing the face of the person in paintings and photographs, hearing their voice, reading their words, watching videos, and more.CREATING &amp; CAPTURING COMMUNITYI'd love to eventually have a platform where people can add to a profile, contribute their own portrait or profile, or add in notes or requests for more people to be addedWhile I love learning more about the work of well-known artists, I love capturing people in my own community and am interested in doing more portraits of neighbors - and with this funding, there is also the potential to use this time to capture community through portraits