We recently connected with Louise Cutler and have shared our conversation below.

Louise, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Wow, Lets see, I have worked on so many different projects that have meant a lot to me so narrowing it down was hard. I enjoy working with and enlightening people and youth in particular. With so much going on in the world today with race and cultural differences some years ago I started working on a series of mixed media collages called “We Are Still Watching”,

I created “We Are Still Watching” with a desire to research the stories I did not learn in school. I examined men, women, and groups of people who have struggled with injustice, poverty, and the horrors of war, people who I saw as a part of ‘the great cloud of witnesses.’ I processed my findings through my writings and visual art.
I created this compelling body of work that invites viewers to participate in the process of learning and carrying the stories and works of these faithful men and women forward. My work asks, “Will you sit back and reap the benefits of their faithfulness, or will you join the great cloud of witnesses and press on toward the finish line?” To assist in the learning experience and to help the audience fully immerse into the physical exhibit when it is on display at a gallery or museum QR codes are added to allow for interaction and engagement with each piece in the exhibit.

This exhibit started from a piece of art that I had created a few years earlier, entitled “Screams Of The Blkman”. It was a collage of various black men who had made a difference through their sacrifices. Within the piece there was one particular image of Heuy Newton, on his collage piece I merely uncovered his eyes. His eyes stood out in literally piercing through the darkness, even after I had completed the pieces. It was as if this one person was looking out from the shadows to see What was next, how far we had come with what had been started. After two years I was drawn back to this piece of work. There was something in the eyes; they were speaking, and they were saying there is more to be told. I revisited the piece and began working on the exhibit “We Are Still Watching”. It spoke to me and I listened. Researching old historical photos from the past along with rediscovering the history behind them I was able to connect past, present, and future and it was not pretty. I found out that there was so much missing from my/our history lessons or just not being taught. Thirty 12×12 historical photo montages came from my research along with six repurposed hanging door panels dedicated to the exploration of man’s inhumanity to man, and one hanging installation revisiting a rewritten version of famous lines from The Merchant Of Venice, “Hath Not A Jew”, entitled, “If You Shoot Me will I Not Die.” The exhibit continues to evolve as I learn about other peoples and event that may have been overlooked in our history books.

I was once told that history is written through the eyes of the victor so I grew up in school not learning the truth. I grew up learning the edited victor’s version. I was taught that there are always two sides to a story and that you should listen to both before making a decision. After searching I have found the other side.

Presenting the exhibit, “We Are Still Watching” in exhibitions throughout the US will allow it to be seen by a broader audience. This is important for several reasons.

The exhibit addresses what is going on in the world today through the eyes of our past. We are living in a time when the social climate is becoming somewhat volatile, when the lines between truth and lie, right and wrong are being blurred, creating a society of desensitized youth with historical amnesia and limited social awareness. It addresses the need to learn not just about our past but also to understand what and why certain things occurred. George Santayana wrote in Volume 1 of “The Life of Reason”, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” I find you can’t remember what you have not been taught. Our past was never meant to be forgotten, hidden, rewritten, or softened for future generations. We were meant to study, teach and learn from it.

Louise, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

From as earliest as I can remember I have always wanted to be an artist. My art is a visual narrative that tells a story through creation, emotions, and symbolism. My work is formed out of love, love of God, people, myself and the world around me. Most of my images are faceless, allowing the viewer to connect to the entire painting or sculpture without getting bogged down on the who or what of the painting while drawing them into the story. The use of both negative and positive space creates a sense of calm allowing the eye to relax while creating balance 0f peace and harmony for the viewer.
What sets my work apart is that it connects with people on both a spiritual and emotional level. Some say my work feels very biblical to them, like taking a journey through ancient times. Others are simply immersed in the calm and peaceful nature of my work and enjoy its vibrant beauty. I consider myself a multimedia artist so I use several different mediums but my main ones are, oil, acrylic, pen and inks and bronze sculpting.

Drawing has always come naturally to me. As a child I drew constantly. In grade school my desks were filled with pencil and crayon drawings of homes, cars, playgrounds and people. I loved making images using clay and would often create entire worlds. My imagination was my way of escaping some of the harsh realities of life growing up in the early sixties in urban America. “Even as a Child I knew art would forever be a part of my life.”
I loved school, not because of the education I was receiving, nope. But because there you had an unlimited supply of paper, crayons, clay, pencils, paint, the list goes on. This was back in the day when schools supplied you with everything. I even went to summer school, not because I had to, but because I could use all the school art stuff.

In high school I was in a studio arts program my first two years and did exceptionally well. I was chosen to participate in a summer arts program for exceptional high school art students. The program paid students to study at a college and produce art over the summer. There I began to blossom as an artist but then my life took a sudden turn, my mother transferred me to another school and destroyed my life. I was a teenager, lots of things destroyed my life, ha.

I am proud of a lot of things, I can say truly I am mostly proud of being a mother to some pretty awesome sons. In my art world however, one thing I am most proud of is curating an art show for the Museum of Arts In Fort Collins in 2022 that addresses how Black American culture reflects and shapes the values, beliefs, and aspirations, which define a people’s identity. This exhibition presents and preserves the Black visual artist narrative and also explores how Black people relate to and fit within the American dream where they have had to consistently reshape and reformulate their identities, entitled, “A Culture Preserved In The Black Experience” I’m hoping to share this exhibit in other museums across the US. So if you are a museum that is interested, shoot me an email. (my shameless plug, ha)

I love what I do, I love creating for the sake of creating. I am not poor nor am I starving, “Art Cost Money.” I sell original art, Fine Art at fine art prices. I would love to have you come by my studio for tea and light refreshments, a conversation and to purchase my work.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I get to be an artist every day of my life. I get to see and experience life differently and the world gives me permission. Why? Because I am an Artist. Because I am an Artist, I am excused from normality. I can be eccentric, recluse or flamboyant, run around in a red headdress with a pogo stick and everyone would just say, oh you know, she’s an artist.

I get to create whatever I feel. artists have the ability to change the world and people around them one painting, sculpture, song, poem, exhibit, talk, workshop at a time.
And most of all, meeting and working with people, especially youth, talking with other human beings, sharing with and connecting. Creating a project that allows others to engage with my work. These are most rewarding for me.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I believe the purpose of my art is to bring peace and harmony into a world where chaos has become the norm. My desire to not only see change in the world but to be actively a part of it. Artists are the recorders of history but we also help in the shaping of opinions of it.

One of my goals and missions as an artist is to create change. This is why I became a curator, promoter and created, “The Beauty Of Blackness Fine Art Show” In Fort Collins CO during Labor Day Weekend. My Goal is to shine light on the works of Black American Artists and to establish them a collectors base in Fort Collins CO and other places around the country.

Because, the percentage of museum-owned Black work is staggeringly low compared to their white and European counterparts. 85.4% of the works in the collections of all major U.S. museums were created by White artists and 87.4% were by male artists. African-American artists accounted for the lowest share with just 1.2% of the works. Which means that in the eyes of America the Black American Artist’s creative narrative and stories are not culturally relevant or important enough to be represented or preserved within the vast majority of artistic conservational institutions in this country and abroad. So consequently the Black American artistic historical story is not being fully preserved for future generations. This racial genocide by way of the lack of historical preservation.

As an artist and curator I have made it one of my missions to push the Black American Artist Visual Narrative to the forefront of the art world. By creating museum art exhibits and shows that feature their works.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.louisecutlerstudio.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louisecutlerstudio/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LouiseCutlerStudio/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/louisecutler/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BeautyBlackness
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LouiseCutlerStudio
• Other: https://twitter.com/lcutlermusic, https://www.facebook.com/LouiseCutlerMusic, https://www.instagram.com/louisecutlermusic/, https://www.facebook.com/TBOBFAS/, https://www.youtube.com/@beautyofblacknessfineartsh5289/videos, https://www.instagram.com/beautyofblacknessfineartshow/, https://louisecutlerstudio.wordpress.com/ My Music can be found on Apple music, Spotify, Amazon and Youtube.