Susaye Greene: New Ideas

contents

blues

Susaye Greene, known as The Last Supreme, is planting her foot firmly astride creative mediums, crossing genres of music, books, film and art."For the past year, I have made tremendous personal inroads as a painter, and re-focused my goals. When Jef Harris of Chaos Academy asked me to do a video with him, I was delighted. His white hot photography had floored me at Deviantart, swept me, with a modern crispness and edgy visual impact-POW! He so gets the feeling of this culture to the max, and his enormous professional portfolio and outstanding ad work and videos knocked me off my feet. I'm extremely excited about this opportunity to collaborate with him.

Greene introduced a MySpace page - preceding many of the popular musicians who would later exploit MySpace's growing popularity amongst young crowds. This would bring her to the attention of art and music aficionados spanning the globe. She gives credit to MySpace's worldwide visibility for allowing her to meet these people. Among these, are inspirational writer and speaker Bryant McGill, who's been instrumental in her newfound popularity within the online community.

"Bryant encouraged me to reach further afield with my philosophy of giving, to get back." He reminded her of the success of previous collaborative efforts in her business. "He also suggested to me that being a good example was the best influence for good people around the world of all ages."

And so, in keeping with her good natured manner, Miss Greene has culled a following with plain positivity and talent; she's drawn in a young audience (mostly rappers and hipsters of the underground indie, Pitchfork Media generation), independent of her glory days with the Supremes, and gained support for her new music and art.

This, she hopes, has gained her an upper hand, for when she presents her new music material in the upcoming year. "My new music will probably be more rock and blues based. Because of the response from my covering the Ocean (from Led Zeppelin's Houses of The Holy album). I'm not catering to a new crowd, mind you; it's simple really. As I grow, I want to infuse the electronica and hip-hop I've been incorporating with something new - I don't want to make 'Brave New Shoes Part 2.'"

This is to be expected from one of the most eclectic artists of the 21st. What's not so expected is her eclecticism within other genres of creativity besides music.

"I'm attracted to a strength of vision. I love the challenge of collaboration in any of the creative fields I'm involved in, whether it be traditional painting, jewelry design, sculpture, photography, digital painting, animation, film making, or the atmospheric music that underlies it all. If it's creative, I'm very interested. "

Ms. Greene has a lot on her plate; and welcomes new and challenging technology. On her upcoming schedule of events: a new music video, highlighting her cd "Brave New Shoes", and a book and painting collaboration.

"It's the year for Dreamgirls, and mine are certainly coming true." Susaye's excitement is evident when she speaks about working with writer and great artist in her own right, Angelles La Veau. "Gells and I are writing a book about her ancestor, Marie La Veau, who became known as New Orleans' Queen of Voodoo" and we are doing a series of collaborative paintings of Marie and her look-alike daughter. It's a fascinating mystery, the life of Marie and her family. As painters and writers, both of us envision a strong sense of history and colour. We decided to pool our creative platform and do something extremely exciting and different."

Greene has strong social concerns as well. Her involvement in The One Million Masterpiece, the world's largest art collaboration supporting English charities where one can paint on the site, and a live playback adds a unique viewpoint of the creation of a painting, has resulted in thousands of Deviantart's artists getting involved with the project.

"One Million Masterpiece was kind enough to let the Deviantartists join for free for a limited amount of time. That was so kind of Paul Fisher (founder of OMM). I had explained that so many of [the artists at DA] are very young and are struggling artists or students. Also, DA's staff was kind enough to run continuing ads for free for the project."

Greene is delighted at the results of the plea for participation. "I love the idea that so many people are showing the world what a conscientious group of artists can accomplish. I would love for many more people to get involved. It's tremendous fun, a great group of talented and caring people and you have a year to change your picture and raise money for the charities of your choice. The collection of pictures looks like a giant quilt, a lovely metaphor for the coming together of creative minds and spirits who care about others. It's the wave of the future, that caring. It's the kind of experience to light up the world."

write your comments about the article :: © 2006 Jazz News :: home page