Purpose
Well.... I'm sitting here blogging (I think) for the first time because i want to explain what I am trying to do with my art; what is the purpose. The epiphany is this, as an African American I feel the need to reclaim a part of my past that largely remains a mystery. The African side that basically gives me my features and makes up me is seemingly locked away in history's safe, it has to be unlocked. i need to understand that part of myself because; how do you completely grow without roots? Without roots you’re just a tumbleweed that blows anywhere the wind takes you. Completely listless and at the mercy of outside influence. I'm not saying that African Americans don't already have a rich past, but there is so much more that we deserve to know. I don't know of any other ethnicity on American soil that can't trace their roots to their ancestral homeland. I mean have you ever met an Asian or Latino that told you "I don't know what the hell I am.", I doubt it. When I was coming up (and I'm sure others can identify) when I or another black kid talked about our ancestry we all had Native American and some type of European in us, but what about the most obvious part of us? We had absolutely no knowledge of that side, our most important side was totally obsolete, in fact we shunned it. I know as a kid a lot of us took pride in saying we had Indian or European, really we were happy to say that we weren't just black. Now that I'm older i see a huge problem with this. My problem is not with being excited with having other ancestries, it’s almost a denial of what makes up the majority of us. I'm sorry, but when I look in a mirror I see a nice bit of Africa looking back at me. It's completely undeniable to me or anyone that looks at me or one of my family members that we are of African decent. Frankly, I want to be proud of what I see in my mirror. I want other people to see pride and beauty when they look into theirs. That is what I am trying to do with my art. In my own way I want to connect the old and the new by juxtaposing one image next to the other. I put real people next to African sculptures to basically watch their beauty play off each other. I feel that connecting us with what we have come from, the most intriguing and beautiful part of our past, gives the work a certain element of deep power, of pride, and just joy. That is also why I use such bright colors, they’re like banners for a party. It's all in celebration of us finding ourselves and from the unearthly beauty from whence we came. that is why in some works you'll see what looks like stars. That’s also why I enlarge the African sculptures and give them a green tone, for the alien quality of it. There is more to this but I haven't gotten there yet. I'll keep you posted.
