In the closeup the textures are more evident. I would love to see the dynamics on a larger scale. I will do a larger portrait in watercolor, ink and gouache in the coming weeks, probably a self portrait to really experiment with this. I am going to work on another piece in the Exotic Symbolism series that I will probably post later today.
So what does this piece mean? It holds a lot of meaning in regards to religion and spirituality for the people of African descent in America. I tend to avoid themes of religion specifically in my work however this piece deals with it directly. The text talks about how the Hebrews yearned for their distant home after being in bondage. It speaks to how despite being far away from home they harbored a longing for their future generations to survive and wished for the future what they themselves could not obtain. They sat by the rivers of Babylon, in the land of their captors and wept when they remembered Zion. This text resonated with me in its correlation to the plight of the people throughout the African diaspora. The image is for anyone's interpretation. Is she a representative of the past or a foreshadowing of the future? I touched down on a similar theme in my piece To Our Future, Black Children.
That being said, the furthering of the Awakening series will no doubt ruffle a few feathers. A lot of my recent ongoing readings have been slave narratives dating back from the late 1700s through the US Works Progress Administration in the 1930s. It's painful, jarring, sad, and angering. It's hard to control the gamut of emotions that comes from reliving their experiences. Awakening has to deal with primarily our ancestors taking on the religion of their captors. What am I interested in? The lies they were told, the beliefs they were forced to hold and eventually accepted out of survival's sake, being told that if they ran away they were doomed to hell...the psychological effects of that is evident through today. It passes down through the generations; a curse of sorts. It's disturbing to me, and my thoughts, sketches, and writings over the years has culminated to an exploration in a series of small personal drawings. Children will remain a central theme in my work they were with the Lost Within Series. As I stated in my artist statement for that series:
"I chose children as my primary subject mainly because they are the purest vessel through which we can hope to reclaim our future. It is through them that we survive and it is through them that the answers to the unknown can become known."
