Homegrown Show - My Pieces Explained
The pieces of art discussed in this post were created for the Homegrown Art Show organized by Jae Capo and 1474 Art Inc Gallery (On display June 10th - June 17th, 2022). This art exhibit highlighted 5 artists and their personal history growing up in Akron, OH. Artists included Jae Capo, Nicky Woods, Mike Thompson, Martell Graham and myself. This article explains the meaning behind my 3 pieces which give a glimpse of my personality, beliefs, worldview and intent behind my artwork.
INTRODUCTION
ONE reason I create is to use my art as a practice in identity. In short, I like to celebrate women and people of color as a way to heal my connections to these groups and feel a stronger sense of belonging. So anything exploring identity through art is of interest to me. As soon as I saw the Open Call for this exhibit, and its description of artists telling their Akron story, I knew exactly what I would illustrate if selected. The best place to start in explaining these pieces is to start with the portrait of my Dad.
Titled “10/31/1982” - 24”x30” Acrylic on Canvas - Not for Sale
When people learn about my artwork they often ask if I have a parent or other elder who was/is an artist. I used to say that I did not but I recently came to realize that my Dad actually HAS been an artist my entire life - a scam artist. Haha, joking. He is a Master in the Art of Oral Storytelling.
My Dad has always been that stereotypical figure who, at any gathering, is going to get his serving of beer and start telling a story. Most likely, it is going to be a story that you’ve heard before but not quite. At least 3 details are going to be changed. Each version is going to have just a little more panache than the last. No matter how mundane the actual event was, this is going to be a story that you will never forget.
When I was younger, I used to think my Dad simply enjoyed lying for attention. And considering that he’s a Scorpio that might hold a little truth, Lol. However, as I eventually came to understand the importance of oral storytelling, I now choose to perceive these moments as “improvised performances” and have decided that they are completely necessary. No matter how many times we have heard the story before, these unexpected twists hold our attention long enough to cement another round of the story into our memories. And the joy and laughter created from these moments ensures that the story is entertaining enough to be carried on to the next generation.
My understanding of this really set in once I started re-telling these stories to my nephews and noticed they were not impressed with my theatrics. Before I could object to their blase attitudes, I had to remember that I once rolled my eyes at these same tales. It was a “Circle of Life” moment and suddenly the big picture dawned on me - passing down the stories of our ancestors MATTERS! If I would NOT have had those stories told to me in his exaggerated way, I would have had a lot less wonder and amusement within me and I DEFINITELY would not have reshared them.
I believe that this talent, of dramatically telling stories, is more than a modeled behavior. I believe this tradition was passed down to my Dad spiritually from our ancestors and is important to recognize as a matter of cultural identity.
Indigenous cultures are known for relying on the oral tradition to pass on history, myths and lessons. Instead of stories being written down, it is customary for stories to be told verbally often within ceremonies and religious days. While my Dad’s family does not actively practice Native customs, there is definitely Native blood in our lineage. African American history has also depended on the art of oral storytelling. During slavery, when Africans were not permitted to read or write, African folklore was passed down orally. Often done in secret, this was the only means of carrying on African history for a long time. These stories were often coded and weaved into Negro sprituals as an additional way to share this information. One could even argue that hip hop is a contemporary extension of negro spirituals and reinforces the importance of oral storytelling today.
I believe that my Dad inherited this talent of oral storytelling from both his Native and African American ancestry and that his humorous theatrics stem from a long line of Tribal leaders, Shamans and African ancestors who depended on these exaggerated behaviors as a means of survival. Storytelling instills a sense of wonder about your history and keeps you open minded to the mystery of our world.
To illustrate this, one of my Dad’s favorite rhetorical questions is:
“Coincidence? I think not!”
He loves to sprinkle in this phrase at the climax of his stories when some bizarre arrangement of events occurred that indeed could NOT have been a coincidence. The underlying message is that a higher power is always working in someone's favor or toward a reason- whether that be God, ancestors, angels or aliens. There are no coincidences, only intentional planned events.
Because of this, I credit my Dad for my tendency to always look at what is just beyond the veil or bubbling under the surface. I love finding unexpected ways that we are all connected or powers that operate above our personal will. It is a joy for me to find the underlying meanings, the hidden messages and reading between the lines. He molded me to view the world as a big puzzle and has always been a huge advocate to be curious about it.
This portrait is intended to be a portrait of him as he is mid-story in the zone. Specifically this is an illustration of him telling his audience about the time he was abducted and/or monitored by aliens…Yes, aliens. For the reference photo I actually had him start telling the story as my boyfriend took photos of him. It made for the perfect photo shoot. The green beam in the background is supposed to be symbolic of the idea that the aliens are ALWAYS WATCHING and can beam him back up at any time. I will elaborate more on that story later (perhaps in another blog post) but his alleged experience with extraterrestrials made me fully believe that aliens are real and live amongst us. Whether this is true or not is besides the point;
The real value in believing in aliens is that it inspires you to believe the impossible and to embody a questioning attitude towards authority. This was a significant message for a kid to be hearing from an adult!
The title of this piece “10/31/1982” is a nod to a funny observation my siblings and I have made. We noticed that in more than a couple stories about his teenage years he would preface the story with “One time… It was my 16th Birthday matter of fact!”.
We gathered that there was no way, in fact, that THIS many events all occurred on his 16th Birthday. And if they had, what a bizarre day that would have been! Surely, this was just a phrase that had become a habitual part of his storytelling but every time we heard it we couldn’t help but laugh. Eventually we let him in on the joke which he agreed was hilarious and admitted to saying a lot. After that he began intentionally using the phrase to add some irony and sarcastic humor to his stories. Consequently, I thought it would be appropriate for the title of this piece to highlight a date that actually was his 16th birthday, as a matter of fact!
GOOSEBUMPS
Moving forward with this love of all things bizarre, spooky and mysterious (which I inherited from my dad's stories) I came to LOVE the Goosebumps series. The Goosebumps books were like a quick accessible destination that I could always escape to and go live in wonder. Of course, my favorite ones were the books that had anything to do with alien life, the universe or outer space.
The Goosebumps books were an additional reinforcement of what my dad taught me because they inspired youth to take charge of their environments and be problem solvers. The key to a good story is to highlight a conflict and show how a person overcame the conflict. This series showed kids that they were big enough, old enough and smart enough to do exactly that which went hand in hand with my Dad’s lessons on courage, curiosity and will power - even if you are facing something largely unknown and foreign like aliens or monsters!
To recreate this childhood memory of being glued to the suspense of this series, I enlisted the help of my boyfriend’s daughter, Anijah. She did a wonderful job of modeling the energy I would feel as I snuck to stay up late and finish my latest copy in the series. When I see how enthralled she is with video games and youtube videos, it reminds me of how I would behave in regards to Goosebumps books at her age. (If you need teen modeling services - I definitely recommend her).
Titled “Goosebumps” - 24”x30” Acrylic on Canvas - $395
COPLEY ROAD
As to be expected, these childhood lessons on looking past the obvious stayed with me well into adulthood. I never stopped looking for the clues that there was something mysterious lingering in plain sight.
Since I am a visual person I believe that a higher power speaks to me in AESTHETICS. I frequently have moments where suddenly a seemingly ordinary moment will stick out to me as visually stimulating in some way. Something like an arrangement of colors, a reflection of light or an interesting composition of objects will catch my eye. I don’t always have the time to reflect deeply on it in the moment but, if possible, I definitely make sure to get a picture to reflect later.
Sometimes I will meditate on the scene at a later time and find a solution to something that I had been struggling with. Sometimes it will just bring me a sense of peace or joy. Sometimes it will make me question something that I had not previously thought about at all. But regardless of the emotion or thought it brings, the experience always helps me to maintain that sense of wonder about the world and how things work.
This captured moment is from an aesthetic scene noticed at Copley Road and St. Michael’s in Akron, OH on 09/02/2020. I was in the parking lot of the Pizza Hut when I noticed that the glow from the sky and the gas station had cast a mysterious aura over everything in sight. Neon aesthetics like this always feel like they are a huge sign to watch out for aliens, lol. This was especially the vibe since it was also Copley Road where my Dad had first sighted the UFO that he believed tracked him. (Specifically, his UFO was “hovering above Buchtel’s field” - the local high school of the area which is on Copley Road)
Titled “Copley Road” - 24”x36” Acrylic on Canvas - $485
When I took the photo, I combed the scene for days trying to identify any flying saucers. I had no such luck but I added a discreet UFO to the painting to highlight the shared theme with the other paintings.
A really interesting note of this piece is that more people noticed the gas prices than people who noticed the UFO - even though they are right next to each other. At the time of the exhibit, gas had just creeped above $5/gallon so everyone was inclined to notice the price of just $2.35. I think that is a wonderful lesson on how our eyes mostly see what our brains are preoccupied with. In my case, I believe my Dad filled my mind with thoughts of believing the impossible, challenging authority and enjoying the mysterious which made me notice opportunities for these things more often than your average person. I am very thankful he did that.
SUMMARY
The surface theme of these works is ALIENS but the DEEPER meaning is to encourage the viewer to PAY ATTENTION and use storytelling to make others pay attention. Live a present life, watch out for the details and share your testimony because it all matters. Everything is connected and everything has meaning. As my Dad would say - Coincidence? I think not.