Personal Discoveries as an artist and African American

So as a person who's family has a history in Virginia and the south I couldn't help but get amused by the revisionist lies and distortions by people like Sarah Palin, Fox News, and others. I understand that they pander to their white conservative constituents and Black people are an afterthought. I was recently inspired by the Confederate Flag apologists to make changes to the flag so that certain aspects of " Southern Heritage" are not forgotten. Particularly slavery.  I wanted to do something similar with a klansman uniform but getting an authentic robe was a bit too frightening to attempt. You can't buy them on ebay.  After reading an essay on Spike Lee and the critical backlash against the film Do The Right Thing I was getting afraid of negative responses to my work or of where I want to go with it. Critical Theory classes have opened my eyes to the risks of engaging the white heterosexual power structure.

As an homage to Betye Saar's Liberation of Aunt Jemima  I constructed Uncle Ben Make A Break For It.   Using many items I have collected over the years I made a combine piece I'm quite proud of. By implying movement and using images from the past with the present I'm attempting to ask the question " Has anything Changed ?" "  What are his choices for Liberation ?"

 I've constructed a pieces that displays coming of age images as I grew up and began thinking about things sexually and what being a man was about. Cullen my mentor had me forsake the usual media ( pencil, pen and ink) and had me focus on idea and other ways of creatively expressing them. Somehow looking back at my childhood and connections to mass media and my family  got my creative juices flowing beyond just the politics of writing and illustrating the scrolls.

 I can't believe I was too afraid of doing abstract work because it was never my primary goal or focus. Thankfully my mentor insisted I look at other ways of expression and he gave me several assignments beyond what I was used to. Having a bit of understanding of design elements and the historical aspect of this work and having read several books on Dadism I was willing to do it.

Of course I'm using much of the information I've archived over the years to make the work but it was something I was willing to do to grow as an artist and I trusted Cullen's advice implicitly.

It felt right making this and the choices in color, texture and brush strokes were my truly attempting to break from what I've been traditionally been doing over the years.