This painting was made on my 2nd day at aTi summer 08' & is a first in 2 ways. Now that I've taken a workshop on photographing art, you see a better photo of this 1st "attempt" at abstract painting than the original one posted here.This is also the 1st one I made to fill a request. My hairstylist, asked me to paint something for the white room in a new property he'd just purchased & remodeled beautifully for various parties. He also told me I could host an art show in it; giving me my 2nd confirmation that I could actually use this talent for income! (I've had at least 5 other requests since, plus the 1st, from a manager in a nursing home near aTi.)
Since I had no idea of how to make an all white painting to match the all-white-things in this fabulous all-white-room, he allowed me to use these colors. Actually, I chose the title I did & the colors of black, white, & grey as sort of a tribute to he and his White wife since they are an interracial couple with children.
It could also be seen as my acknowledgment of wise words from one of my former students during my 1st year of teaching. I'd had a double-major in college of Africana Studies & Sociology & though my focus in courses within the latter major had been on all types of oppressed groups within the U.S., & I teach in a very diverse school, I felt so enlightened & enthralled by learning of my own heritage, and upset that I had learned so little of it prior to college, that my teaching of history was originally a bit imbalanced by it,especially while I was a substitute teacher & during this first year. So 1 day, this sweet, outspoken Portuguese freshman student named S. Pastor raised her hand to say something to the effect of, "Miss ______, I'm tired of learning about what Whites did to Blacks (in this world history course). The world is not black & white; there are shades of grey!"
S.P. mentioned in her farewell card to me (when she was about to graduate as valedictorian), that she hoped I'd learned as much from her as she had from me. She couldn't have put it any better. Miss Pastor had become a Mrs. when she last reached out to me by paying me a lovely visit in my classroom several years later. She had recently married herself; and though I had assumed it was to an African-American, I learned otherwise many years later.
The circle is a very significant symbol in traditional Afrikan culture (which I learned has no "c" in its languages that is not followed by an "h"; thus, my spelling above of "Africa"). There is no beginning and no end to the 360 degrees in them and one Afrikan proverbs says "Let the circle be unbroken." This is an expression of desired unity; a hope for harmony with others. One of my deepest hopes is that racism be destroyed; not only through relatively superficial means such as bonds of friendship and love that can occur between any human beings, but through a deep re-education and enlightenment about contributions & challenges of all racial and ethnic groups, as well as a thorough knowledge of the good, bad, & ugly that exists in all living things and cultural groups, thus making us one. The circles in this painting symbolize that enlightenment which I dream of for the world and the rectangular strips signify the pathways which can lead us there.
Omar requested a twin of this painting when I finally showed it to him a few months ago. Once I finish them, he will then hang them side by side in his all white room-- which is near his all black room--and everyone who views it will see shades of grey...
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