Black History Month Gallery: DEFY
Location: Arrow Creative | Memphis, TN
This year’s theme is about how defiance is often associated with violence, but to resist in the form of expressing joy is an underrated and extremely powerful display of subversion. Being Black and alive despite systemic oppression in all its forms is joyous, and existing as you are is an intrinsic act of resistance in and of itself.
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FEATURING MEMPHIS ARTISTS:
Featured Pieces:
01
"Jazzy On A Sunday"
$1,000 | 12" x 24" | Acrylic Paint, Gesso, Black Sharpie, Preserved Orange Lily Flower
This vibrant mixed-media 3D artwork, dedicated to Jazz, draws inspiration from the Sunday Jazz segment on radio station 88.5. Warm and cool colors evoke the ambiance of a dimly lit Jazz Club, with golden lighting, hues reminiscent of red wine and echoes of jazzy ocean blues. The protruding flower symbolizes Jazz's vibrational impact on life, and the preservation of all things living. The 3D element adds depth, while coded inscriptions referencing Kahlil Gibran's 'The Prophet' convey a poetic narrative on teaching and finding one's own rhythm in the "jazz of life."
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Press play below to hear what I was listening to while painting this piece.
02
"Ocean Drum"
$400 | 16" x 20" | Acrylic Paint, Memphis Rainwater, Spray Paint, Hydrogen Peroxide, Cardboard on Canvas
This piece was created with the utmost patience. The most tedious process was using the rainwater from that day to create texture & flow. This piece is to resemble "the way the rain feels". Also, as a Certified Sound Therapist, I often use my Ocean Drum in healing sessions & if I were to paint with it, it'd look like this.
03
"Defy & Decode"
$1,000 | 12" x 24" | Acrylic Paint & Ink Canvas
A piece dedicated to refusing/defying to communicate through forms of communication everyone understands. I vowed to myself this year to never paint in English again. There is something most sacred about communicating via a code language. This sacred scribe is able to be read & decoded by the blind. It is painted in a language only they can feel, see & read. The ultimate ode to wanting to understand one's level of comprehension when one cannot see, but only feel.
04
"The Fine Line Between I'm Okay & I'm Not"
This piece is about the simplicity & complexity of the mind. How all may seem well, but really all the "negative space" takes up the mind. The line represents the simple, yet curly & complex thoughtforms, which are streamlined throughout the "negative space" and end up bleeding outside the canvas.
$400 | 16" x 20" | Acrylic Paint & Hydrogen Peroxide on Canvas
05
"On To The Next One"
$4,000 | 77" x 29" | Acrylic Paint on Paper
This was the last piece I painted in my last art studio that I moved out of in September 2023. This painting was an ode to me! I decided to paint a portal that would indeed lead me to my next studio... that was the intention. When I let my studio go, I knew I was making space for something greater, I just didn't know what, & still have yet to relocate to another art studio. At the top of the piece, I painted a manifestation in a sacred code language, readable by the blind, that says "Take Me To A Place Where They Know Me By My Aura"...