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Here are three pieces

The image created for this piece is drawn from the despair and motivated response of women feeling the moment of exhaustion coming into righteous rage response. The use of the swirling image centered by a golden Sun disk is a testament to the lasting and embedded change inherent in this action. The use of the ripped, stitched and repaired edges is evidence of the journey into this Rising. Lastly, the gold rivulets in the print represent spilled value, while the broken, black veins represent repaired deaths in the journey. 24”x34” Leather Pyrography with original narrative, stitched, raw patterned edges on African wax print with leather and brass sunburst accents and distressed leather. (Crown #33 in the Just A Crown Series: Imagining the Crowns Worn by Black Women during their Lifetime”)

Original art with colored African Village Door Motifs representing the options to answering the defiance of a Girl across all Cultures: Acceptance and Nurturing; Refusal and Ignoring or Answering Her “NO!” with Oppression or Brutality. Printed on Crystaline Satin Breathing Color Canvas, 20”x30” framed, no matte (Crown #4 in the Just A Crown Series: Imagining the Crowns Worn by Black Women during their Lifetime”)

“Sons of Her Thunder: Not Another Boy Harmed”

The piece features a variation on the Biblical story of a Mother who asked Jesus to honor Her sons by seating them on his left and right in Heaven. I use that allegory here to juxtapose it against a Mother’s plea that her son’s be empowered against the racism and brutality of a modern world. The Adinkra symbol for Energy is used here in alignment of the Biblical boys asking Jesus to reign down thunder on those who oppose them. 20”x30” free hanging on rod. Fabric Printing and Leather Pyrography Portrait with thread/yarn/raffia painting on raw edge, heavy cotton with stitched backing.

This Sculptural-Narrative-Quilt recounts a family and societal story that pits a Mother against daughter and a protective Father-Husband in the face of a racist’s action in 1940’s small-town Texas. The quilt is a girl’s handmade dress that she sports to town after dinner to show it off, but it is spat on with a full mouth of chewing tobacco. I’ve used a dress frame here to represent the restrictions inherent in the family and societal realm with respect to responding to Racism on both sides of parenting and partnering.

“BigMama’s Essence” is a declaration on cultural and family roles of the elder woman. There are two instantly recognizable emblems: the housecoat/robe and the strengthen, learned arm and hand. By the time this “Crown” is achieved in a Black Woman’s lifecycle she has earned every quality of life embodied in the respect it garners. The third element is her steadfastness and the fourth is her stare. Her “essence is what the new-age community refers to as her “aura”. 25”x25” framed, no matte. Print on Crystalline Satin Breathing Color Canvas. (Crown #3 in the Just A Crown Series: Imagining the Crowns Worn by Black Women during their Lifetime”)