My version of "right to protest" by Joelius Dubois and "A Cathartic Release" by Ladon Alex
In such a difficult time in our history, it is easy for us to lose our way. Mother Nature is undergoing a hard reset, and all of her children have been brought along for the wild ride. The key, I’ve heard, is to remain strongly rooted in your identity and your footing in the world. SZA’s mother also taught me that embracing the unknown can offer a sense of comfort.
With my self-portrait, I chose to stray away from the traditional and superficial concept of the
“self-portrait” and provide a more in-depth portrait of who I am as a person.
My version of "We Kick Racists in the Mouth" by Ladon Alex and "tears for negroes" by Joelius Dubois
To begin, I have a growing interest in art, especially younger, more unknown artists. Two of my favorite artists right now happen to be Joelius Dubois, a 19 year-old digital artist from Columbus, Ohio, and Ladon Alex, a 21 year-old digital artist from Arkansas. Both Dubois and Alex’s art effectively capture the raw spirit of a black youth refusing to stay silent in a rich, white man’s world.
One of Dubois’s pieces, “right to complain”, depicts a black youth using his trumpet to tell the world what he truly thinks of it. The music-lover in me instantly fell in love with the idea and decided to make this project a little self-serving. For one part of my project, I combined the image with a piece of Ladon Alex’s, called “A Cathartic Release”, which shows a being sporting a large hole in its back, as if a new being has emerged from the discarded skin like a butterfly leaving a cocoon. My version of these two images has the "spirit" of the trumpet player emerging from the back of the husk, my representation of black youth’s voices refusing to be ignored. A quote from Jill Tarter's interview with Krista Tippett sums up the rebellious nature of the rebellious energy of the painting in six words: “You never have to grow up.”
"A Cathartic Release" by Ladon Alex
Another piece of Dubois’s, “tears for negroes”, shows a black woman in her Sunday best, shedding tears, a sight all-too powerful in our country’s history. I took that image and combined it with a piece by Ladon Alex that has a much different energy than Dubois’s. Alex’s “We Kick Racists in the Mouth” is a piece whose message is abundantly clear, and I felt a connection between the two pieces. In my second installment, I had these two polarizing raw, black female energies next to each other, with the violent, justice-hungry black girl acting as more of an idea in the head of the black woman crying in the real world. I did this to represent the concept of black women being forced to keep their emotions in check in society, in fear of being labeled. I also selfishly interpreted this image as an overall rejection of gender norms and accompanied the image with a quote by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie that explores this idea of censorship.
"We Kick Racists in the Mouth" by Ladon Alex
A little fun fact about me, I fully believe that we, ‘we’ being everyone on the planet, have the potential to make this world a paradise if we all treated each other with genuine love, empathy, and respect (at the very least). I also like to listen to music from time to time. That being said, I believe that showing empathy in a time where we all need to stand together as a family is definitely a step in the right direction towards healing the wound on our planet.
"right to protest" by Joelius Dubois
Growing up in a society where racism is alive, but still low-key enough that major action has not taken place, I am genuinely concerned for our planet’s future and how certain groups of people have been treated since this pandemic started. This project was admittedly a long shot, as I have no prior experience in creating digital art, but I had intended to use two pieces of art completely independent of each other, and form them into certain ideas that I took away from this class.
"tears for negroes" by Joelius Dubois
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