Growing up in the south on the Bible belt Sunday to Sunday church was the requirement in my family. We would get dressed in our sunday best and ride in one of my father’s most prized possessions, his 77' Bonneville, a long, burgundy, godly whip, that took days to turn a corner and it was driven slowly so that all the world could see the time he took to reverence and wax her clean of all impurities.
We would attend all day church, where the preacher spoke of the uncleanliness of women and the holiness of men and where the images reflected in paintings and stained glass windows were Euro, mostly male and hailed as pure. I desired to see myself, my mother, grans, aunts, cousins and the many women that told me stories through Black and Brown lips of the greatness of the Spirit that resided in all living things. These women gave us life, they tilled the land and fed us to heal us, they made all things new every morning, they clothed us and gave us wisdom and understanding in every word spoken, they wiped away our tears and gave us joy through laughter and unforgettable moments... just like Christ. Why weren’t the most saccharine, sacrificial, holy beings I knew, the women in my family, depicted as holy and worthy of reverence as well?
In the Venda tribe of South Africa the women come first, in places of leadership, as landowners and as goddesses. I have been intrigued by the truth of this tribe and so many other historical matriarchal societies where women had agency, ownership and balanced worlds on their fingertips.
My work is about a continuous neverending Sunday, a never-ending day of rest and reverence, a Sunday drive, a Sunday meal, a Sunday on the front porch partaking in crispy fried chicken and the “let’s see how far you can spit watermelon seeds” game.
“The true manifestation of the Garden of Bonneville‘s, Sacrifice and Black Abundance…” motif, is a creation scene with two figures, one woman the other a hybridized vulture. These women are seated and squatting, swarthy and stout, coy and cocky, representing new beginnings and protection surrounded by vast vegetation (ownership) and symbols of nurture, divinity (watermelon), ritual and resurrection (rooster), progress and memory (Bonneville).
“THE TRUE MANIFESTATION OF THE GARDEN OF BONNEVILLES, SACRIFICE AND BLACK ABUNDANCE…”
