I was invited to be a part of an event honoring the Juneteenth Celebration produced by Project Witness a non profit organization. The event received a lot of press coverage and a radio spot on Hot105. Me being one of the four visual artists participating for the event, was asked to create a piece of artwork for the event to be used as a part of the fundraising efforts for Project Witness.Each artist was given a blank canvas to interpret the vision. After research, and thumbnails sketches- "Olokun" was born. The piece name was taken from a Yuruba Orisha. Olokun is the patron saint of Africans that were carried away during the Trans – Atlantic Slave Trade. Olokun is also a protector of the living, dead, and the unborn. There is also reference to the official Juneteenth flag which is red, white, and blue, and representing the star of Texas of bursting through the horizons. Texas was the last state to know about the emancipation proclamation- and found out two and a half years later that slavery ended. My story behind my piece symbolized the present slaves looking forward to the future of the baby being born free, shackles broken. While the essence of Olokun watching the past, present, and future.
Some press for the event included:
Powerful painting! I know One of the Sistas, SoulFlower, who is on the flyer. She used to live here in Boston :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! Wow, small world. Yes SoulFlower was a part of that event, and just finished doing some live art a few weekends ago at her monthly event RAIZE IT UP LIVE!. I've know her via socia media some years now, so its was nice to be doing something with her. Thanks also for being my first comment :-)
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