Update: The mosaic is finished and featured in a newer post.
I’m so honored and humbled to be one of 20 artists selected to create new work for an exhibition to take place at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Pullman in 2021, addressing the topic of Black Lives Matter. Here’s a link to the grant announcement: http://www.jordanschnitzer.org/artist-grant
If you are surprised that one of the more melanin-deprived artists in the Pacific NW was included in this list, you are not alone. I submitted for this grant even though I knew for certain that artists-of-color would be prioritized, and that would be appropriate. I always had an acute awareness of the racism that surrounded me growing up in rural Michigan, and it has been important to me to continue cultivating my own understanding of racial dynamics, mainly through reading and listening.
I had just finished reading Ijeoma Oluo’s book, “So You Want to Talk About Race” when George Floyd was tragically murdered. There were some important messages in the book that I try to remember as these discussions have become a bigger part of the national dialogue. One is that too many white people get “woke” and make it all about ego. “Woke” white people can often flaunt their enlightenment like religious zeal, even lecturing people of color about their own experiences. I try to question my own motives, to step back, to listen and hear, and to support. My goal is to use my privilege to elevate, empower and reveal. When I noticed a lot of people using the #BreonnaTaylor hashtag to get social media attention for themselves, I made the mosaic portrait of her with the goal of helping to raise awareness of her unjustified murder without making it about me. I’m not entirely positive I succeeded.
But that leads me to the other big lesson I took from Ms. Oluo’s book: You will fail. You will get it wrong sometimes. You may get an angry reaction and have a disjunctive conversation. But you have to get over it. Keep trying. Black people and other minorities have been living life in discomfort for 400 years, and we can suffer a little embarrassment and humility in an effort to fix it. I am scared of getting it wrong. But if we don’t try, we’ll never repair our society, so I have to keep trying.
The proposal that I submitted for this grant was to create a portrait depicting Thelma and Nat Jackson. This is a powerhouse couple who have spent their lives advocating for racial equity. Please take a moment to read more about them here: https://www.sos.wa.gov/legacy/sixty-eight/nat-and-thelma-jackson/ The couple are in their 70s, living in Lacey. I had a great conversation with Nat after receiving notice of my selection, and I am very excited to start working on this piece. My ultimate goal is to turn it into a larger public art installation in Olympia, WA that links to information about the Jacksons. FYI: Nat Jackson, at age 77, is “the Jump Rope King”! He advocates for fitness and health and he doesn’t seem to be slowing down at all. It’s going to be a joy to celebrate their legacy with a mosaic portrait.
