marissaarterberry: Title: Matriarchal Spirit House: Miracles and Answered Prayers 2016 Mixed media i
marissaarterberry: Title: Matriarchal Spirit House: Miracles and Answered Prayers 2016 Mixed media installation This piece was a love letter to the women ancestors in my family, and the artistic manifestation of the family history research I’ve been doing over the past few years. When I began to learn about the lives of the women in my family, I was spellbound by their stories. They had accomplished and overcome so much, and their stories became a guiding light as I navigated the challenges of being a new mother. I painted their portraits as watercolor cutouts, and surrounded the paintings with their photos. The handwritten and typed pages are from my Great Grandmother, who was a contralto singer in San Francisco, and very dedicated to her craft (check out my blog post about her here). The yellow and white quilt was made by the women on my mother’s Oklahoma side of the family. The doll on the upper left belonged to my Grandmother, and I made the one on the upper right. I placed the Orisha Oya in the center of the piece, she is the spiritual anchor for all of my ancestor work, and serves as my protector when my work takes me to the ancestral realm. This installation was part of the group exhibition The Black Woman is God at SOMArts Cultural Center in San Francisco. -- source link