Blooming (*Taxonomically) Through Story

Through my journey to achieve a bachelors of science covering all visual art, I  realized my love of illustration and storytelling and work to incorporate it into all of my mediums. For this art thesis, I have visually represented my journey to reaching my current position in my artistic career. 

  My artwork for this showcase is a visual representation of my journey of the art learning process and my storytelling journey. I have modeled my artwork after the educational framework of Bloom's taxonomy. Bloom's taxonomy is a framework used in education. It was developed to provide a common language for teachers to discuss and exchange learning and assessment methods. Specific learning outcomes can be derived from the taxonomy, though it is most commonly used to assess learning on a variety of cognitive levels. I have communicated my artwork in this way as a visual example of the importance of multicultural art education in school. Each of my pieces of artwork represents a different stage in my art journey and my knowledge at the time of my culture's artwork corresponding to the six levels of Bloom's taxonomy. The artwork goes from simple to more complicated as the taxonomy level rises. 

The first two printmaking pieces represent the first two levels of Bloom's taxonomy: “Remember” and “Understand”, The three ceramic pieces represent the next three levels of Bloom's taxonomy “Apply”, “Analyze” and “Evaluate” and the books of my collection represent the final level “Create”. 

My first work of art is titled ‘In The Kitchen’. It is a linocut double-color print. The print design is printed in purple over a block of orange.  The print depicts a print of a painting that is currently on the wall of my kitchen at home. I chose to use the colors because typically African and African American artwork is very colorful. I specifically chose purple because purple is a color associated with royalty in many African cultures. I chose to print it over orange because orange is a complimentary color to purple. The painting I am recreating in this picture has been up in my house ever since I can remember and is one of the first pieces of artwork that has shaped my artistic journey. The print hanging on my wall is a print of the painting “Harvest” by Hulis Mavruk. Hulis Mavruk is a Turkish painter who started off painting portraits of African-American airmen in Turkey. He soon moved to the United States and noticed African American art was not getting the recognition it deserved and painted a collection depicting African American and African heritage. This work is important to me because even though it is not done by an African American artist, Hulis Mavruk depicts the same ideals I strive to depict in my artwork. The second artwork I completed is titled “In The Living Room”. It is a linocut double-color print. The print is printed in purple over a block of gold color. The print depicts a print of an oil painting that is hanging in my living room. Similar to my first print, the piece of artwork I chose to recreate has been in life since I was born, always on the walls of my home. I chose the colors because both purple and gold complement each other and are colors associated with royalty. The piece of artwork I chose to recreate is titled Rhapsody Of Love signed Park. The artist is unknown except for the signature and last name Park. Regardless, amongst my internet searches many black people own a print of this painting and it is important to them. This painting is important to me as well because it is another painting that I was exposed to early in life, shaping what I want to say with my art. 

Both prints represent the first two levels of Bloom's taxonomy: “Remember” and “Understand”. They are recreations of the first artwork I observed in my life and were exposed to. They are influential because both of them showcase black people and I have not observed a lot of black people in art. Both prints are also pretty simple. They are simple because they represent simply remembering the information and understanding the artwork visually as they are. 

The next portion of artwork is ceramics. I made three ceramics representing the next three levels of Bloom's taxonomy “Apply”, “Analyze” and “Evaluate”. These artworks represent my process of starting the research of African American/Black artwork of all kinds. They represent my journey of a deeper understanding of my culture. I especially was attracted to the many folk tales and stories of the African diaspora and strove to depict those in my ceramics. 

The next artwork is a ceramic vase titled Ocean. It is a vase decorated with paintings of coral, sea life, and the Yoruba orisha of the Ocean Yemojya. Yoruba is a spiritual practice that originated in West Africa. The practice traveled with enslaved Africans throughout the triangle trade to the Americans and the Caribbean. The vase represents a story from the Gullah Geechee people of South Carolina, which I have heritage from. The story is a simple early folk tale related to the ocean and turtles, that when an enslaved person died their spirit would be returned to the motherland (West Africa) by the sea turtle with the blessing of Yemojya. 

The fourth artwork I completed is titled Bruer and Bast. It is a small trinket box painted with a white rabbit, a black panther, and two bears, and the North Star. It is decorated with a black panther figure on the top. In this artwork, I combined the Bruer Rabbit stories with motifs of the Egyptian Goddess Bast and North star. The Bruer Rabbit stories are African American Folktales that were first told orally by enslaved people across plantations. These stories were about a white rabbit, Bruer Rabbit also known as Brother Rabbit and the tricks he would play on the other woodland creatures, and how he would evade the elusive fox. These seemingly simple stories were actually codes on how to escape to freedom from the plantations to the North to Freedom. Bruer Rabbit would symbolize the enslaved person and the fox and other predators would symbolize plantation masters and slave catchers. Bast, also known as Bastet, is an Egyptian goddess of protection. The two bears represent the North Star constellations of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor. Two constellations used to find the North Star and travel North by Indigenous and Enslaved African Americans. The jewelry box that I made represents a protected journey north. The jewelry box is a nod to the probably thousands of enslaved African Americans who risked their life to freedom, the approximately six million Black people who moved from the American South to Northern, Midwestern, and Western states roughly from the 1910s until the 1970s, the Civil rights movements of the 1950’s and 60’s and it is a reference to the many movements started by Black people on the pursuit to freedom and may that they be blessed in protection.  The final ceramic artwork of this collection is titled “Go Back and Get It”. It is a terracotta vase painted black with the image of the Sankofa etched out and left without glaze. The Sankofa is the image of the bird. It’s feet facing forward but its head facing backward gingerly holding and egg. The meaning of the Sankofa symbol is derived from the same word. It is an Asante Twi word from the Akan tribe in Ghana. The literal translation of the word and the symbol is “it is not taboo to fetch what is at risk of being left behind.” That is what this work represents. It represents that, specifically for me, it is not bad for me to be researching the past of my culture to use in my artwork. I chose to paint it black to have the carved out Sankofa image pop out, the orange contrasting the black background. 

The last two artworks created for this thesis are two comics. The first is titled December 21 2021: Launch. The work of art is inspired by a song of the same name; December 25, 2021, by singer and songwriter Sleeping At Last. The artwork is an imaginative personified retelling of the James Webbs telescope launch to showcase the advancements in science that can be attributed to of people of color, specifically black women. It features two characters that represent the Hubble Telescope and James Webbs Telescope. Both are telescopes launched into space used to take pictures of distant galaxies. The James Webbs Telescope, launched into orbit at the end of 2021, is the newer replacement for the Hubble Telescope. The launch would is reimagined as ice skating representing the young black girl, Jamie's, journey to standing on her own. You may view the full comic here. The artwork is a blend of science, art, and music. The final artwork is titled “The Magic Orange Tree Book 1: Reef”. It is loosely based on a Haitian folktale of the same name. The main character depicted on the cover of the book is Kafrina. Through the book, she and a band of three other characters go on a journey of relearning and reclaiming her culture which was taken away from her at birth. The book represents the plight of many black people and people of color in America who work to relearn and reclaim their culture. Her journey also in a way represents the same journey I am on of reclaiming my culture through art and art education. You can view the full comic here!