“Destiny’s World: Beyond the MotherBoard”

2022

acrylic and red clay on canvas

In my practice, I draw the line, highlighting the path in the golden route that defines us from an endless space. This single traveling line represents a coded map from an immutable past to a self-determined future—a technique I call goldmapping. Each person walking this planet has a blueprint —a goldprint—individual units of theurgical energy that fit into the larger context of our connections. We each determine where we stand in the space we share, positioning ourselves on the cosmic continuum. I honor the Lifeblood/Earth/Clay connection by infusing red clay into my work as a charging agent.

This acrylic and red clay painting is a play on the word destiny and our contemporary operations regarding the digital and virtual experience as existence. It gives a nod to Andrew Wyeth’s iconic painting, Christina’s World, in which a young woman with a birth defect that leaves her unable to walk, lies in a field with a house in the distance. The piece relays a sense of beauty and hopelessness against the landscape. In Wyeth’s painting, we witness a lack of access in terms of mobility for Christina to get to the house/home without the aid of someone else. In my work, I dance with the idea of ready access, my destiny, by way of digital proxy, to enter the larger art world (represented in the painting as the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum) as a southern based artist. The digital age has constructed a new landscape, a more accessible framework. It opens alternative connections of agency. Destiny’s World presents a different perspective, a contrasting gaze to the viewer toward an outcome beyond the original barriers and intent of institutions to serve as gatekeepers to the creative excellence of others.