Kin. Who say good folks ain’t supposed to die?
My paintings often communicate with one another and the story is told in the space between the paintings. I created two paintings, “Baby” and “Baby, Did You Hear That?” as an exploration of the name Keisha for the exhibition, Kesha – A Black Female Experience of Identity and Race. The inspiration for the paintings was character named Keisha, the protagonist in two unrelated raps songs by Kendrick Lamar and Outkast. Keisha represents more than a character in each song. She is the embodiment of a lineage of black women and the things we have survived. Keisha is everything all at once: loved/hated, respected/repulsive, apathetic/empathetic, subject and object. Her duality is necessary for her survival.
In the outro of Outkast’s, Da Art of Storytelling Part 1, the severe weather is showing signs that the end of the world is near, an occurrence described in Part 2 as “Mama Earth…tossing & turning…” Keisha tells her grandmother that she’s scared and her grandmother offers a reprieve from the danger looming, an appeal to her faith, that everything is “gonna be alright”. "Baby, Did You Hear That?" personifies Mama Earth, in Outkast’s, Da Art of Storytelling Part Two. It references the lines,
"Baby, did you hear that?" "Yeah, baby, I heard it too"
Look out the window, golly, the sky is electric blue
Mama Earth is dying and crying because of you…
In my interpretation, Mama Earth has merged with the electric blue sky. She is a part of the storm witness by Keisha and her Grandmother. The painting depicts a moment of arrest as she screams in agony about what’s been done to her.
In Kendrick Lamar's song, Keisha's Song, Keisha is a young girl whose troubles began at the age of nine when her mother’s boyfriend sexually abused her. An act her mother ignored. It leads to her devaluing her self-worth and finding herself in backseat of El Camino. In the painting, “Baby” the Keisha character is visualized in the back seat of a car.
Block away from Lueders park, I seen a El Camino park
And in her heart she hate it there but in her mind, she made it where
Nothing really matters, so she hit the back seat
And caught a knife inside the bladder, left her dead, raped in the street Keisha's song…
The Outkast and Kendrick Lamar songs are delivered in the form of storytelling. There are no heroes in these stories. Neither have happy endings. In spite of that, Mama Earth’s electric blue hand reaches into the back seat of the car in the “Baby” painting and holds up Keisha’s head. This body of work is about them - Grandmama. Baby. Keisha. Mama Earth. You and Me.
Survival is a rebellious act.
- Subject Matter: Portrait