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ArtFields is a community arts non profit located in Lake City, South Carolina. We were founded in 2013 with a mission to celebrate Southern art and revitalize our small town through the arts. Our flagship event, ArtFields, turns the town into a gallery as local businesses display hundreds of artworks and artists compete for $100,000 in prizes. During the year, our three galleries feature rotating exhibitions to not only provide a place for artists to showcase their work, but also to create access to the arts for an underserved area. A robust public art collection and art education for South Carolina youth finish off our ever-growing art based programs.
Growing up in the south in the 1970s I was completely unaware of the history of the public educational system in which I was enrolled. Only a few decades earlier young activists like Dorothy Counts took the brunt of abuse by racist community members who resisted school integration. I wasn’t introduced to the powerful images of her difficult journey to school until just a few years ago and was so moved by her stoicism and bravery in the face of the sheer mass of resistance. It feels important to revisit this image today, in light of the continued need to uproot the racist foundations of America. As some people still try to erase or whitewash our unpleasant past it's ever more important to look closely at inspiring moments of resistance like this one. It felt apt to use a material meant for children to create this piece. These microcosms of our culture, represent the cacophony of voices that are continually vying for our attention and distracting us from what’s important in our world...
At first glance, the boxing speed-ball appears playful—sugary sweet, even, given the mosaic of clay conversation hearts that enfold it. But more serious currents flow beneath its eye-catching veneer. While its central refrains—“Thanks” and “No Thanks”—are some of the simplest expressions available to us, their almost obsessive repetition lends them an ambiguous force. To what are they responding? The work is part of a series that challenges cultural myths and false narratives contributing to the sexual violence against Southeast Asian women in contemporary America. And more broadly the work is a repeated call to stop Anti-Asian Hate.
The pandemic brought all kinds of changes to our lives. While some of those changes were easier to assimilate than others, I found my stress and anxiety levels spike more frequently in this past year and a half. Maybe that's what inspired me to paint this portrait of my niece, her eyes closed, face glowing, serene, and peaceful. A gentle reminder to all of us to pause for a moment, breathe in deep, and find peace and light within ourselves.
‘I Lay Out a Bait’ is a recollection of my many struggles, from Nigeria to South Dakota, and now Georgia; all these places are landmarks in my many expeditions while fishing for success in my art career. Having been groomed in life lessons such as the power of endurance, persistence, strategy, and reward, fishing aptly represents a metaphor that guides my approach to life. By searching for and recycling found metal objects, I am bringing back to life, that which had been neglected, with the hope that there will be a catch at the end of the hook. Words cut out in metal and strewn at the back of the fish are fragments of a poem from my journal that highlights the metaphor of fishing as it relates to life.