For my creative post I decided to make a painting inspired from an MFA art exhibit featured earlier this year by Basquiat, a black street artist, combined with my interpretation of Indigo’s character in Cypress, Sassafrass, and Indigo. Basquiat was a part of the “neo-expressionism movement” and created art in the 80s in Manhattan. His work focuses on popular social dichotomies such as wealth v poverty, integration v segregation, and outer v inner experiences. He uses social commentary in his abstract paintings as a way to highlight common experiences in the black community and attack power structures that commonly systemize racism in the US. Basquiat often puts words in his paintings, thus I took certain words from Cypress, Sassafrass, and Indigo that particularly stood out and impacted me in reading the novel—“the south in her,” “magic,” “lunar gifts,” and “ourselves” (within a cage to represent the slaves who are ourselves). Basquiat also puts a crown motif in many of his paintings as a way to pay homage to his heroes. For this reason, I put a big crown within the moon at the top of the figure that represents Indigo. I also made the crown red, first to represent menstruation and second to represent her self-confidence. I also made the entire back ground blue as a play on the name Indigo. I put music notes and a violin to represent her voice and way of communicating her magic. The first picture is that of Basquiat’s that I based this painting off of and the second is my Indigo rendition.
Hi Cece! I really enjoy your painting. I, too, love Basquiat’s work. I commend you for the ways you replicated his form. For example, your use of layering paint colors and textures adds depth to the painting although it does not necessarily have a traditional foreground or background. I can really see where you added and took away paint. I also think that your use of scale is really interesting, next to the moon, Indigo appears small underneath the red crown. Similarly, the light from the moon seems to be pouring from it, further alluding to Indigo’s menstruation. Basquiat often explained that he crossed out words in his work because it draws attention to them, obscuring them makes more people want to read them. I think this works really well for you with “magic.”
Cece,
Your post is awesome! I’ve been to the Basquiat exhibit at the MFA as well and think the art he creates connects really beautifully to Shange’s work. Thanks for featuring this!