We invited guest artist Wendy Ann West to blog for Moral Monday CT about her art and her commitment to racial and social justice. In her words…
About a year ago, I had
an idea for a new project: I would make a series of mixed-media pieces incorporating images and experiences from Moral Monday CT actions, interwoven with civil rights events and figures, past and present. Each painting would feature a specific face that has inspired me, to illustrate that the movement is built on the stories of many lives, each one precious, unique, and infinitely worth getting to know. Each piece would include a dove — universal symbol of peace and hope — as a blessing on all members of the Beloved Community. The series, now in progress, is called, “Black Lives Matter: Voices.”
As an artist and a human being living in this time and place, it comes down to this: the unrelenting horror and unfairness of the world appalls me, and at the very same time, I see we are blessed every day with countless opportunities to act with others to make change possible. Grace!
I’m profoundly grateful for the gifts of my hands and my imagination. With them, I can use the sights, sounds and textures of peaceful protest to recreate the experience of participating in this sacred form of democratic action. I hope to express the spirit and energy of raised voices, the light in faces transfused with love and resolve, and the connectedness between black, brown and white, brothers and sisters, acting together in hope for a better world.
Because of all of this, I will joyfully continue to donate proceeds from my art sales to MMCT, including 100% of the proceeds from sales of the “Voices” series, to aid in the urgent, hard, necessary work being done, every day, with courage and awe-inspiring spirit. Refusing to accommodate hatred, we are unified in our insistence that things must change for the better, beginning NOW.
“Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
