Shaw-Clemons

Spirits 2
Year: 2007
Medium: Monotype
Dimensions: 17" x 24"

Artist Statement:

My images are interpretations of African mask that represent ancestral spirits. These mask speak to the migration of Africans Americans who had to flee from the south for better education, jobs, living conditions and freedom from slavery and jim crow laws. They gravitated to all the major cities including Harlem, New York. Although, once there, they realized that conditions were not that much better for them in the north. Through all the pain, discrimination, torture and degradation they made the best of it and created a culture so rich and colorful that it put Harlem on the map. This period was coined the Harlem Renaissance. My mask speak to all of those creative spirits that use to walk the streets of Harlem, along with the sweet shrill sounds of the saxophone, the cotton club, performances at the Apollo, poets, and visual artists. These people gave Harlem the reputation it has today. And now most of the heirs to that legacy have been forced out of the city forever, leaving only those ancestral spirits hovering over what use to be.