Communicating with the spirit

UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
Inga Kimberly Brown (Creator)
Institution
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Advisor
Jennifer Menaly

Abstract: My thesis work consists of oil paintings, hybridized through the use of mixed media, each one individually representing a Sacred Conversation involving family members and individuals that have passed from life to death, as well as the celebration of life in the present. I see my painting as spiritual work in which I interpret and map out the past, present and future of my life. My work is autobiographical. This is reflected through the attention to the pictorial embodiment of my own ancestor worship and the state of my own family history within the United States, my visions and communications with the past, deceased spirits, as well as the visualization of the future make-up my life. The relationship I have with the photograph is a dialogue that takes place within the gaze. My pictorial or mirror gazing concentrates on the spirit attached to the image inside the photograph, vision or in this case, spirit window. This act of gazing allows the spirit to speak and articulate what is necessary for the vision to evolve in what I am creating. The communication starts before I actually stretch the canvas. The spiritual intuition comes as a complete vision and then in the process of creation evolves through the spirits and my own formal decisions and intuition. The dialogue takes place within the studio; the medium is oil paint. The communication comes through the action of painting and listening to the faint voices of the spirits that guide me. In the various branches of Vodun, one branch is Santeria, an African diaspora religion brought to the New World by African slaves, the ritual of ancestor worship occurs in the form of adoration, and in listening and watching for signs and miracles brought about by the ancestors who push us from behind, while the Orishas pull from the front, in order to guide us in our lives. My religious views stem from indigenous American and African spiritual beliefs. During slavery these beliefs and spiritual practices were concealed by a European cover or mask, to ensure their survival and continuation. My work appears on an array of different sized canvases and is both two dimensional to three dimensional. When I add three-dimensional elements, I use mixed media materials that may reference the composition. For instance, I may transform staples in the Santeria practice, such as tobacco, egg shells, seed beads or feathers by incorporating them into the painting, or may affix gold leaf in the tradition of Renaissance paintings, and these symbolic objects create a dialogue with spiritual dogma. I am a Hybrid of cultures and races and my work embodies that Hybridization.

Additional Information

Publication
Thesis
Language: English
Date: 2016
Keywords
Free Issues people on the eastern coast of North Carolina, Tri racial Isolate history, Tri racial art, Tri racial history, Indigenous Fine Arts made in America, Bi-racial and tri-racial history in the America South in oil paint, Multi racial family created in the antebellum south, Oil Paintings, Racial Blood mixing in the Antebellum South, Southern History
Subjects
Painting
Families in art
Racially mixed people in art
Cultural fusion and the arts

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TitleLocation & LinkType of Relationship
Earth Shakerhttp://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/Brown119441810 Earth Shaker.JPGThe described resource includes the related resource either physically or logically.
Grandfather General Thomas Brown Sons of the American Revolution Membership Apphttp://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/Brown119441810 Grandfather General Thomas Brown Sons of the American Revolution Membership App.jpgThe described resource includes the related resource either physically or logically.
Grandfather General Thomas Brownhttp://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/Brown119441810 Grandfather General Thomas Brown .jpgThe described resource includes the related resource either physically or logically.
Grandfather William Henry Brown 1880http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/Brown119441810 Grandfather William Henry Brown 1880.jpgThe described resource includes the related resource either physically or logically.
Grandmother Dena Hatcher 1880http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/Brown119441810Grandmother Dena Hatcher 1880.jpgThe described resource includes the related resource either physically or logically.
Grandmother Marie Steel Mariehttp://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/Brown119441810Grandmother Marie Steel Marie .jpgThe described resource includes the related resource either physically or logically.
Grandmother Sarah Hatcher 1880http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/Brown119441810Grandmother Sarah Hatcher 1880.jpgThe described resource includes the related resource either physically or logically.
Grandparents Charlie and Marie Steelhttp://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/Brown119441810Grandparents Charlie and Marie Steel.jpgThe described resource includes the related resource either physically or logically.
Grandparents Ned and Nora Payton 1900http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/Brown119441810Grandparents Ned and Nora Payton 1900 .jpgThe described resource includes the related resource either physically or logically.
Grandparents Ned and Nora Payton 1910http://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/Brown119441810Grandparents Ned and Nora Payton 1910.jpgThe described resource includes the related resource either physically or logically.
Mythhttp://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/Brown119441810Myth.jpgThe described resource includes the related resource either physically or logically.
Oakland Plantationhttp://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/Brown119441810Oakland Plantation.jpgThe described resource includes the related resource either physically or logically.
The Path Finderhttp://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/Brown119441810The Path Finder.jpgThe described resource includes the related resource either physically or logically.
The Visithttp://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/Brown119441810The Visit.jpgThe described resource includes the related resource either physically or logically.
Grandfather Captain William Henry Brownhttp://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/Brown119441810 Grandfather Captain William Henry Brown.jpgThe described resource includes the related resource either physically or logically.