Ancestral Memories
Visual Artist | Cheryl Edwards
Exhibition | Order and Chaos
Curators | Eduarda Oliveira and Elizabeth Casqueiro
Listen to the audio of the Work
Voiceover David Warren
The Work
Ancestral Memories consist of a palette gold/ yellow, brown and blue. Three are three figures on this painting. The substrate is a 24 x24 wood square panel. I have used texture to enhance the experience of perception while touching the artwork.
Beginning from the left side of the work.
Figure #1 has a blue undercoating and gold/yellow surface. This figure has a red cardinal bird standing on her head. The handwritten words to the right of the Red Cardinal are Forward Thinking and Ancestral Messages.
Figure #2 is an Intaglio Print collaged on the surface. There is a Black Raven standing on her head. There are words to the right of the Raven, which read Death and Transformation.
Figure #3 is blue and highly texturized to perceive from touch. It has a large Blue Jay bird on her head. To the right of the bird is the word; protect.
Each bird has a real bird feather. The words metaphorical symbols of ancestral messages.
The Background of the painting is the sky and water. Within the sky are clouds which consist of lace painted white. The foreground upon which the Ancient Egyptian Paddle Dolls stand is brown and dark yellow.
The paintings represent ancestral intelligence in the form of ancestral memories. The symbolic messages of the birds is a metaphor of depicting how such messages are received.
In the spirit of the exhibition Order and Chaos, unity is manifested out of chaos through the receiving of messages from our ancestors. Those that come before us can provide meaningful road maps to navigate the present and form the future to live a better life for humanity to evolve.
The Artist
Cheryl D. Edwards, an African American artist (b. 1954) in Miami Beach, Florida. She began her studies in art during 1987 in New York City in a class at the Art Student League taught by Ernest Crichlow. She has been living in Washington, DC for the past 31 years. Her medium is oil, ink, printmaking, mixed media, and acrylics. Edwards is a recipient of many awards and has exhibited throughout the United States and internationally.
O R D E R A N D C H A O S
I N C L U S I V E A R T . T O U C H , I T ’ S A R T !