Challenges and Prompts

Sometimes I’m given a prompt that challenges me both artistically and personally. As part of a Building Bridges Worker Artist Group at the University of Massachusetts, we do just that. And, some of these challenges result in group exhibits.

Promise?

Lady Liberty emerges from the abyss that is America’s dark past. However, she is cracked, battered and imperfect. Does The Statue of Liberty live up to her promise of freedom and liberty for the future? Or, has she become a symbol of unfulfilled promises? Can we celebrate our successes as a country and, at the same time, acknowledge the sins of our dark past that continue into the present? I want to be hopeful.

Note: This painting was part of a popup group exhibit at the UMass Amherst Museum of Contemporary Art as an invitational response to an exhibit titled “We Are For Freedoms”

Kind of the Same

I was six years old when Bob from Sesame Street debuted the iconic “Three of These Things” sorting song. 

Three of these things belong together

Three of these things are kind of the same

Can you guess which one of these doesn't belong here?

Now it's time to play our game (time to play our game).

Fifty years later, I’m still playing the game. As I navigate the world and self, my “guess” is that Wayne is that one thing that “doesn't belong?” I notice that regardless of how sincere and inviting a community may be, most times I feel like an outsider. Even among outsiders, I can feel like an outsider.

So... My self-prescribed middle-aged challenge is not to just accept these feelings, but to own them and embrace them and maybe even celebrate them. This is no easy task yet, I will continue to try. How wonderful it would be if I could feel that I “belong here” without being “kind of the same.”

Note: This set of paintings was part of a group exhibit titled “Belonging” at the UMass Amherst Student Union Art Gallery, October-November of 2022.