Arts & Theology Internship (Works in Progress & Artist Statement)

I have always worked with notions of race, gender, body, sexuality, family, relationships, beauty, time, space, and wholeness in my creative work. As an artist I am primarily attracted to photographic images. Photographs are snapshots of memory. They tell it like it is and tell it like we want it to be. At once, photographs merge the past with the present and—when engaged—can shape future ways of being. In particular, I am interested in the way in which photographs operate within familial structures. Photographs help us to make meaning. Photographs help us to remember. Photographs conjure up moments--those we are eager to cling to and those we long to forget.

I am interested in the ways in which human life, in general, and Black female life, in particular, is—in and of itself—art. This work, using photographic images as a foundation, explores memory, narrative, and the telling of one’s story. There are several life giving traditions from which I drew to create this work: I look to Womanist theologians—Katie Canon, Renita Weems, Lynne Westfield—whose starting point for theology is autobiography; I look to black female visual artists—Lorna Simpson, Clarissa Sligh, and Pat Ward Williams—who combine photographic image and text to bring to bear the stories of black women; and I look to the ancient makers of illuminated manuscripts--especially those who beautifully and artfully recorded critical moments in the life and ministry of Jesus as recorded in the Holy Bible. At once I have merged these traditions and created a work that is unique—An Illuminated Life. This work is the beginning of canonizing my own life, and the stories of my family, as sacred text.

What is now a blessing began as a curse of sorts. Some years ago my older sister made this statement: “Anyone can take their life experiences and make art.” Her words were meant to diminish the visual work that I was creating as an MFA student at Howard University. Initially I shrank in the face of her words. But then, after critical and creative thought, I recognized the grain truth in her statement. I believe that all of our lives are valuable and that all of our stories warrant being told. As people of faith, when we tell our stories, we point to the presence and activity of God in our lives and we place ourselves in the larger Christian story.

It is my hope that the telling of my story—in visual form—will inspire another to take the risk and preach, sing, dance, shout, paint, or write their own story.

Donna Olivia Powell (c)2010