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Paintings I like & Emotions they Evoke - Margaret Bowland

Blogging Circle of Friends - Day 3363: May 3, 2022

Tuesday: Cultural Arts: Write about a painting that you like? Who painted it? Why do you like the painting?

This prompt intrigues me because I was talking to some friends over the weekend and we were discussing the concept of race and art. There had been some controversy surrounding an artist, a white woman, painting black children with painted faces. When I took a look at the Pinterest account of this artist's paintings I was moved by the emotions that they awoke in me.

The artist is Margaret Bowland.
https://www.pinterest.ca/wmhammond/margaret-bowland/

The one that really gripped my gut the most was the one with the little girl being strangled in the shadow behind. Having read Amanda Lovelace's The Witch Doesn't Burn In This One, I felt particularly sensitive to male violence and our need to fight back against the oppression of those who hold us back, don't listen to our voices and / or expect us to be something we are not.

These beautiful black girls are being made to feel their blackness is less... and that is a crock. By painting them white they are trying to cover their natural beauty and strength. I think Bowland is trying to show this in her paintings. Social expectations and prejudices colour our world and restrict the beauty and wonder of the human that is that child. I wrote a poem in April that I posted on Instagram that speaks to this idea... perspective. And who made the 'rules'.

I feel I am not articulating myself very well this evening.

The topic of equality is an important one for me. I believe our world is a much grander place if we accept the diversity of those around us - we are similar in many ways, but we are also different in other ways. And those ways make the world a far more interesting place than simply bland, white bread. Who wants that, when you can have a banquet all the world has to offer?

Here is a link to my poem:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cc6zAdvtzUd/

I hope it works. The Poem is called Only An Illusion.

I also wrote this poem earlier this spring:
"Contrast - Soup to Stew"  and "Come Dine With Me - Which Table Would You Choose?"