Coming to America

Acrylic on Paper
22" x 30"
Courtesy of Hearne Art Gallery
Little Rock, Arkansas

"Coming to America" started as a Monoprint. I initially printed the three flowers. I didn't quite know what to do with them, so I set the piece aside for about a year. One day in May, I was working in my studio and one of the flowers appeared from behind a stack of boards, which was against the wall. I picked the piece up and began to think:

Suppose there was a wooden fence, with a gate, close to the ocean in North Carolina. Suppose there was broken wood so that if you got close, you could see the ocean. Suppose on our first arrival to America, people saw us for the first time through these holes in the gate. They would have seen those of us who made it to America, from Africa, struggling to the beaches from the slave ships.

Sometimes, I wonder what these people thought of us. I wonder what kind of treatment we would ultimately receive.