Life's Journey As An Artist
The journey to pursue our dreams rarely looks how we've conjured it up to be in our minds. We sort of have this pre-notion of how the journey will go based on what we know at that present time.
Ellen Gallagher - Image courtesy of The Purple Life
The same held true for artist Ellen Gallagher, as she reveals in the documentary from Bloomberg attached below. She grew up in New England to single caucasian mother. Her father is however of Cape Verdean decent, and so she identifies as an African American, a point of view clearly expressed in her early art. Below is a sample of some of her art (courtesy of London Review of Books's blog) where topics such as Minstrelsy's black faces, hair relaxers and skin lightening ads with yellow (lighter shade of brown if you will, or simply blond) hair, and her depiction of a black pirate, that can interpreted a number of ways.
Gallagher's journey, as mentioned in the beginning, was different from what she's imagined as it took her Rotterdam, Netherlands, working with her partner Edgar Cleijne, when she'd imagined she'd be in her Boston studio, working along all her life. I think this goes to show that you have to be open to what life brings your way and not to be so stuck in what you believe to be the most successful path to success. I say this, because it's when Gallagher moved, that she evolved as an artist, and gained even greater success, as it is her latest paintings that are considered to be some of her greatest work. So much so that she's been featured in the renowned contemporary art exhibition Venice Biennale.
Image courtesy of Haus der Kunst museum of contemporary art in Munich, Germany
Gallagher's decision to become an artist, as she herself puts it, was one of simply, I'll "just try". I've quoted Dr. Martin Luther King before saying "You don't have to see whole staircase. Just take the first step." Just imagine how Gallagher's life would have been vastly different had she not "just tried." We get too caught up in the details of things, the nitty-gritty, the how. Don't worry or stress yourself out about it. I mentioned yesterday, that if we trust God to lead the way, and ultimately make the journey about Him by honouring our gifts and talents, He'll take us to places and heights we never could have imagined (Eph 3:20).
So other than enjoying Gallagher's art, I want us to take away that life rarely ends up the way you'd imagined, and that's actually a good thing, a blessing in disguise.
Be blessed!