"In my artistic practice I explore ideas of memory, place and form. List Maker is a hand-built painted ceramic vessel that is part of a recent series focusing on familiar household items such as waste bins, grocery lists, CVS coupons, and piles of clothing. Removed from their usual place on the floor, a shelf or forgotten under a dresser, I give them a life of their own. The mass of braided hair interwoven with grocery lists pays homage to the ritual of preparing for food shopping. Over the past two years, careful list making was critical to maximize efficiency while shopping and minimize the number of trips to the store. Additionally, by reframing something ephemeral like braided hair and grocery lists as handmade objects in terra cotta, I ask the viewer to reconsider them for their sculptural, aesthetic and narrative capabilities."

"As seen in the Fitchburg Art Museum pieces by Bayo Ogundele, Safaa Mazirh, and Nike Davies Okundaye, meditative mark-making can represent humanity, personal history and the lives of individuals. The trace monoprint: marking lives covid 19, 2021 marks, lab4 was made as part of a collaborative community project ‘Marking Lives Covid 19.’ The project was created to bring artists together to recognize lives lost to the covid 19 pandemic in the United States. Each of the 2021 individual marks in this monoprint represent a life cut short. Almost 200,000 had passed due to covid when artists began the project…since that time almost a million lives have been lost in the US with an estimated 6 million deaths worldwide. As the inspiring African artists represent their lives and history through their mark and print making, so does this monoprint represent and honor the lost lives of individuals."

"Atop the robes of a Scottish duchess sits the stone head carved by my wife, the late Mary McLoughlin, adorned with the Maasai necklace. She is shown with her Napoleonic page, our grandson, Gavin Brady McQuarrie. They behold the newly minted Maya Angelou quarter.

“'Face your distant destiny' is from Maya Angelou’s poem 'On the Pulse of Morning.'"

"In the loaned works, three pieces reveal a connective tissue that place significance in the engagement of humans directly interacting with, or bonding to and harnessing properties of animals. Work Animal, Witchcraft, and Antelope headcrest (chiwara) reference these synergies through mythological and spiritual occurrences. Shapeshifter aesthetically draws from common motifs among the loaned works, and thematically alludes to the supernatural events that transpire when a human procures the essence borrowed from animals."

acrylic on wood, 12" x 28", 2022, $475

Inspired by: Masaai Artist, Necklace

"My work is about identity, truth, Hope and restoration of who we are. I am a self taught artist whose creativity was born out of need, and, through trauma, I learned to express my voice in healing my heart. My relationship with God is reflected in this piece of trusting all that is and will be in my life. The faces used in this piece are me as a little girl. The piece is calming, full of joy in celebration of God always being with in that we move and breathe and have our being. Trust like a Child.

Safaa’s piece is a reflection of who she is in her heritage with her use of self portrait and creative elements. My piece responds to her in my belief of who I Am… peace and light Pamela."

"Sueños de Adire - Dreams of Adire is inspired by traditional adire eleko prints. Adire eleko patterns inspire storytelling and lived experience. Dreams and their patterns share a powerful parallel with adire eleko."

"In Yoruba Orisa, it is believed that each human’s asè (personal power) resides in a specific part of their body. For the figure in this piece, her asè lives in her head. While her abundant hair is impressive, it is only a symptom of the powerful asè within her head.

My sister did a genetic test and found that we’re predominantly Nigerian. Now, we’re both students at a school of Yoruba Orisa studies. Because of this, I was immediately drawn to the medicine pot and textile from Nigeria. This pot is a shrine for Olokun, an ocean deity; I paid homage to him with the water rushing through the composition. I chose a terra cotta color for the figure because the shrine and I have possibly come from the same earth but have been formed into two very different things yet, somehow, reflective of each other."

"My work was influenced by Ibadan is Sweet, the Nigerian starch resist dyed fabric. The patterns that are confined to squares on this piece, despite the fact that they are different, contribute to a unifying rhythm that encompasses the work. In my homage to this work, I specifically chose some antique stenciled and stained glass fragments to begin creating the pattern and rhythm in my piece, and built off the colors of that glass to solidify the pattern and rhythm of the window panel."

upholstery thread on cotton fabric, 16" x 20", 2022, $500

Inspired by: Safaa Mazirh, Aouchem

"This work entitled Yaya is a tribute to my great-aunt Candelaria "Yaya" Lanzo, a practitioner of Santeria, the Yoruba religion practiced by Nigerian descendants in Puerto Rico.

Yaya migrated from Loiza, Puerto Rico to Harlem and worked in a factory doing the finishing work by hand, and like me, she never used a sewing machine. Because she consulted Santeros, the priests of the religion, her sisters admonished her for practicing "witchcraft." Like the bird in Oyundele's work, Yaya, "'magically' and swiftly" transitioned at the age of 107.

The sculpture is hand-sewn and molded with cotton and wool fabric. Once stuffed, it is then painted and adorned with found objects, some of which are vintage coins."

"After careful viewing of all the art works from the Fitchburg Art Museum collection, I chose Safaa Mazirh's Aouchem Corps 2. This piece had minimal lines and yet it had a lot of emotional images hidden with a soft veil like covering. I also love the feeling of softness with the shapes out of focus while the lines are clear and deliberate. My piece, Behind the Veil, has a soft, hazy feeling while the lines are scratched and inked into the paint to create a feeling of strength and a permanent place."

"It was exciting to see work by Safaa Mazirh on display at ArtsWorcester. Through multiple exposures we both use photography to push concept and information. I responded to Safaa's work by intentionally placing a group of homeless people within a landscape that easily distracts the eye from a community problem. My approach uses a red, green and blue filter within three exposures that are layered within one image."

The artist will donate her sales commission to St. John's Food for the Poor Program.

"The Antelope attitude of content, harmony, uplift inspired this Heron, made from nearby material and dancing to its own drummer."

"Inspired by Safaa Mazirh's Aouchem, Corps 2. Using a photo of my grandmother, identical twin, and mother (my past, present and future). I embroidered Ogham Script, the ancient runes of Ireland, with me being of Irish decent as Mazirh was of Amazigh descent. The three runes I chose beith (rebirth and renewal in every moment), Saille (knowledge), and Gort (wildness and evolution); all reference my past, present, future, together in harmony, like my loved ones. The green boarder is a reference to the trees and plants Ogham characters represent. The cutouts from the painting show there is still room for growth. "

"I was inspired by the geometric shapes, textures, and colors featured in Necklace, Witchcraft, and Aouchem, Corps 2. In these three pieces, I noticed lines branching out from the main subject(s), often connecting to circles or dots; this led me to an exploration of line and shape. I chose each material for its unique mark-making capacity, each medium's distinct strength helped me to create a variety of nuanced textures."

"This cyanotype photography piece was created in response to my viewing of Nike Davies Okundaye's work, Ibadan is Sweet (adire eleko). I was drawn to the cross at the center of the piece as shown, dividing the field into four distinct but related areas. I was also attracted to the indigo color and the various graphic elements and motifs. In my own work I have my chosen motifs, currently and in this piece, boats, a child's vintage comb, hands and mulberry leaves. Ibadan is Sweet is on cotton fabric and I chose to make my work on a softly textured mulberry paper, even though it is challenging to wash/process after exposure due to its high absorbency. The extra care and effort was worth the resulting rich Prussian blue color, image clarity, and luscious texture."

"This piece is a tribute to John “Quash” Williams and the nineteen other un-named enslaved West Africans whose skills and labor produced the first viable indigo dye matter in the 18th century British colony of Charleston, South Carolina.

"The kidnapped Africans carried with them the considerable knowledge, culture and skills of the cultures of their home countries.

"They worked on land owned by Eliza Lucas Pinckney, an amateur botanist, and Charles Pinckney. Over the years Eliza Lucas Pinckney had tried repeatedly— and unsuccessfully—to grow indigo dye matter for export. Around 1745, with information shared by one of the enslaved Africans and with the skills and labor of the others, the highly laborious and painstaking processes of cultivating indigo and extracting a high-quality viable dye were successful. The result was a valuable export that shifted the entire economy and trade of the southeast seaboard."

"This painting is a self-portrait of a time past. It depicts the artist in the later part of her pregnancy. Culturally, it is considered a bad omen to share news that a woman is expecting until it’s visibly obvious. Additionally, gestures and symbols that announce arrival of a child such as maternity photos, baby showers, toys, baby clothes and furniture are considered to affect fertility and bring bad luck to the embryo. These are held off until after the birth. In keeping with these beliefs, this painting was created years after birth to as a memory of the period of artist’s life. This piece is a response to the Medicine Pot that is a symbol of fertility and also is a response to the Fanti fertility “doll”. Both these pieces represent people’s desire to assign symbolism to uncertain life events such as birth and death because they are beyond our control."

"Motherland Tapestry is a celebration of African culture, from pottery and African bead jewelry to the African elephant and Adinkra, yet also a piece recognizing the great crimes against humanity and against African wildlife that have plagued the continent throughout Africa's history."

"This piece originated as Necklace’s shape and colors along with Cole’s manipulation of a bicycle evoked an artist’s work tool, the color wheel. Drawn next to the circular forms within Okundaye’s textile, I was inspired to fold and roll encyclopedia pages, tying them with fiber in a spinning wheel pattern. From there my creation developed, made only from previously-sourced materials, many with a story behind them. It was an honor to feel an affinity with the early Bamana farmers, who followed the antelope spirit Chi Wara’s guidance to work with the resources nature provided.

I chose wire for the connection of objects in order to make the action of my work visible, like the inside of a clock revealed. Through this assemblage, which references as many materials and facets of the FAM pieces as possible, I hope to call attention to objects as dynamic, rather than fixed, sources of meaning."

"A splattered panel compelled me to explore. I think the idea that emerged of a figure beneath another, as in the Ogundele work, shows something about our relationships. Is the lower figure supporting the upper? Is the upper figure buoying the lower? Are we aware of the other or just naively connected? Are there times when our positions reverse? I named it for the mud, because, the object is beyond what it depicts as pictures are beyond words; and paint, birds, people all go from oxide to oxide from mud to mud."

pen on paper, 10" x 13", 2022, $180 (sold)

Inspired by: Bayo Ogundele, Witchcraft

"I've traveled there, then, and now here, friend." Inspired by my placement within a familiar-yet-foreign culture, while abroad in Scotland, I was questioning my personal involvement with African-American culture and its influence on my identity. I am at home, though at the same time can't help but feel like a visitor. The case opens up to reveal this internal dialogue, spoken by voices which may very well be only my own."

"I find it interesting to work with the visual residue of various, disparate found objects that are traditionally not art materials and often destined for the landfill (Willie Cole).

I enjoy the challenge of changing their meaning, preserving, as well as, altering their history and allowing for the interplay of visual and psychological relationships (Currency, Nigeria).

The sculpture, Spirit of Flint draws attention to the political and economically motivated impact that humans have had on the environment. This sculpture reflects on the horrible injustice that was inflicted on the people of Flint, Michigan (Medicine Pot – fresh water taken daily from the river)."