KELLY WRITERS HOUSE
Indigene ~
Indigene
ARTIST STATEMENT
I have had a few variations of this artist statement, but the
aforementioned continues to remain true to what I feel my art is and
continues to be. I can't say what my style and medium will end up being
because I continue to evolve, until the end of this life. This maybe
difficult for anyone who may want to label or put my art in a category,
but this is my intrepid art-making . . . so only I define it.
I read something recently in an article about a state conference in
Mexico where a group of Native Americans and Anglos (dominant culture in
American society) were discussing art and one of the tribal leaders stood
and stated that in his language there was no word for art because art was
not separate from life. Art is as close to us as our breath. Art is our
clothing, our food, our healing. It is everything we do or think during
the day.
I agree with my tribal brother and add to that this quote by Romare
Bearden, one of our most adventurous artist-brothers:
Now western society needs to broaden its horizon to realize that we are
all human and our differences make us unique and that is true art.
—Indigene
The artist known as "Indigene" (aka Theresa
Gaskin) was born and raised in NYC and currently lives in Philadelphia. A
first-generation Caribbean American, her parents are from the islands of
St. Vincent BWI and her grandparents are from Trinidad and Portugal. She
is a graduate of the University of PA, Eastern College and has a graduate
degree from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Indigene traveled extensively in the Caribbean (notably Haiti
after the US invasion to restore President Bertrand Aristide and the
Dominican Republic) and the Dominican Republic during the 1990s, an
experience that changed her life, bringing her art and its approach to
the foreground of her life. Her influences include Van Gogh, German
Expressionism, Matisse, Bob Johnson, Beauford Delaney, Edna Manley,
Elizabeth Catlett among others.
To view the bios and some works of Elizabeth Catlett and Beauford Delaney
visit:
www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/catlett_elizabeth.html
Creating art for me is a process of soul searching rooted in the
social, cultural, and spiritual perspectives of women and people of color.
Each piece of my work is the end result of dreams, moods, experiences or
reactions to life. By this statement I want to avoid the confinement of a
singular style and medium."There are roads out of the secret place within us which we
must all move
as we go touch others. Practically all . . . artists accept the influence
of
others. But . . . the artist with vision sees their material, chooses,
changes,
and by integrating what they have learned with their own experiences,
finally molds something distinctly personal."
www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/delaney_beauford.html