From the Collection:

Giving  Voice to Visuals #10

“You ever notice the pure excitement of a black woman when one of her sisters succeeds? It’s simply beautiful. To see the genuine joy and support from another woman who gets it means more than one can ever put into words. You feel safe, understood, and instantly uplifted. Your success suddenly isn’t even about you anymore, it’s now about the sisters before you who made it possible, and the sisters waiting to follow in your footsteps.”

—Ashley Mcdonough, Elite Daily

October 2017

Close friends or sisters by blood… either way, still sistas.

Multitalented artist and Ragdale Fellow, Joyce Owens, captures this phenomenon in paint with LIKE MY SISTER (2006), with colorful images and suggestive shades of sorority. Owens is a figurative artist who wants us to see—truly see—not only the compelling faces before us, but the beauty of their context, their history, their stories. To do so, the Chicago-based artist—by way of Philly—consistently pushes us to look longer and deeper at the imagery she presents, both at the surface level and beyond.

In this case, once you do, you will find a genuine sisterhood that not only sustains the subjects at hand but a larger culture and community of people, their history, their struggles, their common bond, their solidarity and, ultimately, their triumph.

Or, as put in the painting’s accompanying text:

“I can see into you like you are me, and we are sisters… That is a signal of empathy which if it existed in more of us, could save the world.”

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