Handmade, 2022

Handmade

This work is inspired by Augusta Savage, (born Augusta Christine Fells · Feb. 27 1892) one of the most brilliant sculptors of the Harlem Renaissance era and of the 20th century. Known for constantly making with her hands, she was most famous for her figurative and representational sculpture and was commissioned for the World Fair in 1939 . Being often unable to afford things in Bronze, Savage would cover her plaster works with a layer of shoe polish mixed with brown paint as it revealed a very similar luster to Bronze. As an artist, I have always admired the intuitive connections that we make with materials, especially those that we create ourselves…this becoming a conversation of alchemy. Despite the financial and social struggles within Savage’s career, her prolific studio cultivated much life, seeking to find equal rights for African Americans in the arts.