When I was initially asked to be a part of the James Baldwin exhibition at New York Encounter I was confused- What does my work have to do with this influential writer? And what does the topic of race and reality, the heart of Baldwin’s work, mean to me?
Walking into the Encounter weekend before seeing the exhibition I was still confused, but everything came together once I realized how much emphasis was placed on Baldwin’s relationship with the painter Beauford Delaney in the section that featured my artwork. This section highlighted the change that happened in Baldwin’s life when he first walked into Delaney’s studio in Greenwich Village. Delaney became his father figure and mentor, accompanying and challenging him to react to life as an artist. It seems as though there was this redemption, or turning of Baldwin’s gaze, in the way he approached his environment and people around him.
Portrait of James Baldwin, 1945, Beauford Delaney. photo: Google images
One story about the two men finding a muddy puddle in the street particularly struck me. Delaney challenged Baldwin to see beauty of the mud in the puddle of water rather than the initial “ugliness” most people see when they come across a muddy puddle.
I think this story stuck out to me because so much of what I aim to do- when I’m drawing, in the process of printmaking, or working on a painting- is rooted in learning to see past the layers of “ugliness” that we often perceive without a second thought. I need to be challenged constantly in the way I look at ordinary circumstances, my environment, and most importantly the PEOPLE I encounter in whatever short or extended timing that might be. As an artist, as a human being, I must practice this way of seeing– of allowing my gaze to be purified and renewed, to receive others in a way that sees past initial judgments. I must continuously, daily, look for and reverence the indwelling of Beauty, which is Christ, within each person.
Thank you to the Baldwin exhibit crew for your hard work and thoughtful preparation for this, and for asking me to be a part of it.
(cover image: James Baldwin and Beauford Delaney embracing at the American Cultural Center, photo: U.S. Information Service)