“Under the bright blue
vault of the heavens …”

Opening words from the September 28, 1902 Fayette Chronicle  
article entitled “Five Thousand People Witness Lynching” 
describing the lynching of William Gibson in Corinth, Mississippi

These paintings are portraits. They are portraits of souls, and of memories. The souls of human beings, men and women, known and unknown, who were murdered by lynching in the Mississippi Delta between 1875 and 1993. While there were over 500 recorded lynchings in the state during that time, these people were lynched in Delta towns where I lived, taught, or traveled while living there between 2007 and 2013.

The Mississippi River literally and metaphorically washes much of the United States clean — of its soil and its sins — depositing both good and evil in the Delta where the wages of absolute power and inhumanity are still being paid. The deepest alluvial soil and the deepest poverty. The imagery of threatening storm clouds against dark fertile land speaks to the oppression and the stark contrast that still exists today.

Lynchings didn’t stop, of course, in 1993 — but the methods changed. Knees instead of ropes. Chokeholds instead of gasoline. It’s convenient to believe that the South, especially Mississippi, owns America’s race and class shame. It’s comforting to wash our hands clean in this river. 

These are not my stories to tell. But my privilege is owed to Mississippi’s shame, and my charge is to be a part of a process that can make others aware of how enormous the  distance is between its starting point and its possibilities. Eleven of these paintings bear the names of individuals along with the date and place of their lynchings. Four are titled with the charge recorded with their lynching record. Six are in memory of specific lynchings when the victim or victims were unidentified.

Resources:

The Most Southern Place on Earth  by James C. Cobb 
Lynchings in Mississippi  by Julius E. Thompson
The Warmth of Other Suns  by Isabel Wilkerson

My thanks to: 

Lottie Joiner at Crisis, the magazine of the NAACP
America’s Black Holocaust Museum
The Say Their Names Project

My painting process: Encaustic paintings are made using multiple layers of pigmented beeswax, fused with a torch. This process appeals to my love of incorporating elements of randomness in my art. I establish a horizon line by applying India ink to the substrate with sticks, and then spraying it with water. The clouds are made using beeswax loaded with titanium white pigment. After it hardens, I use a propane torch to essentially paint with fire, echoing the winds that form the clouds. Each of these paintings contains a point of turbulence where opposing forces intersect.