The future we toasted
A painting about inheritance and time
I painted a painting that feels like it needs an explanation. I don’t think these are the best kinds of paintings to make. I suspect it makes it harder for the viewer to enter. Though I’m also aware that people connect to art all the time without interpretation from the artist. Nevertheless, here we are.
The photo reference for this work comes from my family album. It was taken in June 1995, the night of my high school graduation. I’m standing between my parents. I remember the night clearly, how it felt. I remember feeling free and being very annoyed that my parents were hosting what I thought was an uncool graduation party with all of my aunties, uncles, work friends, and church friends.
They were so happy and proud, beaming really, and all I wanted was to get out and roam the streets of our hometown with my friends who had also graduated that night. Biggie and Tupac were alive and well on the radio. There were house parties to go to and being that 1990s teenager that is now revered with nostalgia. All I wanted was to escape this smothering Ghanaian gathering and be with my cool American friends.
So here I am below, probably photographed by my Uncle Jack, who was always taking pictures at these functions. He was our family archivist, clicking away at every gathering, preserving our moments even as they were unraveling and morphing.
I’ve titled the painting Inheritance.
My desire to paint this work came from thinking about what is lost over time as a child of immigrants. The urge to run from your parents and their world is universal to all teenagers. But for a child of the diaspora, that running can have generational consequences. Coming to America, while rewarding in many ways for my family, has also meant loss.
Each time I travel back home to Ghana, I’m confronted with my Americanism, my in-between-ness. I can’t speak my native language, though luckily I understand every word. I can’t cook many of our traditional foods. My mother and aunties still have to explain customs to me at cultural events. These are the parts of my inheritance that have slowly diminished over time.
So in this painting there is celebration, a toasting of the future, rightly so. But we should have also tilted our glasses to the ground, a pour, for what we were leaving behind.
P.S. I submitted this painting to an exhibit happening in DC in June and it was accepted. So if you are in DC, you can see this work at 11:Eleven Gallery at the National Press Building on Friday, June 19th through June 21st.
I love both the painting and the themes. When I read the news I think that the world is made of hateful tribes. When I read people's individual stories (and see their artwork) I think that we all have so much in common. I graduated high school the year after you. Congratulations on the exhibit and thanks for sharing your work.
The teenaged eye roll is apparently universal, lol. You captured the moment perfectly!