Song for Our Fathers, Michael D. Harris
About the Work
From the Artist
My belief is that art is best as the articulation of spiritual ideas or transformative intention. It can be an agent of spiritual inspiration or personal and social transformation. My conviction is that the best expression presents individual creativity within a collective context or awareness; form represents a means or an aid to an end rather than an end in itself.
For the past 14 years the forms I have used have been based upon the rhythmic, organized grid of African American quilts. To this now has been added a series quoting from and inspired by shrine paintings done by Yoruba women. I have improvised in ways that reflect an attempt to discover a symbolic relationship between African American musical expression and the visual organization of the works based in quilting. The shrine works deal with the sense of ritual performance and family tribute and the sense of sacred space. The process of creating art represents a path of discovery rather than a state of mastery, and the work at any point provides a glimpse of an act of becoming.
—From Brandywine Workshop and Archives records
About the Artist
Artist, professor, scholar, and curator Michael D. Harris is from Cleveland, OH. He earned a BFA and MFA from Howard University, Washington, DC, and a PhD in art history from Yale University, New Haven, CT.
Harris has published and co-...
