Reflection:
Upon watching the videos at the https://art21.org/artist/kara-walker/ website, my first impression of the artist is how humble she is in spite of her great success. She speaks softly, and with confidence, but definitely lacking in the detached, pomposity that so often accompanies great artists. Although relatively young, 48 years old, she has a wisdom about her that is beyond her years. What strikes me about her art is that it is both influenced by her real life experiences and her passion for her African American heritage and history. It combines her historical inquiries with her fantasies and fears about the way things were and the ways things still are. Wikipedia states that Walker's work "explores race, gender, sexuality, violence and identity..." (Kara Walker, 2018). However, I prefer the poetic way Walker describes her own work, as dealing with "race relations and representations of your world, given what you've been given"..., "consumed by history"..."finding parallels in the past" to her own life..."freeze fram[ing] a moment full of pain, guts, blood and glory"..."projecting fictions into facts"...questioning "accurate likenesses"...wanting to "be the heroine and kill her at the same time"... and "exchanges of power and attempts to steal power from others" (Art 21 Walker Videos). She says, "That dilemma is the underlying turbulence I bring to each of the pieces that I make" (Art 21 Walker Videos).
After learning about Walker and her art, which varies from paint, paper silhouette, print making, installations to film, all of her works have the same subtle epic-ness that she embodies in her personality. She is interested in big ideas, big history, big fears, but presents them with a sort of humble respect. This is evidenced in the simplicity of the paper silhouettes that have such rich and vivid stories, or in the art piece "A Subtlety", an enormous sculpture made from a nontraditional material (sugar), that was built inside the building it was displayed in, and symbolizes many important historical references, and also brings about those things that were "subtle" and not talked about in the past to a very literally large stage (Wikipedia, A Subtlety, 2018).
It is exciting to study artists who are not only still alive, and established, but are still in the midst of their growth and career as artists, like Kara Walker. I am looking forward to seeing what she does in the future.
