Diego Rodriguez-Warner

Aziza Claudia Gibson-Hunter

Adjoa Burrowes

On May 7th, 1941, a celebration was held for the opening of the South Side Community Art Center (SSCAC) in Chicago, Illinois. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was on-hand and delivered a dedication speech. The art center was established as a venue where African American artists could showcase their art. Still open today, it is the oldest African American art center continuously standing in the U.S. from the WPA era. Adjoa Burrowes, a Chicago-native, accredits this venue as the place that propelled her into a life of art. I met Burrowes in early November 2020 at her home in northern Virginia. She told me about the importance of the SSCAC in her life. It was there that Jeff Donaldson, a renowned leader in the Black Arts Movement, discovered her artwork and recruited her to Howard University in the mid ‘70s. “It was mind-blowing and transforming,” she said of her experience studying fine art at Howard. As an artist, Burrowes doesn’t like to be boxed into one category. Her work transcends the focus of one particular art medium. She has exhibited hand-pulled prints, paintings, and paper sculptures around the country. In addition, she has authored and illustrated multiple children’s picture books. While in her home, Burrowes showed me one of her latest works. She held in her hands an abstract shaped sculpture, named “Say it Loud” after James Brown’s funk song, "Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud." It was bound together with strips of paper painted in bright shades of orange and red. She normally chooses a more subdued color palette. However, amid the heightened political and racial tension in the country of late, she opted for bright colors as a much needed “jolt” to get through the times.

The sun was pouring in through the bay windows, as I sat with Artist MK Bailey inside her home studio in Northeast Washington, D.C. Bailey, along with her husband, occupy the top floor of an old and charming victorian row house, which are common in their neighborhood. Houseplants adorned the windowsills beside the desk where she sat. I could hear the noisy cars outside –– a sound that was muffled just one year earlier due to the onset of the pandemic. It was around that time when Bailey started to find inspiration for what would become her most recent work. As a way to process things, she told me that she started walking more around her neighborhood. From these walks came “Quarantine,” a collection of paintings that depict the streetscape of the environment near her home. In each of the collection’s paintings, she prominently features plants in an urban setting, while using bold and fluorescent colors. One caught my eye in her studio. It was a painting of a crumpled up cookie bag tangled in weeds. I appreciated how she gave attention to a scene that would normally go unnoticed. “We all just learned that we’re lucky to survive,” she said, commenting on her feelings during the beginning of the pandemic. Bailey’s bright choice of colors for this collection meant something to me. It felt as though she was giving emphasis to what it felt like to be alive during such a dark time. When I asked what she had planned for the future, she responded,“I’m taking it day by day,” a fitting adage for us all as we continue to navigate through these uncertain days.

While sitting down with the painter David Ibata inside his Georgetown studio in Washington, D.C., I watched as he prepared his paint brushes for his latest portrait. When I asked him to name some of his art heroes, he pulled out a heavy book and handed it to me. It was “The Complete Paintings of Velázquez,” which features all of the works by the famous 17th century Painter Diego Velázquez. He raved about the legendary Spanish artist. He also credited the Portraitists Lucian Freud for highly inspiring his own work. A dense book of Freud’s works could also be found in his studio. Ibata was born in D.C and grew up in and around the District. From a young age, he knew that he wanted to pursue a life in the arts. “I felt like I needed to be a painter. There was nothing else I ever wanted to do,” he told me. After studying at Corcoran College of Art & Design, he went on to earn his MFA from the New York Academy of Art. I was curious as to why he chose to focus on portraiture, so I asked him what influenced this decision. Ibata smiled and responded, “A face is a landscape. It shows depth, time, and history.” A lot of the people in his portraits are people who have played some sort of role in his life. “My portraits are a way to honor them,” he said. Ibata also added that making a portrait is a great way to get to know someone better. The ability to create genuine human connections through portraiture is important to him. It’s one of the main reasons why he does it. In the end, when his works are finally consumed, he wants people to look beyond the individuals in his portraits, and to search for the bigger theme or idea.