Gail's Two-Page Entry for Francine's Book

 

       

This was the beginning of my idea for Francine's book. After receiving her book I had to go sit down and take it all in. That's when I knew it was time to roll up my sleeves and get to work, as my first book challenge has begun. She started her book with an amazing fabric collage in the theme of Black Lives Matter. So in keeping with that theme I used a previous BLM design from a recent drawing of mine and superimposed a gel medium image of a mask from a series of mask drawings created last summer.  

 On this page I was trying to figure out the layout. I decided to glue the transparencies together first with, you guest it! gel medium. I think at this point I could do a commercial for Liquitex matte medium. If anyone knows how to get this stuff off of your fingers let me know, even when I think it's off, its not.

On the second page I was inspired to use the silhouette of a girl swinging, supplied by Francine. I was quite familiar with the silhouette because I own one of Francine's swinging girl sculptures. It was a challenge trying to incorporate it into my design, however I feel like I met the challenge through experimentation and sheer determination.  The next photo shows how I removed the paper from the back of the gel medium image using a toothbrush or a nail brush. The image beside it shows the end result as a thin and flexible membrane with the image embedded in it. I placed the gel medium sheet over my statement about African mask and African Americans wearing a mask.

After discovering a poem by an African American poet, Paul  Laurence Dunbar, entitled “We wear the mask” a connection to African Americans and African mask was made. The poem focused on the metaphorical “mask” of happiness and contentment that African Americans were forced to wear in front of white society while struggling under racism and segregation. This poem was written before the Civil Rights movement and speaks to the struggles of African Americans forced to navigate a racist American society. The African mask was for the performer to conceal their true identity as well, while calling on the ancestors for protection. 

While introducing the element of color into my design I used some pieces from a Monotype print to create more drama within the composition. I also included the Adinkra symbol "Aya"or fern, symbolic of the endurance and resourcefulness that got us through the worst of times. 

 Thank you Francine for the challenge and the inspiration!

Gail