Tausha Creates
An Ongoing Research Project
Illustrative Becoming
Illustrative Becoming is term I coined, as a way of describing an auto-ethnographic practice, of drawing that maps my past for the purpose of better understanding my racial and artistic identity. This drawing process creates a face-to-face conversation with one’s history, allowing an individual to actively address memories through an intimately drawn performance of life. This approach reveals connections and themes that provide a space for identity to be found.
Masks
Ink on Paper
Whiteness is an unspoken understanding of what is good and pleasing in an effort to maintain social order and ideological acceptance. It's pressed upon us that all that is clean and pure is White while everything Black is dirty, bad and dangerous. At times, I feel consumed and suffocated by the masks of Whiteness I carry to make others comfortable with my presence.
Hands Up
Ink on Paper
After learning of all the police killings against Black people, my 6 year old daughter developed a fear of police. One day a police cruiser passed our home and she ran and hid. When questioned, she responded, "They are police and we are Black."
Caution
Colored Pencils on Paper
My son and a few of his friends met just outside our home to play basketball. Shortly after meeting, a police officer drove up to investigate their intentions after reports from a neighbor fearing Black men gathering near their home.
Work
Ink on Paper
For many years I worked in the retail industry. My team treated me with respect and value, however, the customers constantly reminded me of divisions of race. Comments such as, “You are actually smart” or “You can’t possibly help me” were spouted often. Some would drop money onto the counter to avoid touching my hands. While I was pregnant, a client even offered words of comfort assuming I was single mother. I shared, “My husband and I are not worried at all.”
Blackness
Ink on Vellum
Similar to a person with a physical disability, my race proceeds me. When I walk into a room, others meet my blackness before they meet me. When someone writes about me or my artwork, they feel it is necessary to inform their audience of my race first.
Childhood Memories
Ink on vellum
A series of memories showing the effects of racism while growing up in all White spaces. I witnessed my parents' ongoing discriminations and endured plenty of my own while thinking it was acceptable behavior. I felt I was being punished by existing in a Black body.
Art Education Oversights
Ink on vellum
Throughout my formative years I was only taught by White teachers. I also only worked alongside students who did not look like me nor introduced to art created by artists of color. Although I received the grades, I felt disconnected from all the art I created and unsure of how to find meaning and purpose as an artist.
Parenting
Ink on Paper
Parenting Black children comes with the challenge of balancing the pains of our history with the promises of the future. There's the constant reminding that as we move forward, we also see the ills of history returning.
Identity
Ink on Paper
I have asked myself many questions while investigating the impact of my racial experiences
seeking strategies from my story that
can build bridges of unity and understanding. What I have learned, is that identity is found within the folds of our stories.
