08 Feb

Mandala: Around Athens

Recently, a few staff members took a trip to a local art exhibit entitled, “The Journey.” The exhibit’s opening reception celebrated the start of Black History Month; and talented artists captured, on canvas, what journeys have looked like for African Americans. What was clear from the exhibit’s art were the multiple interpretations of literal and metaphorical mobility. From figureheads who reached some elevated position in society to paintings of a woman displaced from her home in a post-Katrina New Orleans, journeys began and ended at multiple destinations in acrylic, oil and other, unique mediums.  

Related to last year’s journal theme, reconciliation, the exhibit is a catalyst for reflection. What types of reconciliation are possible only by journeys: the passage of time (e.g. a lifetime), or travel away from and towards places or feelings of conflict? Also, what does it mean to return to a culturally specific narrative of progress and mobility every February for African Americans? What wounds remain without redress? What is actively reconciled if anything?

Food for thought this February, I guess.

If you get a chance, support the exhibit, which is organized by the Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation. Or see more beautiful people and art from the exhibit here.

*Photo Credits (for bottom two photos): J P Crisan, wildrivermedia.com.