First of all, I found Daniel Scott's exhibition mesmerizing. This exhibition is a clever way to present storytelling, and her work is an excellent example of what conveying art and activism look like. The exhibition as a whole is rich with history, and the way she presented her work made me feel connected with every artwork I saw in the gallery. Also the use of mixed media I found fascinating, the use of fabrics, paper, and photographs. The use of layering creates dynamic and pleasant pieces.
I was born in the Dominican Republic, and I’ve been living in the United States since 2010. I’ve been an artist or well better said I started doing artwork in 2016. When Danielle explained how she had her ‘awakening’ as she took a walk in her homeland Cuba. I started doing photography when I went to my country on vacation, and I took a walk with a friend who is a photographer. I took pictures of people and the streets of my homeland, and I fell in love. That was the moment I decided what I wanted to do with my life, and I wanted to capture moments that were important to me, I wanted to say something with my work, just as Danielle wanted to.
There are 2 of her works that stood out to me the most, the first is, Celia and Bazile Churchill, 2022.
Celia and Bazile Churchill are framed on weathered wood, and the artwork itself has mixed medium assemblage and resin. Danielle Scott in this particular piece is using a photograph of a woman and a kid, which I assume are Celia and Bazile, even though it doesn’t say exactly who is who. Both of them look happy, they are both smiling and they look like they were having a good moment. Their outfits are altered with colors more vibrant than the photograph that she used as a base and are layered with African vibrant colors that make the artwork look more vibrant and alive. The girl has a black dress with patterns that also has pearls. Honestly, this dress looks mature for a little girl, and also elegant. The woman has also layered clothes on her, she has a yellow skirt with a red and gold pattern and also on her forehead she is wearing something that looks like a crown. I have to point out that the way Danielle made layers of different fabrics behind her head and the decision to make them circular makes it look like a halo. I found it very clever because it makes the woman look like a holy person, like someone we should adore and praise. Also, the girl has some circular patterns or layered fabric behind her head, but they are not as noticeable as the woman. I take it as a strategy that Danielle used to make us look at the woman first. I found it lovely and refreshing to layer them on these beautiful and vibrant colors. I assume that maybe what they were wearing in the original photograph did not pay them justice and she wanted to represent them as what they should always be. That’s the beauty of art, and it is powerful and it can change things around, “Art allows us to say things that can’t be said, to give form to abstract feelings and ideas, and present them in such ways that they can be communicated with others.” (Duncombe, Lambert, pg. 25) this is what Danielle does on her artwork, she’s presenting a body of work that speaks by itself, and without words, it evokes feelings from the viewers, and that’s the beauty of it.
The other artwork that stood out to me is from Hatwell, Gray, Bernaby, and Eugene, 2020.
Hatwell, Gray, Bernaby, and Eugene, 2020, are framed on weathered wood, and the artwork itself has mixed medium assemblage and resin. In this particular piece, Danielle Scoot used different colors to make the picture more vibrant. The artwork displays four children sitting down and posing for the picture, and as the preview artwork that I talked about below, she used a photograph and layered with more vibrant colors for their surroundings. I do not know if it was on purpose or if that’s what she intended when she created this piece, but the first thing that I noticed was the vibrant red, and after that, I noticed that the four kids are not wearing shoes, and that’s something clever to point out. Children usually love to be barefoot. Of all the artworks I saw at the gallery, this is the one that made me feel more nostalgic. Children are the future of this generation and if we do not take care of them we won’t have a future at all. I see this image as a reminder that we need to take care of the present to secure our future. As John Berger states in Ways Of Seeing “ A person may notice a particular image or piece of information because it corresponds to some particular interest he has.” That’s exactly what happened to me when I saw this piece of artwork. As a mom and as an older sister I always had it in me to protect the children, and look out for them. That must be why I felt connected to her work.
Danielle Scoot talks about the importance of heritage. For my selfie, I did a black-and-white self-portrait, and I collected images that represent my country, Dominican Republic. As I mentioned, I was born in DR, but I’ve been living in the United States since 2010. Keeping alive my heritage is important to me, and I always try to not disconnect from it. As a mother, I always try to remind her that even though she was born in the USA and I no longer live there, it is important to keep our traditions and cultures. The black and white represent the melancholy that is being away from home, the sadness that many Latinos go through when they are away from home. Some of us are fortunate enough to have papers and travel, but some people are not that fortunate. They can’t go back home, because if they do, they can’t go back to the US. I use the brush tool to add color to my clothes, it represents positivity in dark moments. I added images that represent the culture of my country, like the food, landscape, art style, etc. “Art can do all sorts of amazing things: it can inspire, horrify, alter our perspectives, and allow us to imagine things that seemed unimaginable.”(Duncombe, Lambert, pg 28) The self-portrait overall represents my culture, and as the quote states, I hope other people can see themselves in it too and feel inspired, or to feel any type of emotion, because the end to bring emotions through our art is what many of us artists hope for.
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