Black-\`blak\

Author

Venise Keys, Illinois State UniversityFollow

Graduation Term

2016

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts (MFA)

Department

School of Art

Committee Chair

Melissa Oresky

Abstract

My studio practice explores themes of identity derived from the basic question of Langston Hughes, What does it mean to be a Black artist? My artwork draws from memory, Black Feminist literature, along with the aesthetics of the African diaspora and the Black Arts Movement. In this essay, I reexamine childhood experiences in my mother's hair salon; beauty rituals of U.S. Black women; and the consuming male gaze in Western art to explain how these influences manifest in the artwork of Black-\`BLAK\.

Access Type

Thesis-Open Access

Recommended Citation

Keys, Venise, "Black-\`blak\" (2016). Theses and Dissertations. 511.
https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/etd/511

DOI

http://doi.org/10.30707/ETD2016.Keys.V