“Bowl of Hope” inspires theme for 2021 Christian Scholars' Conference
My painting “Bowl of Hope” has been selected to grace the cover of a conference program.
David Fleer, the Director of the Christian Scholars' Conference at Lipscomb University preceded the conference announcement with some commentary on my work:
“This art work helped define and inspire the 2021 CSC: "Bowl of Hope." Created by Cheri Brackett, an artist from Asheville, North Carolina, the visual intends to inspire reflection and stimulate interdisciplinary conversation as we prepare for 2021.
I became aware of this powerful work before the outbreak of COVID-19, knowing our theme would be, "Recovery of Hope, A Vision of Healing, Trust and Restitution." National and regional events have made her work all the more appropriate.
Once Ms. Brackett agreed to have her work grace our conference book and web site and inspire our preparation, she submitted an introduction to her work. I hope you find the following as though provoking and stimulating as I have.”
Ms. Brackett hopes to be with us in person for next June's conference, "Recovery of Hope: A Vision for Healing, Trust and Restitution," which will open with Haben Girma and close with Ibram X. Kendi.
My introduction is below:
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“A woman without force—is without the essential dignity of humanity.”
I borrow and alter that quote of Frederick Douglass, the man who had more photographic self-portraits in the 19th century than anyone else: 160.
Douglass used art in a time when words alone were too much of a bloody battleground. He used artistic expression to break the lens that most of the world was looking through at that time. The sealed and fallacious narrative about being human - about being white and black. He used art, his very image saying “See me as I am! Really see me. Over and over, see me. See me 160 times! You can’t deny that I am!” And he began to crack the lens of that narrative that any human being is less than any other.
And then the women came. Women who refused to be pushed to the margins. Rendered invisible.
All art is self-portrait — self revealing. No matter what kind of art it is. Visual. Spoken. Performance. We’ve got to put our whole selves in it. That’s where it becomes real. And that’s where the strength is. It also makes it riskier – vulnerable — to put ourselves out there like that.
But embracing our vulnerability in the arms of strength is to say that I’m fully human, and I fully am. See me, as I really am. And nothing and nobody can take my “I am-ness” away from me.
I paint women - whether black, white, brown, Afghan, Asian, Latina, young, old - because I sense that something in them is the same as or calls to something in me. Something that needs expression. Witness. Connection. Possibility.
Like this Bowl of Hope. I so connected with this woman with the bowl that I painted her entirely with my fingers. I needed to be that joined to her. I painted her in one day. And when she was finished, the tips of my fingers were bloody. I so merged with her, with needing hope in my life - and she connected me to what I needed. I love her for that.
For me, painting is expressing. It’s finding expression or release of that something in me that words just can’t touch. That’s what Douglass did. He bypassed the words that could no longer be heard, and used the visual story of “Here I am. I have nothing to hide. In fact, I hold nothing back.” And he inspired so many others. Many of them women.
So now you look at this woman with the bowl. This bowl of hope. And I’m curious, what does she speak to you?
Does she connect to your life in a particular way? Have you created a story about her and how does that story relate to your own life? For me at that particular time in my life, I needed hope. And she offered it. For you, maybe you see a woman who has given up. Who is taking the last sip from her bowl - in resignation. Or maybe you see the bowl as completely empty and her wanting. Or maybe it’s full and she knows she’s ready to offer it to the world.
— Cheri Brackett
