The Brief – June
JUNE 2021 CONTENT Juneteenth: Recollection and Reflection The Forum, featuring Corporate Psychologist and Executive Coach Becky Winkler, PhD 5 Questions with Abstract Artist Barbara Ellis A Word Juneteenth: Recollection and Reflection Heightened attention on the history of Juneteenth, now a federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved Americans of African descent, ushers in opportunities to reflect on the past and to question the myriad ways we each remain unfree.
We tend to look back and lament the condition of the enslaved or imagine their jubilation in becoming free. This also poses a moment to look upon our own lives, our communities and our democracy, examining how, in this century, we can realize and protect everyone’s freedom. While the bondage experienced 156 years ago by Galveston’s enslaved differs from the fears and falsehoods that hold us captive today, the grip nevertheless can be as powerful.
Strings of recent headlines—about Galveston in 1865, Tulsa in 1921 and the Capitol in 2021—illuminate how history and present-day stories, too, are at times warped or even erased to deny people knowledge. In this way, our vulnerabilities are not unlike the illiteracy and miseducation that enabled American slavery.
Whether oppressor or oppressed, the risks are immense, and the harm is reciprocal. “You can't hold a man down without staying down with him,” as Booker T. Washington put it. So, how can we rise together? What must we do to ensure mutual liberation and flourishing? How can the humanities and dialogue unlock our minds?
"Nobody's free until everybody's free.”
― Fannie Lou Hamer, American voting and women’s rights activist and community organizer After a year and a half of longing for connection, we are excited to meet together and consider how our thinking patterns shape human flourishing and influence the common good.
Meet us at the new Wray Ward HQ for 
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5 Questions • Barbara Ellis An interview with the Charlotte resident and abstract artist whose works are currently on exhibition at Elder Gallery for Contemporary Art
BY VALAIDA FULLWOOD
Work from Ellis’ “The Reason for Their Fear” series Former New Yorker and now Charlottean, Barbara Ellis is a non-objective abstract painter who produces colorful paintings that respond to dreams and musings and that reflect the spiritual, the socio-political and memory. Surprising forms and movement emanate from her work as she uses the abstract expressionist process to channel emotional states into visual form. Creativity and the arts have long been present in Ellis’ family and life. Jazz was a familiar sound in her home, and she expressed herself through singing, dancing and drawing.
Ellis earned a Bachelor of Commercial Art from City College of New York and also has studied at numerous arts institutions. Her artwork has been shown in various galleries and juried exhibitions, including Hart-Witzen Spring Free for All; Manhattan Arts International “HerStory”; ArtFields; and Charlotte ArtPop in which Ellis was one of 20 billboard artists.
What’s one of the best parts of being an artist in the world? Oh! It’s being able to have an instrument to transform my impressions, my responses into meaningful ideas that I might not necessarily have any other way to express.
Another is to have a license to be in my own head. While I don’t actually need license to do so, I now have a way for people to see what I’m thinking about. It’s kind of scary sometimes, but I do it because my spirit wants me to. Maybe “scary” is a strong word, but it’s a certain vulnerability when you allow others to have a portal to your innermost feelings.
Once you release those ideas, you are called upon to talk about it. When you exhibit your work, people are curious about what motivated the art and tend to be fascinated by the minds of artists. On one hand, you hope your work is chosen for an exhibit and when the image isn’t something people can clearly understand, then they ask, “what is this?” and “why?”. I have to be willing to talk about my art. I go into each project knowing I’ll be asked to discuss it and how I’ll respond.
As a transplant from New York, what drew you to Charlotte and what’s been your experience here?
My only child married an Army guy, so they travelled all over, in the U.S. and internationally. When they started having children, I was only able to see my grandchildren once or twice a year. After a few years, I felt it was time to make a change. They had been in Charlotte for about three years when I decided to take the leap.
I had been in New York all my life. I’m a five generations-deep Manhattanite and thought: “It’s okay to do something different.” It was time to invest energies into my family. I sold my house, came down here and bought a home. That’s been 17 years now. I’m glad I made the choice. There are a lot of things I miss about New York City, mostly its diversity. The energy, I used to miss it but now in this season of my life I welcome the moderate pace. I’m a Charlottean now, and it all worked out well.
How is 2020’s pandemic and racial protests affecting you today?
That’s a big one. Everybody has a story as it relates to this. I have a studio at ClearWater Arts Center in Concord. However, at the start of the Covid pandemic, I stayed home for two months because I was freaked out. I did some work at home, outside, but really missed working in the studio. My thing is paint, and I’m messy when I paint. Being at home didn’t allow me to work the way I needed to.
I finally returned to the studio in May 2020 and continued to do my work the way I was accustomed, following the same process. It is non-objective, gestural art, which is basically rooted in spirit and my visceral responses to certain ideas. I then turn those gestures into marks on canvas, layer upon layer, and eventually chaos turns to order. I noticed I was not producing work I felt was good. A shift has occurred, and I no longer had the physical energy to do my art in the same way, at the scale I work. It requires mental, spiritual and physical effort. I put my arms, my whole body, myself into making this kind of art, and it just wasn’t translating.
That’s when I realized I was depleted. I didn’t know how exhausted I had become from four years of a daily onslaught of politics, social media and technology. I was absorbing it all, and then came Covid-19. I thought, “You’ve really been affected by all this.” To continue to paint, I would have to make a change.
After showing a friend my website, she commented that my art was energetic with strong colors, lots of movement and shapes, but that she was looking for something quiet. I said, “Wow that’s it! I need quiet.” Quiet in the sense of making works with soothing colors, shapes that have boundaries rather than marks all over the place, and just a quieter experience where I would be deliberately using my brush instead of actively throwing paint around.
I called the next few paintings, “In Pursuit of Quiet”. It marked a necessary shift. It is evident in my work that something happened here.
What’s your “happy place” and why?
Water. I love to swim. I love the beach. I love lakes. That’s where I am happiest, in the water. Maybe it’s because I’m a water sign, Scorpio, I’ve always had an affinity and relationship with water.
I was fortunate enough to go to a summer camp, beginning when I was nine years old. It was Camp Atwater, an historic Black camp in Springfield, MA, established in 1921 and run by the Urban League. My father went there, and they thought it was a good place for me. That’s where I learned to swim—in a freshwater lake. In the late 1950s, few Black children had the privilege of going to camp and learning to swim. Even though I didn’t recognize it at the time, in hindsight it was a privileged experience. Once I learned to swim—move through the water and being one with it—it became meditative. It feels so good, especially when it’s hot outside. As a matter of fact, I did some laps this morning. Happy as a clam! [joyful laughter]
What ideas are stirring your imagination and influencing your art these days?
Absolutely. Four paintings compose the “In Pursuit of Quiet” series. My intent was to continue with that series, and I began a fifth one. In the middle of the fifth, I felt another energy shift, after the insurrection on January 6th. Suddenly I felt myself shifting from this deliberate, quiet way of painting to some different. My palette changed. I changed my brushes and began with aggressive, kind of angry, brushstrokes. I recognized the shift and thought, “Just go with it”.
I work in sets of two paintings at a time. These two paintings became a new series called “The Reason for Their Fear,” where I’m examining the far-right and alt-right and the reasons for their dark fears. I took a serious turn, because I realized there was something inside me that I wanted to get out.
I went from the prior “quiet” series, which was a protective measure, moved through that to producing the opposite: I had to say something. I’ve done four paintings in the current series. The color palette features neutrals—beige, brown, black and tans, like skin. I’ve completed four piece and now working on another set. I’m part of a group show that opened a few weeks ago at Elder Gallery for Contemporary Art. The exhibition includes three pieces from the “In Pursuit of Quiet” series and two from my current series. Clearly, I’m not done with “The Reason for Their Fear”. Yes, I’ve got a lot to say. About The Charlotte Center HELPING PEOPLE AND COMMUNITIES FLOURISH
Flourishing is a peak state of well-being. It is all-encompassing: physical, mental, moral, spiritual, and social. At the heart of it is a strong sense of meaning, mastery, and mattering, in which all people are able to live the best versions of themselves.
The Charlotte Center accomplishes its mission by bringing people together to explore challenges and opportunities that affect human flourishing through the lens of the humanities and civic imagination. The humanities pose deep questions, help address complex and imperfect information, and provide critical and creative tools for problem-solving and the invention of new visions. Our programs deepen human connection and strengthen personal and civic agency. gratitude to our sponsors 
The Charlotte Center operates with support from financial donors and generous sponsors such as those listed above and you. A WORD 
I have tasted freedom. I will not give up that which I have tasted.
HARVEY MILK American politician and LGBTQ Activist 
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Word to the Wise is compiled and edited monthly by Valaida Fullwood Design by Goldenrod Design Co. |
