PORTFOLIO
THE GRANDMOTHERS
The Unilisi mixed media painting series is inspired by Kongo minkisi, Christian symbols, and Cherokee traditions and words. Minkisi (sing. nkisi), are containers for medicines and a power spirit that is activated by nailing. In these Minkisi paintings, the power figure is Unilisi, which means the Grandmother of many in Cherokee. The paintings are wrapped, tied, and nailed in a technique reflective of that used for composing an nkisi. The paintings contain African symbols like the Ashanti Adinkra symbol, Sankofa, which expresses the proverb that one must return to the past to build the future. The shawl the Grandmother wears has Cherokee syllabary woven in the fabric. It is the Twenty-third Psalm and represents the melding of Christian and Native beliefs. Hidden within and attached without are medicine bundles, powerful objects used by both Native and African healers.
