Dziva, Goddess With Skin the Color of Dirt
Completed: December 12, 2021
Oil on canvas.
24 X 18 inches
Comment:
“When I first heard someone say they had been told their skin was the color of dirt, I was appalled. Later, reflecting on that idea, I remembered the rich black dirt in my grandfather’s garden and recognized that dirt is amazing, generally, the darker, the better. The insult can be turned if one thinks about the importance of dirt.
(I am aware that it is my white privilege to refuse to accept that particular insult as an insult. My skin is the color of sand. How is that better?)”
Keywords:
Oil,Canvas
St. Petersburg, FL
Artist Statement
An image came to me of a Black woman whose braids turned into crop rows and orchards rooted in her skin as dirt, a Mother Earth. I was prepared to call her some variation of Demeter, but stumbled across the name Dziva, the Shona goddess of agriculture/fertility and realized she was who my painting depicted.
Other archived works by this artist.
Image Info