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Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
Image 1 of 1
When I painted Hat, I was thinking about how certain acquaintances were almost inseparable from the hats they wore. Their chosen style shaped how they moved through the world; the hat became part of their identity. In my own African American family, hats have long carried social meaning—women’s church hats celebrated beauty and dignity, while older men were expected to wear a proper dress hat on formal occasions. Headwear has often marked status, belonging, aspiration, and sometimes exclusion.
Rather than depicting people, I placed a range of hat forms associated with African American life into an overlapping, floating field. The hats occupy a space without traditional perspective; deep receding hues open the background while the shapes push forward, intersecting and shifting in visual tension. Without human figures, the viewer supplies the social associations, memories, and identities that these hats evoke.
My intention was to bring forward both the physical beauty of the hats and the deeper cultural meanings they carry—meanings available to anyone willing to look closely.
· Dimensions: 24″ × 30″
· Medium: Oil on canvas
· Framing: Custom-framed by me to complement my specific painting
aesthetic.
When I painted Hat, I was thinking about how certain acquaintances were almost inseparable from the hats they wore. Their chosen style shaped how they moved through the world; the hat became part of their identity. In my own African American family, hats have long carried social meaning—women’s church hats celebrated beauty and dignity, while older men were expected to wear a proper dress hat on formal occasions. Headwear has often marked status, belonging, aspiration, and sometimes exclusion.
Rather than depicting people, I placed a range of hat forms associated with African American life into an overlapping, floating field. The hats occupy a space without traditional perspective; deep receding hues open the background while the shapes push forward, intersecting and shifting in visual tension. Without human figures, the viewer supplies the social associations, memories, and identities that these hats evoke.
My intention was to bring forward both the physical beauty of the hats and the deeper cultural meanings they carry—meanings available to anyone willing to look closely.
· Dimensions: 24″ × 30″
· Medium: Oil on canvas
· Framing: Custom-framed by me to complement my specific painting
aesthetic.