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JAMES
30 in. x 20 in.
Paint,
paper and engraving on wood
©Maureen Kelleher 2002
Detail
image with engraved text. Back
to gallery 1
Engraved
and printed text on the work:
| JAMES BALDWIN |
|
JAMES KELLEHER |
Baldwin's advice
to his brother:
One day his mother showed him a letter from his brother, "Lover,"
who had been mistreated by a white officer in the army. Jimmy
responded with a letter. He reminded his brother that racism
is based on fear, that when the white racist confronts the
black man, what he sees is not the individual man but a "nightmare"of
his own creation. Above all, he said, "you must take
care not to step inside his nightmare," his guilt, and
his fear, his hatred. To step into the nightmare is to justify
it and to relinquish the soul's freedom and the control over
one's life. To enter the nightmare is to become a "nigger." |
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My
father's advice to me:
"Do anything you want.
Just don't bring home a nigger."
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Artist’s
note: I never forgot what my father told me as a teenager. And
then a few years ago, I barricaded myself in my apartment with a
biography of James Baldwin while a million others evacuated an approaching
hurricane. The hurricane ultimately veered east and blasted the
coast of Mississippi. I emerged from my makeshift bunker with the
need to express my father’s advice and get a tighter grip
on the soul of racism. |
