Andrea Coleman
Big Papa Al, 2022
Digital print on canvas
47 1/4 x 38 x 1 in
120 x 96.5 x 2.5 cm
120 x 96.5 x 2.5 cm
8589
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In this painting by Chicago based visual artist Andrea Coleman, the face of the central figure, Big Papa Al, echoes in fractured layers amid a swirling cosmos of colors and...
In this painting by Chicago based visual artist Andrea Coleman, the face of the central figure, Big Papa Al, echoes in fractured layers amid a swirling cosmos of colors and forms. Coleman makes digital paintings based on family folklore that explore the layered nature of memory. Although the end result of her studio process is ultimately a print on canvas, the method of its creation combines techniques and ideas from painting, film, photography, animation, and murals. Coleman’s process begins and ends with storytelling. She listens to the stories members of her family tell her about the past, and then seeks out the other people who were part of the same story and asks them to tell her their version of events. Using a 360 camera, she photographs the locations where these stories took place, empty now, but still reverberation from the aura of past events. She mixes her photographs with family photos that relate to the story being told. She then layers brush marks and splotches of color, and then erases or whites out sections of the image. The act of erasure makes spaces in the image for lost information to reappear, and for hidden trauma be memorialized.