MADE ON ISLAND
Harry Seymour
Unveiling the Condition of Our Times
By Abby Remer
Speaking with the distinguished artist Harry Seymour is glorious. He shares eloquently about his moving art, which draws inspiration from African American cultural experiences and aims to promote social justice.
The artwork, on view through September 21 at the Mariposa Museum and World Cultural Center, is a series of giclée prints of his unique pastel scratchboard technique. This subtractive process involves continually adding medium and then scratching away, repeating the method until he is satisfied that the painting stimulates the eye and mind.
Seymour’s subject matter makes us think. For instance, “Defiant Alliance” symbolizes a possible solution to the challenges of race in America. In a strikingly symmetrical image, a Black girl stands on tiptoe on the back of a white young boy, sipping at a “white only” water fountain, facing a white girl in the same position opposite, supported by a young Black boy. The four children are smiling in alliance, each mixed-race pairing working together to defy the mandated separation of the races. “The point I’m trying to make is that to progress in social justice, you must defy injustice. But you have to do it in alliance with others.”
Seymour adds, “I amplify my images by the power of poetry that captures the universality of the human condition beyond simply Black versus White.” He started writing poems to accompany his art about four years ago, when a friend of his wife hosted a birthday party and asked everyone to write a limerick. Seymour chose to pen a poem instead and discovered his passion for the form. “I love writing poetry and haven’t looked back. They are part essay, part poetry.”
Seymour says he is thrilled to be an artist-in-residence this summer at the Mariposa Museum. Its mission to use art to cultivate curiosity and understanding across cultures aligns with his desire. The museum’s location at 57 Circuit Avenue in Oak Bluffs is also perfect, with its deep roots in the African American community. “Because of the nature of my work, the blackness of it, I feel a comfort level, and that I’ve come home.”
The Mariposa Museum and World Cultural Center is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM, at 57 Circuit Ave, Oak Bluffs. For more information, visit www.mariposamuseum.org/ob-exhibits-events.