Where We Whither, We Also Bloom

We have just been graced by the Pink Moon, who unlike humans, has always had a remarkable ability to show us all of her sides.

In full luminary she slipped back her robe and claimed her space amongst the myriad of stars – this time in Libra, telling us that it’s time for new beginnings, peaceful initiations and a loving release of anything that no longer serves us.

This however, can’t happen without creating exit wounds in the night sky.

Because we humans, are messy.

So messy.

Lauren Pearce is a black artist based in Cleveland, Ohio with a passion for expressing her identity, race and womanhood on canvas. Drawing from her community and culture she creates powerful mixed media art with dynamic figures, iconic shapes and captivating portraits.

Where We Whither, We Also Bloom was her 2022 solo exhibition of beautiful melanated faces adorned with the vibrancy of floral garments. She called it her “rebirth” and a “prayer on canvas”. An intimate share of all the people she shed who were merely previous versions of herself.

Their expressions still, their gaze arresting. As if to say, we have seen the darkness but now we step into the light – no, no, we are the light.

We are in a post-modern contemporary art period, where art and artists are shifting narratives long held and past due.

There are no smiles here – just presence – and that’s revolutionary in and of itself given there was once a time when humans of this hue were disallowed to look at others directly in their eye. And if they did, they needed to be in sorrow, fear, or worst… performing joy.

This is neither.

This is just being.

This is a permission slip for living.

Often black faces are portrayed in spaces that communicate the human is a byproduct of the environment – signifying the deep ancestral link of black bodies to settled land, stolen land, worked land, sovereign land. Here there is no harsh environment because that has dissolved now. Not in a non-existent way, but in a post-apocalyptic way; that what remains is the pure consequence of surrender – full bloom.

Flowers are things that are constantly growing and becoming anew. They are always there, just being, continuously progressing into itself. Do you notice the flowers blooming besides you? Flowers take up space and make no apologies for it. Lauren’s portraits arrive as if to say they have always been there and her confronting figures are unapologetic in their capture, in their peace and in their shedding.

And maybe they are messy, but they don’t seem to care, because humans are messy and they are perfectly contoured to the deliverance of their own mercy.

Where We Whither, We Also Bloom is a liberation statement that requires no words, declaring simply…

“Hello, we are here. Do you see me? I’m looking right at you.”

So let us muse from the full pink moon… because we really should not miss invitations to be lit up from the sky. Named after the hot pink wildflower Phlox subulata that grows in the spring, this moon desires for us a recalibration of our presence.

This week I want you to consider, what does it mean for you to be in relationship with others? And if relationships are a work of art, are you blooming and are you being seen? What is the distance between your answers to those two questions?

‘til next Sunday!
Z.