Baby Mama: The Black Madonna, 2025 - Pt 2
Today, I completed my piece "Baby Mama: The Black Madonna". While there's so much I feel about this piece, I find myself lost for words....but I'll do my best to find some good enough.
______________________________________________
"Baby Mama" is typically a term used to degrade a single mother. A term so insinuatory, that it more often than not completely overshadows the sanctity of motherhood itself. So many young girls and woman aspire to be a mother. Nobody wants to be a "baby mama". In her book "Salvation: Black People and Love", Bell Hooks writes, "Little distinction is made between working single mothers and women on welfare. They are both unjustly represented as criminals. And the children they parent are represented as would be criminals." She goes on to mention, "White single mothers tend to be represented positively; they are depicted as hardworking victims of circumstances not of their own choosing or professional women who at heart are loving madonna figures."
Even now, if you were to google search the term "Madonna art", you would be hard pressed to find any depictions that aren't pale skinned dieties, even though Black Madonna art and depictions absolutely do exist; going back even as far as ancient Egypt.
(Black Madonna of Czestochowa, 14th century. Source: Wikimedia Commons)
As a Black single mother, I see myself and the Black single mothers around me much differently than the way society depicts. When I look in the mirror, I see an educated, capable, creative, beautiful, funny, successful, talented and ambitious woman; and beside me I see my greatest creation: my son. The one who handed me the title of "Mother".
In my household, single or not, I am royalty and I work hard to earn that distinction. I am decision maker. I am way maker. I am top earner. I am the best chef. I am Santa Clause. I am the Easter Bunny. I am the Tooth Fairy. I am the biggest cheerleader. I am the nose and tear wiper. I am the prayer warrior. I am the car service. I am the cleaning service. I am all of the things. I wear all of the hats.
This piece, "Baby Mama: The Black Madonna" is my take on Madonna/Virgin Mary art which highlights the divinity of mother and child.
The mother is naked, with a slip of nipple to represent the fact that before we are mothers, we are sensual and sexual beings. Mother figures are usually deprived of their sexual nature, even though we all know where babies come from. Her head is wrapped in a gele-esque crown or halo that signifies both her divinity and her royalty. The colors blue and white pay tribute to the Orisha Yemaya, goddess of the ocean and motherhood.
Her baby sleeps peacefully in her arms, resting in the assurance that they are safe in their mother's unwavering love and protection. As Yemaya is said to be the mother of all Orisha, her baby is wrapped in multiple colors as well as white fisherman's net to signify purity and that life originated in the water (e.g. evolution; a mother's womb).
In the background lies a nod to the enslaved African-American women and no doubt, mothers, who risked harsh consequences to do their part in helping other enslaved folks reach freedom by stitching secret codes and symbols into their quilts. This particular imagery deeply inspired by the Evening Stars by the Morning Light Quilt made by Raymond G. Dobard. Since the escapees were told to follow the North Star, many nineteenth-century quilts contain star images.
(Source: Hidden in Plain View: A Secret Story of Quitls and the Underground Railroad by Jacquiline L. Tobin and Raymond G. Dobard, Ph.D.)
As with all of my yarn paintings, the usage of yarn itself is the primary message here. Just like the yarn adhered to its canvas, Black mothers are warm, soft and deserving to be handled with care. With this piece I boldly challenge the status quo and encourage every viewer to do the same.
A short video of the piece can be viewed here.