June Edmond’s abstract paintings explore how color, repetition, movement, and balance can serve as conduits to spiritual contemplation and interpersonal connection to her African-American roots. The psychological construct of skin color or tone through pattern and abstract painting is explored in her two ongoing series: the Energy Wheel Paintings inspired by her meditation practice and her Flag Paintings, which explore the alignment of multiple identities such as race, nationality, gender, or political leanings. With thick, shifting brushstrokes in rich earth colors organized into columns of varying widths, the flags rise vertically, like human portraits. On this, Edmonds’s states: “These flags are standing for something – so I’m gonna keep them standing.”
(Excerpt and image above selected from grant proposal and Luis de Jesus webpage. Artwork is copyright of the artist.)