"Full of Grace" and "Imani in Bloom"

Top: "Full of Grace." This is a portrait of Willie Mae Monroe, who was looking fetching on "Family Day" Sunday, an annual event. Ms. Monroe had been ill, so I did not recognize her and sought identification from other members of the church. I had already come up with the name for the painting, in part because I had been so captivated by what I saw. Ms. Monroe looked so pretty and so graceful and Pilgrim Baptist Church is indeed full of grace. Having her name helped in terms of my appreciation, but I stuck with the name that popped into my head that day at the frame shop. This painting, which had a very "folk-art" feel (something that happened, not something I had tried to achieve) won honorable mention at Art Works, July, 2007.

Bottom: "Imani in Bloom." This is a painting of seven-year old Imani, who stoically and beautifully performed a song with two other little "divas" on that "Children's Sunday." Imani seemed like a miniature adult; she wore her name in a "That-Girl" kind of flip style and she stood up tall and lady-like. Then, as services ended, there was a wonderful burst of energy that I first captured on film. I kept looking at that picture. "Pretty in Pink" was the tentative title. As I started painting, however, I began neutralizing the colors around her even more and brightening her pink dress and jacket. Soon I began to see her as a flower. That was when "Imani in Bloom" came to me. When I asked a friend for advice about the name, she said the name "Imani in Bloom" gave her chills. That sealed the deal. The painting won first place at the Petersburg Regional Art Center's March juried show--my first winning entry in this series. As I related this fact to Imani's grandmother, the lovely Yvonne Clarke, she told me that "Imani" was a Swahili word for "Faith." Thus, we have "Faith in Bloom," which was part of what I had been trying to get across in the first place.