Portrait of Eve

Eve, the embodiment of resilience, was born an Abiku, a soul fated to walk between life and death. She bore the burden of her people’s pain and suffering, cleansing the wound inflicted by slavery and racial division. Eve’s sacrifice sowed the seeds of hope for her descendants, who carried on her legacy of healing and rebuilding.

The cycle of life relates to the Yoruba belief in transcendence. The portrait represents Eve and her descendents, with her life / their lives carved into the roundels. As the African ancestors continue to learn in the cycle of life—from birth, to gaining knowledge, to encountering manipulation, and surviving the Middle Passage and the transatlantic slave trade, to death—they return to earth until their souls have gained knowledge of everything in order to transcend. The painting presents the end of one rotation and the beginning of a new one, in that Eve’s closed eyes encourage her descendents to break the cycle, heal, and rebuild.

Exhibitions