Description
ARTIST STATEMENT
Mic Drop honors Sheila Radford-Hill — author, activist, and academic — depicted mid-speech, microphone close, her gaze direct and unflinching. Her face is built from richly varied collage papers, layered and torn to sculpt her features with dimensionality, with oil paint added for depth and movement.
The background is dense with text: Sheila’s own words from her book in progress on Black Women’s aging in a spiteful America, painted in bronze iridescent paint against a deep, dark ground. Certain phrases migrate onto the figure itself — the final words cascading onto her collar: “…to be recognized and respected for who we are and what we contribute.”
Mic Drop is part of Portraits of Liberation, Transformation, and Imagination — an ongoing body of work turning its lens on community members as they navigate, resist, and reimagine this particular moment in American history.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
I am a former scientist turned artist based in Oak Park, IL. After years of a self-taught art practice, I committed to and transformed my art practice via a formal art education that unlocked previously unknown passions and avenues for me. My artistic voice is rooted in both mixed media and social justice. Bringing together disparate parts into a recognizable whole is how my brain works as well as how my art practice works. My raw materials are magazines, books, and posters which form the basis of my portrait. Over that paper collage, I apply Old Master oil painting techniques to refine the image and add depth while still allowing the collage to shine. My interest in social justice is lifelong but was turbocharged after 2016. In the past 10 years I have completely rebuilt my life to live more authentically as an artist and abolitionist. I left my corporate life, changed my social circles, and most importantly have started the lifelong journey of decolonizing my mind.
© Michelle Major