About
the Art
This website features photos and videos I have taken of public art from locations around the world where I have taught, conducted research, or carried out public scholarship.
Public art has always fascinated me: the public access to something that feeds the soul; the relationship between space, the artist(s), and the community; the way that an artist may ask similar questions as me while their answers engage a different medium; and the way that time-space, concrete-abstract are all enfolded in a piece.
These works reveal more about the communities in which I work, how I approach my scholarship and praxis, and how I engage the locations where I live and visit.
Ways of Water
(Vayeda Brothers)
The mural featured in the video on the About Me page was part of an urban art festival organized in Mumbai by St+art India, a fantastic foundation that has spread breathtaking and thought-provoking public art all over India. Click here for more about the mural...
Untitled ("Let Us Breathe")
(@Naturalsnatural)
Naturalsnatural is an artist in Providence, Rhode Island, whose murals around the city have been featured by The Avenue Concept. He created this mural in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder and the protests that rose. I saw it as both an artistic representation of the outrage as well as a celebration of the beauty of Black American culture. Click here to learn more about The Avenue Concept...
Untitled ("PhD")
(Artist Unknown)
I took the photo of the graffiti featured on my CV page while walking around New Delhi in March 2022. Fieldwork was going slowly. I was out on a Saturday afternoon intentionally trying to learn to love a city that had been the site of many challenges.
A PhD candidate came upon a "PhD" as she was doing fieldwork to complete her PhD. The unexpected gifts from a fieldsite, from a city, from strangers, make me love what I do all the more.
Untitled ("Mi piel negra es una bendicíon")
(Artist Unknown)
Providence, Rhode Island is just one of the cities where both peaceful protests and violent riots arose in response to George Floyd's murder in 2020. While praying and walking downtown, I saw the businesses that had to board up after evening riots led to property damage. Some people used the plain boards as canvases. This message in Spanish proclaiming and celebrating the beauty of Black skin is a testimony of a predominantly Latine city resisting the impacts of racism and colorism.
Title Unknown
(Jotapê Pax)
After spending over a week in Belford Roxo, Brazil visiting a friend (who's also a Du Boisian sociologist), I ended up with an unexpected 24-hour layover in São Paulo on the way back to Providence. My fascination with street art and green spaces in the middle of cities led me to Ibirapuera Park, where I could find both green and art in abundance.
This mural by Jotapê Pax is just one that I stumbled upon. Little did I know at the time that my work on within-movement conflict would lead me back to Brazil not just for a pleasant visit but for research as well.
Colours of Soul
(Senkoe)
As I spent a day off from work wandering around the Lodhi Art District, I slowly began to fall in love with New Delhi (which even Delhiites will tell you can be quite a feat). This area of the city that emerged as a project of St+art India excites the imagination and challenges the beholders to think deeply about the messages of the artwork.
The tree pictured here grew through the window over time to eventually make it seem like Senkoe's central bird in the mural is taking flight in a blend of urban and natural beauty.
Untitled ("Chalk heart")
(Artist Unknown)
The COVID-19 lockdowns took a toll on everyone's mental, emotional, and spiritual health. This photo was taken on a long walk around the East Side of Providence as I tried to keep myself from going insane in my 250-square-foot studio apartment.
One after another after another I noticed the chalk hearts drawn all over the East Side. Some unknown, blessed soul was trying to do what they could to spread love amid a very dark time. Tiny gestures can have beautiful ripple effects. And remembering this little love "Where's Waldo?" continues to draw a smile from me to date.