Mcristle Ross Minority Painter's Scholarship

When teachers asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer was always to be an educator. I admired my teachers and developed a passion for English and language arts, which helped me excel in school and sparked my interest in writing as a hobby. It wasn't until high school that this passion began to shift. I had always loved drawing in small sketchbooks, and creativity was heavily emphasized in my household. However, it wasn't until I started watching YouTube videos that taught me about concepts like line weight and color theory that I began to understand art as a skill, rather than something that simply required talent. I began to understand that to be good at art meant to practice multiple other subjects like science and math when learning measuring and proportions, or paint mixing and layering mediums. Art supplied me with new things to learn every day, and my favorite part was storytelling. As a reader and a writer, learning to create a narrative and tell a story has always been an important part of my life, but up until this point, all of my work had been strictly literary. Visual arts allowed me to tell stories through imagery, adding details and textures that caused viewers to think about my intentions without any written explanation. This was what pushed me towards the dream of teaching art instead. I find that there is an infinite amount of value in storytelling through art when considering the wide age range of the artists, along with the audiences who appreciate it. What I mean by that is that art can be created and consumed by such a wide volume of people coming from all walks of life. These stories help us relate to and understand different perspectives, which is why I would love to teach this way of thinking to younger generations. For so long, I saw art in school as an elective, most of my classmates seeing it as an easy way to get credits, however, I think that when prioritized, art can do a lot to encourage positive mental and emotional health practices. It encourages students to share their feelings and beliefs with others and teaches them how to handle giving and receiving constructive criticism with respect and civility. I feel I am most inspired by this dream of teaching because most of my work is a reflection of myself through self-portraits. My passion for teaching and art stemmed from my own experience, and with my work, I want to inspire other students to do the same. I want to see upcoming generations fight for better education for themselves, and I think art is an avenue that opens students up to community, politics, emotional well-being, and storytelling. Creativity and the ability to be imaginative need to be taught alongside rationality and critical thinking because, without them, well-rounded students are unable to thrive.

My family’s history was never one to be preserved. It’s a universal experience for a black kid to learn about slavery and wonder if that dark stain directly affects them. In my adulthood, that reality was confirmed for me. I experienced every different stage of grief, sorrow for my ancestors, and confusion about my identity. After months of mental toiling, I arrived at the realization that I wouldn’t be who I am without my ancestors’ sacrifices. I saw them in myself physically, mentally, and spiritually. Then came the question of “How do I honor them? How do I give back to people who gave so much to me?” My first time visiting an art museum, it felt like I had taken a step back in time. Art was a powerful expressive tool for me throughout my childhood, but I had never seen art transcend time the way it did in a museum. It seemed to color all of the stories I had been told in history class, but the more I immersed myself in that world, the more I realized it did not describe my past or any other black person’s past. If I saw art about black people, it was a constant reminder of that dark stain. Our beauty was smeared away. This is what helped me bridge the gap between art as a communication tool and a time-traveling tool. I realized I couldn’t go back in time to give, but that I had to look forward and change the narrative myself for my children and my children’s children. That became my way to honor my ancestors – to give as much as they gave me. I started first with portraits of black protestors, to show our resilience. Then I moved to self-portraiture to examine black identity. Now I’m painting tremendous portraits of my family to preserve them as royalty. I think about the numerous times I’ve gone into a museum and seen a portrait of a typical 1800s European family, and how their image was preserved; how they were immortalized as the heart of America. I’m overcome with gratitude at the thought of that being my family’s portraits one day. I hope that in the future another young woman like me can see people who look like her being immortalized and celebrated in art through my work. I can honor my family’s history by portraying us as deserving of being painted and turning that dark stain into something beautiful. Future generations won’t have to discover art and be left with a hole of questions as to why we weren’t included. Instead, they can be instilled with the burning desire to contribute in the same way I had, and others before me. I just want to be the ancestor for future generations in the same way that my ancestors were for me. I may not know exactly where my work will settle years from now, but I do know that it is my life’s purpose to celebrate and exalt black lives through art. If my work can inspire one person, then I’ll have been fulfilled.