Blood So Rich I Can't Be Blue, Original Fine Art

“As Black people, specifically as Black Americans; we are often told that we can’t be sad. We can’t be tired. We can never be outwardly fed up with our circumstances-or else we dishonor our ancestors and all the horrors they survived and all of the sacrifices tallied over the many years and generations leading up to us. Obviously; it goes deeper than that; Black expression in most any capacity is often skewed in the worst of ways, sometimes with deadly results. Depending on where we live, we cannot afford to leave our homes without palpable positivism plastered across our faces, regardless of how we truly feel. Otherwise, we may be perceived as a threat. As Black people, we are often told to feign happiness in order to be safe. If we debate this forced faux positivism, we’re told that our bloodlines are too rich for us to ever be blue. After all, we ‘don’t have it nearly as bad anymore’ compared to what our ancestors went through. So, we should be positive, right? Absolutely not. It is my belief that the encouragement of Black people to be eternally saccharine in the efforts to make our assumed positivity obvious to any non-Black person we encounter is white supremacist conditioning. We need to abandon it. We are human & we deserve to feel without restriction. My ancestors do not want me to experience a conditional happiness as a state of acquiescence. My ancestors want me to feel how I feel whenever I feel it & to honor and sit in my feelings. When making this piece, I purposefully sought out images of people who were not smiling. The Maasai elders featured in this piece simply look strong. They look elegant. They look colorful. They look rich. There isn’t a smile in sight, yet their faces & positions still hold so much expression. I added color behind the figures not just to compliment their clothing, but to also remind us to lead colorful lives. We are worthy of the full range of emotion. Our blood is too rich to believe or accept otherwise.” -B.N. Blithe de Carona