Nellie Mae Rowe (1900-1982) Pig, 1980; crayon and colored pencil on paper.
High Museum of Art, Atlanta
Nelle Mae Rowe at her home in Vinings, Ga., 1971. She called her home the Playhouse, and turned it into an ever evolving work if installation art.
“I leave my hand, just like you leave your hand on the wall. When I’m gone they can see a print of my hand. I love that — to see a print of my hand. I’ll be gone to rest, but they can look back and say ’that is Nellie Mae’s hand.’”
–Nellie Mae Rowe
A new documentary on her life is being made.
Exhibition of her work at the Brooklyn Museum of Art
Described as essentially feeling trapped by this societal pressure to be the way they want you to be and that its wrong to have different sexualities/genders ect…"The “art” I saw about sexuality when I was growing up (being honest… I am still growing up) helped free me from a culture that seems to want us all to hate ourselves and fear others, right?"
As an art witch I weave creativity with my hands. Paint with my breath upon the canvas that is my life. I mold with clay to fashion dreams and desires to reality. I sketch upon the stars my hopes and wishes. Being an art witch is to live with creativity as your purpose. You crave creation in all manners of creative expression. Whether it is through hands, feet, or voice. Creation is your very being. It is the water you drink, the earth you dance upon, the air you breathe. The fire you cradle. The essence of your spirit.
Art is your expression of self.
Art is your Magick.
And through art reality is life.
Along the way I forgot myself. And adventured into the unknown. I sought a secret I already had and sought to recreate it. But the lesson I had to learn was this. There was no hidden message in the secret already mine. I simply had to lose myself to find what I already had.
Reading was my outlet until High School made it mandatory.
History was my first love until I was told it was useless in the ‘real world’
Writing…I’ve spent so much of my life avoiding writing because of my fear of other people’s perception that now I’m afraid I can’t write anymore. I love the concept of writing. I’m intoxicated by the dream of someone receiving the written words from my head and feeling a connection to the ideas, stories and even the knowledge I have.
I want to blend my childhood into my adulthood and live my life to the fullest before I’m too old to care anymore.