Inr erv enin g Pr inrm ak er s : T alkin g

An w i r h M ar g o Hum phr e y s

btll booJu: There's no doubt in enycoe's m ind th at )-00 are an exci t ing p rint-
ma ker. Marg o. There are nee many African -America ns. in genera l - and
wo men . in particular- who have chosen ro g ive to p rintmak ing the kind of
de votion and com rnirmern th at you have. Because we kn ow thar in rhe art
world paint ing getS the most at renricn, art ists who work main ly wit h p rim .
mak ing rarely receive major aerenricn. Yer yoc remain dedi cat ed to rhe work.

M argo l-/umphrtJ s: T he re is a c hallenge in printmaking . h is ph ysical.

Unde rst anding t he chem ist ry of an de ment that you ' re work ing on,
w het her it b en lirhog mphic srcne o r a lirbographic p late , is lik e a soence.
As an artis t seeking OU t the bes t med ium, ini tia lly I di d nor choose prim.
mak ing . I wanted eo do scul peure. When I was in schoo l, if you warned to
work in sculptu re it was very d ifficuh. At t he ti me it was do mina ted by
males - ver y macho. I found tha t work in g in p ri n t maki ng gave me
space. I no longe r had to wor ry abou e wor k bei ng damaged or bro ken, I
could plu th ings down and clea n up in my own territo!')'. Psychologically,
t his d rew me ro print making . ArtiSt iGlilly, l like drawing . I like the phys-
ical process of making a mark, t he image created: I like ronal levels, And
you can't reall y do t hat as much in painting , H owever, in a sense. print-
making allows me to pa int in t ha t I use a liquid . It also allows me to be
g raphic. Making a print is challengi ng -you need a certa in expert ise.
Prin tm aking is based on m ult iples, not on a singular image. Th ere is.
challenge when you art' work ing with t he etch and t he arch of what eYft'
ele ment you 're working on, T hese f actors det erm ine the imp ressions you
Can ge t,

bb: Ma ny pe op le look at you r pr ints, see the brig ht colors. t he playful

imagery, and don't see t he dee pe r founda t ion of t he work , don't undtr-
stand th e technical ski ll a nd c reat ivity th at go into making be3 urlful.
1"" ·EJ.\'f.NING PRI N TN AK I: IlS; T ALK I NG ART W IT Il MA RG O HU ),lPIIRl;YS 19 '

co m pel li ng pri n ts . T hi s ca n only change as th e wo rk o f p rin rm akers is

g iven g rro arc:r arren r ion and no lon ger de valued , The an worl d and o u r
cu lru re in general d evalues p rint ma king .

MH: I have been an art ist m y eo dre adult lift . a nd I see col leag ues who
Sta rted when I Started- back 10 the sixt ies, rig ht ou t of high school - who
work in a d ifferent med ium. either pa int ing or sculpture. and thei r work is
de finite ly mo rt' appreciated. I really [ike printmaki ng and have a lways
wanted to represe nt rny culrure in this area, I have fd t a need ro do rhis work.
It requires such a high level ~ expertise and skill . You canno t stu mb le. You
JUSt can't be a good p rint maker wirhour di sciplined work , wichour the nee-
essary tra ining and with out co nnnua l pracoce. It 's learned and acq ui red
over rbe )"ears. I've worked almos t rhirry years eo perfecr my p rinrmaki ng -
parIicularly to make lithog raphs. work ing on Stones and plates. I Started this
process the first year efrer I finished hig h school, honi ng m y techn ical skills.
H istor ically, mOSI African-American s have wo rked wit h t hei r hands. T he
histo ry of slavery. t he £Xt th at black folks were forced to do manua l la.bor-
the d irty wor k -make s some: of us d evalue any work rhar is mes sy labor,
That's one of the reasons paint ing and scu lpt ure are seen as more intel lectual.
They mrdy require as mu ch manual labor as printmaking ,

bh: Your pr int s conj u re up a myebopceoc universe. You r them e s art meta-
physical, T hey exp ress an ist ically t he ideas in th e f icnon of Borg es, Loree,
Ton i Morrison. Like t hese writers. in }'our wor k you bri ng farmfiar every-
day image s toget her wit h d eep laye rs of meaning , evoking a feel ing m uch
like the expe rience one has watch ing a film such as Likt ~~/trlrw Cb«TJalt.
Yoo are concerned wit h th e me rap hysical re alm , t he life of t he spirit , and
you focus t hat concern b y d rawing on d iaspo ric black cult u re- t he expe -
riences of t he black Atl antiCworld . con nec[lOg th at focus wit h universal
issues such as spiritu ality, un it y with che earth. concern fo r the planet.

Af H: I've always wanted m y work to be u ni versal. \Vhen I was a you ng

artist , the role of [he black art ist was hod y deba ted . Some folks wan red ou r
....·ork to be mere po lit ical propag anda. So I re all y searched for a dee per
meaning , 10 be in tou ch with my artis t ic vision as a way to understand why
I was doing thi s work in the first place. I d id fed that the an had to have a
message. And I soug h t that messag e in t he th ing s closest to me , Much of
tne work I do rs euecolcg raphical. It may examine ebe deepe r philosophical
meaning of ou r emot ional states- for insrance, a bro ken heart or ange r. I
wor k to convey th e intenai ry of rhese sta tes in my work. I also want rbe
work to conn'y technical expertise, even as it d raws one mro a narrati ve. I
am fascinared by symbo ls. I want the work to be mult ilayered. To nOI be
superficial I use color to provoke. 10 start le, to t'ngagt' the viewer in a part ic-
ular narrat ive process. My engagement wit h color was intensified by t ravel:
Visiting Fiji. Sout h Africa. East Africa, Uganda . and teach ing in rhose
places, looking nr the doth , the color of the earth , I was JUSt amazed by t he
impact color can have. In Fiji. I w as very impressed by the way g reens and
blues worked together. I was impressed by the people within that environ-
ment , thei r use of color. W hen I went to Nigeria. eve ryt hing was very
brown and dus ty. )'rf scill \'ery colorful. TIlt- color in m y work tells the story
of t he tIS(' of color in blacks' environmen t in bot h Africa and rbe diaspora.
W hen I was at ranford Un iversity, a wh ite professor -\X'i lliam
Schockleyc--was insisti ng on th e biologi cal inferiotl ly of black people,
arg ui ng th at we were 0 0 1 as inte lligent. and acrually claiming that t his
lack or tnrelhge nce wasevident in rbe art we mack. He devalued these \'ery
texr jle arts I am insp ired by: q uiJrmaki ng , weaving , ere. Yet I know it
requires Inretligence. as well as art istic vision, to lake a thousand th reads
and weave a work, d iscover- a paw:rn . T he skill and urtis rry is never simply
"intuinve." I never wanted t hat word to be used to describe my work. The
art th at I make is inte nt ional, T he storie s are personal, and I d raw on
African -American expe rience- t hat to me is th e found:nion-but t he
values in m y work lranscend t he specific and address [hr.. universal as well.

bh: Absolutely. I use t he word #ltltJphJJical to desc ribe your work , because
you hig hlig ht human long ing for spuirualiry, for self- realizario n. You use
color to evo ke t he ontologica l. I th ink of all the wo rks on "colo r heal-
ing "- on [he power of color rc rrensform t he psyche, to change ou r sta te
of mind . For the mosr part , thi s metaphysical understandin g of rhe power
of color is not common knowledge in our cult ure.

A1 H: Yet color can change everyt hing.

hh: Absolut ely. In your art work you bring toget her knowledge gleaned
from di verse wisdom t raditions-from Asia, Africa. lhe Caribbean, and ,
IN T Ea V£ N I NG ' 1 INT MA KE kS . TALKING AI T W ITII :-lAI G O II UM PH a EY$ 191

of cou rse. from th e W est. The philosopher Co rnel We st cons tantl y tells
us t hat even though th e West is decen rered , the intent is nor to repudiate
tht' We st bur to highl ight [h at wh ich is most interesti ng to us as African -
Ame rican p eo ple about rhe West, to fuse th e b est ofcon tem po rary whir e
We stern cu lt u res w ith no n- \'qestern anc ien t tradition s th at are close to
ou r heart . That's here in your wo rk .

MH: The co lo r is a challe ng e . W hen p eople e n ter a ga lle ry and see m y

wor k, it reall y engages the m. To me co lor is a too l of power I use to engage
audiences, to sha re my rhocg hes: it's thr' impetus be hind the wor k. I com -
bi ne co lors in ways that you can not ig no re. You can enter t he wo rk the l,\'aY
you d ive into a poo l. You splash in. and then you get in to t h is poo l of in for-
mati on and beg in to experie nce th e work . It's JUSt like a d iver su rfacing .
You can shake you r rboughes, then go back inm the work and enjoy it . You
can sp lash around and b eg in ro experience eac h section on irs own terms,
discovering what it means to you , exami n ing )'our reaction .

bh: It 's th is crit ically self-conscious eleme nt in your work th at leads me to

~ critics as m isg u ided when t hey use terms like HlO-na; I 'e to d escr ibe th e
wo rk. You clearly draw so much on d iffere nt intellect ual t rad iti o ns, th e
new di scover ies abo ut ancient Eg ypt , the wri t ing s of people such as Ivan
Serri ma in his Tky Cam, B,!ortCoINmbllJ, th e texts of posrrc lonial iry, etc.
Rea lly, we are no longer seeing ourselves and b lackne ss th ro ugh th e eyes
of the colon izing cult ure. This cul tural resistan ce to domination , to colo-
n iza t ion. rev isioni st h istory. thi s is th ere in all you r work , In yo u r re-
working of TJx Lui S"PJNr you d raw aga in from the West , from th e work
of d a Vinci, bu t you extend you r focus to include b lackness.

A1H: ant aspect of tba prin t is thal theres a male who is a savior. I t ransplant
the white male, pu tti ng the b lack male in his place, so rha r we can look recur-
selves for ou r own salvation . Salvation is wit hin. I have a p iece ofscu lpt ure that
I'm working on calledjerllJ', and then it's hyphcnatedJer-UI, so that we can see
that it comes from us, the rebuildi ng of ou r cul rure, of ou r ani tudes reward the
women in ou r cuhure, the attitude s toward child ren and whoever's going to
partake in this new vision . Tbe work is alsoaboer empowerment, about think-
ing o f b lack women and men as powerful and alread y with power from the
stan- flO( going soereplece ro g er it, bu t being power in itself.
19 8 A RT O N MY M IN D

bh: Well , of all th e conte mpo rary arris rs I can rhi n k of, part icu larly
among African- Ameria n anises who highl ight heterosexualit y and con-
fliers be t ween power and de sire. you disp lay in your work rhe most con-
sisrenr vision of reu nion be tween black males and fema les . T he vision
encompasses bo th th e realm of eros. t he erotic. and sp iruual reunion .
Th at is made eviden e in piece s such as Ala.tilfg Mag';r and Tbt G tlau,;/y .
We see [his reuni on .

I\ I H : A1Q..tmg I\IQgir is an extension of the expe riences th ai my husband

and I had when we were young marri ed peop le com ing inrc a deeper
knowledge of the sp iritua lity of be ing toget her. T hat knowledge comes
ncr just when you're physically intimate; it comes when you are engaged
in everyday ordi nary aceiviey. In M aki Ng Alagh there's a cou ple who have
th eir hand s in a cont aine r. Th e idea for this piece Ca me to me when we
were cleani ng out a closer. Doing chis, we were so close, deciding whar
was to Slay in t he house and what was nor going [ 0 be part of [he house.
Th e th ings [hat we talked about had nothi ng to de wit h the work we were
doing . We were communicati ng on such a high level. There needs 1'0 be
more ccrnmunicaricn on a spiritu al plane. It needs to be woven more into
ou r relationships.

bh: Margo, YOUt work really fuses t hose physical and spiritua l levels. Like
in the new piece T IN KIJI. where )'ou see a combinat ion of t he notion of an
eros t hat lifr s us beyo nd [he realm of the ph ysical , even as you give us
th ose po werful images of [he physica l, t he tong ue. th e lips. W hat
inspired T IN Kin ?

A1H : I've always want ed to do erotic images. I'd done tOO many shows of
work by African -American an ises and had nor seen images of couples
maki ng love. And I wondered about t h is when we have so man y erot ic
songs - t he music of the Coasters and the Drift ers comes to m ind . Th ese
are classical, beautiful ballads tha t are sul l being played today and are SO
erotic. W hen you he ar th ese songs, and alm ost anybody who lived
through t he sixties in t his country knows which songs I'm talking about,
t hese incredible ballads. [here is such eroticism. Yet i go to shows of black
arris rs' works and J see so few depi cuoos of int imacy in relat ionships
de sp ite these passionate, passionate love songs. And I thought , "Well, let
INT ERVE NI NG PR 1N l ' M" I' ass: TAtK ING ART 'Il:'lTH .'01"ace .,1U M PH REY S 199

me JUSt step into t his te rritory, let me ralk abo ut t he int imacy and the
passion, Let me pUt some of th at Out there. I really want ed to do an erotic
series. Some of t he pieces I'm do ing represent thi s experimenta t ion with
new subject marrer. I want t he work ro be enjoyed , J don't want anybody
to be repulsed. Our culture's in a real sexual revolution with th e impact of
AIDS. Intimacy is parr of t he human experience. It needs to be expressed
in visual work by Afrie-dn-American anises.

bh: On e element I see in your work th at is not often visible in visual art is
imagery depi ct ing sexual ecstasy, Alit/night /..fll't1'J remi nd s me of images
in ranrnc art , especially t he posit ion t hat the male and fema le are in: you
depict a union of souls, of body. m ind , and spirit.

M H: M idlligh! L()tItrJ is really abo ut int imacy, lovers who engage in

mutual consent and a mut ual level of comm unication. It is about equal.
it y, sha red d esir e. \Xfhen you loo k, you not ice th e male and fem ale are
always on th e same level. Here rhey are on eart h -in intimacy, close
toget her- and then here t hey are in paradise , the heavens,

bh: That union in t he heavens is there, t he lovers fec mg each orb er, and in
TheG(ftluwy they' re in t he clouds toge the r,

/IIH: And in M idnight Rmdtzf'OHJ the lovers are in th is wonderful garde n,

rhis mystical garden of love with the Hera and fauna, so I depict int imacy
in diverse ways. In ThtGrt(l/J'(l)' this man and woman are truly in love, and
all he's do ing is JUSt roucbin g -c- his hand is on her heart -and so he is JUSt
pulling her throug h th e sky and t hey are toget her, T he allego ry dep icted
on the bc rtom part of t he image is the feeling of th e woman, in that he is
taking her away and she is on this wonderful, wonderful ride, T he tiger
that appears represents the sexual energy and all t hat's con tained in char.
The sky has chili pep pers Root ing down, which is a sign, in the et hn iceel-
rure I come from, t hat their love is hot, intense. My g randmot her used to
cook with lots of chili in New Orl eans. It's all very sensual.

bh: 5tf1JII<J/ is pr ecisely th e word, It's th e deep sensua lity of the color in
your work that often leads pe ople to ig nore t he. incred ible de pt h of polit-
ical and intellectu al imagi nation that informs this use of color, Here I am
10 0 A R'f O N .\ 1\' MI ~D

t hink ing of your new work. TbeHaitian Comp..e sionSUitt, which compels
aud iences to dunk deeply about politics. Your work has that marvelous
quality of nor be ing in-your-face political propaganda in any way. always
be ing t rue to th e imag inative realm, th e arrisric vision, wh ile having a
political vision as well. In this work, tha t vision is che redempti ve sense of
Africa, a sense t hat black people in rhe d iaspora need to connect to restore
our integ rit y of being . These themes are present in all your work. from
its very beg inn ing to now, whereas in TIN Haitian Compan ion Suitt you
focus on immigration, identi t y, and nationa lity.

!\IN : This work has aueobiogmphical roots-I have relatives from Porr of
Spain. This connection generated Ill}' concern with Haiti; it was about my
family. 1 had such a hur tful feeling when t he news showed refugees fitting
on a boat while t he United States government was turning away Hairians ar
our shorts. People were jumping overboard and dro wning. Hooked at th is
and had visions in my head of Afr icans in slave ships jumping overboard . It
was as rhough history were repeat ing iesetf I needed to talk about that . lr
was such a deep sorrow that I felt. I wanted to ralk about the beauty of these
black peop le, to show that their lives are valuable, t hat their culture is valu-
ab le. Making art highli ghting t hei r predicament was a way for me ro let
people see what is actually happ ening . T hen I decided rhar I could n't just
talk abour the people in t his one boat. I had to talk about their whole cul-
ture. I used the work to convey information about a beautiful namin g cere-
mony in Haitian cultu re. how they have a cleansing ceremony. I also went
back to emphasize t he inju sti ce and t he inhumanity of imper ialism and
racism d irected toward these pe ople, who turned to t heir gods and t hei r
inner rhou gh rs for solace and substance. T hey seemed to b e deserted by
everyone. And I wanted to ( all attention to th at s uuanon wit h art . It is
really deep . As an artist , I felt I needed to be politically engaged . T his is a
sociopoli tical war. Ir needs to be talked abou t. I haven't gone to Hait i and
drawn the bod ies in the street. T hat is not where my arti stic temperament
lies, to talk about the ecrociry fi rsth and . With art and imag inat ion I can
brin g to people's mind the beauty of a cult ure. As th ey rhink abo ut t his
beauty, t he cult ure. they can also t hink about what's happeni ng to it.

bb: T hat complex vision comes t hrough in pieces like A Monument 10 Faith
and Tbe Ceremonial BapliJRI. In t hese p ieces you seem to strive to create
I NTIl RV EN ING PR I N T M A K ERS; T A L K I N G ART WIT H M AR G O HI! MP HREYS 101

images thar do nor encourage the viewer to feel sorry for the black people
in the boat. You dep ict th e magn ifi cent cu lt ural retentions, espec ially
t hose sp irit ual be liefs th at sustain Haitians and all of us black people in
our mome nts of extre me crisis. In so man y ways, your work is a kind of
archeology of belonging , a search for home. lr's amazing to me how m:lny
tim es st ructu res of home appear in the work, bot h on the indiv idual, per-
sonal Ievel and on the g lobal level. We often forger t hat black people-are an
exilic people, that we live in exile, that there's a way in which we long for
home, for homecomin g . It seems to me t hat these yearnings are celebrated
in your work. It is so proph eti cal. You rake represen tati ons of black love
and romance that we see also In the work of peop le such asJ acob Lawrence
and Remere Bearden. Yet you expand the se image s, tak ing t hem to a
dee per level. In your work t here is a vision of gende r unity and inte rdepen -
dency betwee n male and female that we don 't see in the work of rhese male
artists, There's also that prophetic vision of black Iiberanon th at celebrates
gende r equa lity. Often when people evoke Africa and ancient sp iritual tra-
dinons. t hey hig hlight t he male figure exclusively. You g ive us a propheti c
vision t hat highlights the black femal e wisdom t radition. \'(Ie see that in a
piece like: Lady Luck Sfl)'J ComeTakt a Cbeno, t hat element of mystery and
prophecy tha t's t here in v oudou. t hat 's t here in Santeria , and t hat's in
Christi an evocations of g race. There's t his fusion of mysticism and a
prophetic rred inon III your work.

MH: I was raised in a home wit h man y d ifferent relig ions, from
Lut heranism to Jehovah 's Wi tn e ss, My mot her was a Sunda y schoo l
reacher. I was always involved in different relig ions. Living in t he mid st
of such relig ious intensit y, J d id n't like insricurionalized, brand -name
relig ion. I was int o spirit uality and want myst ical spirit uality to JUSt be
[here t hrough out my work , In Lady LH,k speci fical ly, I ralk about li(e here
and in rhe hereafter. T here are b irds in t his pri nt , g host bi rds, ro g uard
you in the afterlife. T here are t wo bi rds on th e right and left t har g uard
you through your life here on earth , T he mysticism is the re in nat ure, and
everywhere. T he work celebrates this,