Shark Bait

My artwork, “Shark Bait”, is painted with tempera paint and depicts a shiver of sharks following a slave ship in the ocean with the sky behind it. This represents primary historical accounts that imply sharks changed their migration patterns to follow and eat the bodies that jumped off or were thrown off slave ships. 

 This evolved migration shows the effect of human action on nature, and the pervasiveness of slavery and its effect. The composition of my work, with the slave ship being held afloat by the backs of slaves, shows how slave labor is the foundation America stands upon, through slaves creating infrastructure and cultivating profitable commodities. 

 The mixture between the realistic style of the ship and ocean and the abstract style of the sky displays the juxtaposition between the concrete effects of slavery like changing shark patterns and creating generational wealth, while the abstract sky more expansively shows the conceptual effects of slavery like the creation of stereotypes that are still prevalent today in order to justify slavery in the past.  

In this painting, I faced two artistic challenges; illustrating water, and anatomy without the scapegoat of clothes. My intention in painting this is to show a slave’s contribution to the prosperity of America, while still being cognizant that slavery wasn’t one’s choice; it was so cruel that many would rather drown than continue to endure its brutalities.    

II believe it’s important to recognize these tragedies and faults in human action so we can begin to understand and be accountable that our own actions will affect someone’s future, so we should be motivated to act accordingly.  

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