Acrylic on canvas
16″ x 20″ x 1″
2017
I could feel it coming, like a storm coming over the hills. My first gray hair. At the ripe old age of 25, it led me to consider how my perception of beauty had been influenced.
A Tlingit elder once said that women used to rub their hair with blueberry juice to turn their hair gray. (This statement was later questioned, as blueberries were used for their blueish dye, and since English was not the elder’s first language).
My great aunt Mary Evelyn was an old fashioned southern lady from Oklahoma who dressed up and did her hair every day until she passed. (It’s what you do).
To compromise, I plucked it. But I named my first solo show after my one gray hair.