“OVERCOMING RACISM” ART EXHIBIT
at St. David’s Episcopal Church

An exhibit of six oil paintings depicting “Overcoming Racism” were exhibited at St. David’s Episcopal Church, Cranbury. The event coincided with the celebration of Martin Luther King Day on January 21, 2008. The artists, Ruth Councell and Corinne Peters spoke to the audience and answered questions about their paintings.

The paintings came to Cranbury following their recently-concluded exhibition at Trinity Cathedral, Trenton. The paintings were originally commissioned for presentation at “NO MORE IN MY CHURCH!” an Anti-Racism Conference of the Episcopal Diocese of New Jersey held at the Cathedral in November.

Each of the large-scale oil paintings measures 60 by 30 inches, and depicts anti-racism from one of six perspectives: “Blacks in America,” “The Asian Experience,” “The Jews.” “Latinos,” “American Indians,” and “Blacks in South Africa. The paintings include representations of resisters, activists and martyrs known for their struggles against racism.

The artists have issued a joint explanation of their works: “Also depicted are individuals who quietly overcame the obstacles that racism imposed, and made significant contributions to the common good.”

“We lift up the ongoing struggle against racism, and those who gave their lives to it, so that we may be inspired and strengthened to build upon what they have accomplished.”

“We,the artists, one black and the other white, are grateful for the opportunity to work together in this cause, and for the deepening of our own understanding and friendship through this process.”

Paintings by Ruth Tietjen Councell. Click each thumbnail for a larger image.

Latinos

Overcoming Racism: Blacks in Africa

Native Americans

Councell’s painting, “Latinos” encompasses the Mexican-American War, the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican-American war, migrant farm workers, martyred advocate for the poor-- Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador, the “Zoot Suit Riots” of 1943, a peaceful demonstration of organized farm workers and their supporters, the emblem of the United Farm Workers of America, and well-known Latinos and Latinas such as astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, author Isabel Allende, and baseball player Roberto Clemente.

In “Overcoming Racism: Blacks in Africa,” Ruth Councell’s images include Cape Town, South Africa, the enactment of apartheid laws, school children demonstrating in Soweto demanding the right to use their native language in school, police opening fire on student demonstrators, and leaders against apartheid Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, Stephen Biko, and newspaper editor Donald Woods.

Illustrating the history of Native Americans after the arrival of white settlers in North America, Councell has depicted Sacagawea, the Shoshone woman who helped guide the Lewis and Clark expedition, Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, the 1890 massacre of Native Americans at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota, the first Native American woman doctor, Susan LaFlesche Picotte (1865-1915), Jim Thorpe, Olympic athlete of the Sauk and Fox tribe, and activists Dennis Banks, Clyde Bellecourt, Russell Means, Leonard Peltier, and Anna Mae Aquash.

Paintings by Corinne Peters. Click each thumbnail for a larger image.

Overcoming Racism:
Blacks in America

Overcoming Racism:
The Jewish Experience

Overcoming Racism:
The Asian Experience

Images in Peters’ “Overcoming Racism: Blacks in America,” include representations of Rosa Parks’ interaction with the bus driver as she refused to relinquish her seat to a white man, the signing of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, civil protest marches with Martin Luther King Jr., Jackie Robinson integrating major league baseball, Thurgood Marshall addressing the Supreme Court in Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, and a black female priest celebrating Holy Communion.

Peters’ painting “Overcoming Racism: The Jewish Experience” leads the viewer through a visual chronicle representing the symbol of the Nazi Eagle over a concentration camp, a young family being forced to leave its home, concentration camp inmates staring from behind barbed wire, the Nuremberg trials of Nazi representatives, Oscar Schindler in reunion with people he saved, and, in the foreground, a multigenerational Jewish family gathering around the table to celebrate the traditional feast of Passover.

Expressing her concept, “Overcoming Racism: The Asian Experience,” Peters leads the viewer’s eye through such images as a Chinese laborer carrying loads from the mines and mining camps, Chinese working as launderers which Peters describes as “a way that many Chinese people chose when they retreated into the ghettos of the city as a source of protection against white racism.” Included are images representing Chinese who came to America to work on the trans-continental railroads and internment camps where Japanese Americans were forced to live during World War II.

In describing her work Corinne Peters explains that she works “primarily in the medium of oil paints, painting in a modern narrative style. It is the logical outcome of what happens when a New York abstract artist, absorbs the culture and images of the heart of the Renaissance of Florence, Italy. Each painting has a story line, and movement of images and colors that directs the observer where to look, creating viewer’s involvement and participation, painted in a manner that is readable by all who view it, no matter what the age or level of education.”

Corinne Peters has exhibited her work in several one-woman and group shows, and in private collections, in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florence, and Paris. She has earned various awards for her work including First Prizes at the Plainsboro Art Festivals in 2002 and 2003, and being named Plainsboro Artist of the Year in June 2003.

Ruth Tietjen Councell is an artist and illustrator, who, at various times, has specialized in drawing and painting, graphic design, children’s illustration, and botanical art. A native of California, she studied art at the University of Redlands and at UC Santa Barbara.

She is currently doing oil painting on a variety of subjects, both secular and religious, and chairs the New Jersey Chapter of ECVA (The Episcopal Church and Visual Arts).

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“OVERCOMING RACISM” ART EXHIBIT at St. David’s Episcopal Church

“OVERCOMING RACISM” ART EXHIBIT
at St. David’s Episcopal Church