As a self-identified African American, Caucasian, and Cherokee, Grace Stamps gets inspiration for her paintings from her race.
“I just found out about a week ago that I’m Cherokee,” said Stamps. “I haven’t even begun to explore that side of me yet.”
She identifies as black and white. This is where the gray figures come from.
“In my artwork I deal with being black and white by painting myself as this gray figure,” said Stamps.
She had a lot of trouble determining and dealing with her identity so the gray figure seemed to fit perfectly for her in her artwork.
“In my paintings I am interacting with these really bright, vibrant and exciting circumstances or surroundings,” said Stamps.
She likes to take images from popular or current media and then integrate herself into these circumstances.
A big topic for her last project was Ferguson. She took images from Ferguson that were being circulated in popular media such as this one.
In this photo, ‘Cassandra Roberts has milk poured into her eyes by a stranger outside a McDonald’s late Sunday in Ferguson’ to ease the burning of the tear gas from the police.
Then in Stamps’ painting below she has put herself in place of the woman as the grey figure that she is portraying.
Below you can hear Grace talk more about her paintings of Ferguson.
