Darin Forehand

The Phillis Wheatley piece is a lithograph generated from my ventures within the African American literary narrative. Knowing of Ms. Wheatley’s experiences as one of the first published African-American poet’s in the United States made my pursuits infectious. White colonists found it difficult that Wheatley could produce such well-written poems. What also interested me was the fact that throughout black communities here in the U.S., there can be found a Phillis Wheatley public school. The thought then emerged as to ask as how many people are aware of her as a slave brought to Boston and purchased by John Wheatley as a servant?

The patternization is a continuation of my personal experiences of the terrazzo floor pattern, which was in my Grandmothers’ home in Florida. As a child my brother and I would spend afternoons with her and as boy I was quite taken by the jewel like gems expressed in the floors’ design. To best emphasis this format, I’ve placed marks of tusche washes that become the profile of the poet Phillis Wheatley.